I was at FSB this past August. I have to say it was a great experience, despite missing a couple of dives due to weather. We were aware that we would have to do a scuba eview upon arrival but we didn't worry about what it entailed. We knew it would simply amount to basic skills that ALL divers should be practicing on a regular basis regardless if his/her experience level. I guess we were probably among the more prepared crews as we had all been diving on a regular basis and our complement of 3 leaders included an instructor and a divemaster. I guess the point is that if someone is that concerned about doing the review they should just get some practice with a local instructor or divemaster so it will cease to be a concern.
BSA Sea Base 2008
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More info to clarify (or muddy) the waters on the SFC info - I just picked up the BSA Health and Safety Guide booklet (#34415E 2006 printing) at my local Scout Shop. Note this is NOT the Guide to Safe Scouting.
The H&S Guide appears to be the source of the info posted on the SFC website. Page 7, BSA Scuba Policy, starts out "If your unit is interested in pursuing scuba activities beyond Scuba BSA, here are the rules for doing so: ... Then it lists the info that is the same as from the GSS. However, after that verbage, it goes on to state "Because of the lack of frequency of diving by most sports divers, it is important that any certified divers be screened and evaluated by a certified diving instructor before participating in BSA-related activities. The skills to be evaluated include the following: ...
The H&S Guide appears to be the source of the info posted on the SFC website. Page 7, BSA Scuba Policy, starts out "If your unit is interested in pursuing scuba activities beyond Scuba BSA, here are the rules for doing so: ... Then it lists the info that is the same as from the GSS. However, after that verbage, it goes on to state "Because of the lack of frequency of diving by most sports divers, it is important that any certified divers be screened and evaluated by a certified diving instructor before participating in BSA-related activities. The skills to be evaluated include the following: ...
OP
Hi Divers........ I sure do appreciate this place!!!!
I had a conversation with BSA National. A Scouter there, Richard (Sorry Richard I lost your last name), helped me find a source about Scuba & the Scout way. Ya'll keep in mind I do not have the years in Scouting a lot of you have. The following is the path he sent me on concerning the BSA way of Scuba. I apologize for not going to the experts for the info as I should have. The "address" is: Boy Scouts of America - National Council
Under the "Awards" section go to the SCUBA section. You will now go to a BSA publication that talks about the "pre-dive check out" very close to the one Sea Base does. Keep in mind that Sea Base has one a little different that is geared to the type of diving done at Sea Base, ocean - boat diving.
I do hope this helps those looking for a "source" for all this. I would repeat myself in saying a diving tune up is an essential part of trip preparedness for a trip that includes SCUBA. The publication says it best when it talks about the majority of folks not doing a lot of diving between Scuba trips. I can understand why. The troops that come down to Sea Base from the Detroit area, forgive me if I have missed thier home area, really have taken this to heart. There is also a troop from Pennsylvania that does the same. They spend time in pool as well as open water dives, usually in a quarry, prior to thier trip. And you can really tell that they are on the edge & are ready for the hardships encountered at Sea Base. That diving in warm, clear water can be a task!!! The comfort level of the pre-prepared divers is readily apparent. OK... the water is warmer..... the water is clear - better than 3 feet, currrent typically is no factor, diving off the boats is not a challange, the challange of seeing your buddy is no factor, the entertainment factor form the wild life is fantastic - heck Keys diving is just great!!! Plus the accomadations are not those found at some of the other High Adventure spots. AC, showers, & the menu there is without exception, the very best. Thanks, Mr. Beale & staff! As you have heard muttered by the Sea Base staff - ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE!!! As you can tell I am suffering from "Keys withdrawal syndrome!! The cure is on the way! In another few weeks I will see ya'll there. My wife is smiling bigger everyday, I wonder about this! I have been stacking gear in the living room for 3 weeks now. The regs have been re-built, tanks hydroed, wetsuit is on order (the other shrunk - go figure) Dreams of the Keys are making naps fun! The rising cost of fuel is of less concern each day! I am very seriously getting into the Keys state of mind.
We'll see ya'll soon......
YIS
Grady
I had a conversation with BSA National. A Scouter there, Richard (Sorry Richard I lost your last name), helped me find a source about Scuba & the Scout way. Ya'll keep in mind I do not have the years in Scouting a lot of you have. The following is the path he sent me on concerning the BSA way of Scuba. I apologize for not going to the experts for the info as I should have. The "address" is: Boy Scouts of America - National Council
Under the "Awards" section go to the SCUBA section. You will now go to a BSA publication that talks about the "pre-dive check out" very close to the one Sea Base does. Keep in mind that Sea Base has one a little different that is geared to the type of diving done at Sea Base, ocean - boat diving.
I do hope this helps those looking for a "source" for all this. I would repeat myself in saying a diving tune up is an essential part of trip preparedness for a trip that includes SCUBA. The publication says it best when it talks about the majority of folks not doing a lot of diving between Scuba trips. I can understand why. The troops that come down to Sea Base from the Detroit area, forgive me if I have missed thier home area, really have taken this to heart. There is also a troop from Pennsylvania that does the same. They spend time in pool as well as open water dives, usually in a quarry, prior to thier trip. And you can really tell that they are on the edge & are ready for the hardships encountered at Sea Base. That diving in warm, clear water can be a task!!! The comfort level of the pre-prepared divers is readily apparent. OK... the water is warmer..... the water is clear - better than 3 feet, currrent typically is no factor, diving off the boats is not a challange, the challange of seeing your buddy is no factor, the entertainment factor form the wild life is fantastic - heck Keys diving is just great!!! Plus the accomadations are not those found at some of the other High Adventure spots. AC, showers, & the menu there is without exception, the very best. Thanks, Mr. Beale & staff! As you have heard muttered by the Sea Base staff - ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE!!! As you can tell I am suffering from "Keys withdrawal syndrome!! The cure is on the way! In another few weeks I will see ya'll there. My wife is smiling bigger everyday, I wonder about this! I have been stacking gear in the living room for 3 weeks now. The regs have been re-built, tanks hydroed, wetsuit is on order (the other shrunk - go figure) Dreams of the Keys are making naps fun! The rising cost of fuel is of less concern each day! I am very seriously getting into the Keys state of mind.
We'll see ya'll soon......
YIS
Grady
OP
Hey!
The message lost the address somehow. Go to Boy Scouts of America - BSA - National Council . Then Scouting safely, then to the awards section, then to the BSA Scuba awards section. A pubication will come up. Sorry about that!!!
Grady
The message lost the address somehow. Go to Boy Scouts of America - BSA - National Council . Then Scouting safely, then to the awards section, then to the BSA Scuba awards section. A pubication will come up. Sorry about that!!!
Grady
As I have read the thread I see the confusion that always appears arround High Adventure activities. The 19 skills? or is it 13 BSA skills? or the more current 21 or 22 PADI skills? or some other number of skills leads to frustration for leaders. I always bring do a pool checkout dive about 30 days prior to a remote dive trip. This helps me see the skill levels and helps the participants practice. Since PADI is what FSB refers to, the log book needs to be examined for dive experience and recent activity. The process to demonstrate these skills if its has been more than a year (or 6 months) since the last dive. This requires several hours in a pool or appropriate confined water with an instructor supervising. Thats a lot of time for 24 or 48 folks arriving on a Sunday and ready to start diving on a Monday.
I know each BSA High Adventure Camp can write policy that is specific to the location and the National policy is the "generic lowest common denominator version" A good example of this is the requirement for no scout to shoot a rifle larger than a 22 cal. When you go to Philmont they shoot 30.06. It needs to be said that the age of youth in Philmont is 14-21 and the other rules are for 10.5 to 18. Both are or can be Scouts. It seems that each camp sets its own requirements based on programs offered.
DP
I know each BSA High Adventure Camp can write policy that is specific to the location and the National policy is the "generic lowest common denominator version" A good example of this is the requirement for no scout to shoot a rifle larger than a 22 cal. When you go to Philmont they shoot 30.06. It needs to be said that the age of youth in Philmont is 14-21 and the other rules are for 10.5 to 18. Both are or can be Scouts. It seems that each camp sets its own requirements based on programs offered.
DP
Now we have 2 BSA references that agree with each other - BSA Health and Safety Guide and the Scuba BSA brochure. They are consistent with each other in recommending a scuba review be done before diving if you haven't dived (dove?) in a while. The Guide to Safe Scouting does not include that (too bad!).
Some trivia on the Scuba BSA brochure - the cover picture was taken in the dive pool at FSB. The rest of the pictures were taken at the National Jamboree (2001?). The 2005 printing has an updated Scuba BSA patch with the white stripe (diver below flag background) running the right way, even though BSA is still selling the Scuba BSA patch that has it running the other (wrong) way.
DP - if your guys can do all the skills in the PADI scuba review, then they won't have any problem with the subset that FSB does. It seems to be up to the DM as to which skills they review (in '99 was the first time I ever breathed from a free flowing regulator during the FSB scuba review - YMCA didn't teach it when I did my OW years earlier).
Kind of like inprocessing at Philmont, your DM will keep an eye on the other groups and make sure that you aren't conflicting with other crews for resources (e.g., you can't have 2 crews getting their scuba gear at the same time, etc.). The closer you arrive to 2pm, the more you can get done on your first day. But you are on Keys time down there!
Mike Meenehan
Some trivia on the Scuba BSA brochure - the cover picture was taken in the dive pool at FSB. The rest of the pictures were taken at the National Jamboree (2001?). The 2005 printing has an updated Scuba BSA patch with the white stripe (diver below flag background) running the right way, even though BSA is still selling the Scuba BSA patch that has it running the other (wrong) way.
DP - if your guys can do all the skills in the PADI scuba review, then they won't have any problem with the subset that FSB does. It seems to be up to the DM as to which skills they review (in '99 was the first time I ever breathed from a free flowing regulator during the FSB scuba review - YMCA didn't teach it when I did my OW years earlier).
Kind of like inprocessing at Philmont, your DM will keep an eye on the other groups and make sure that you aren't conflicting with other crews for resources (e.g., you can't have 2 crews getting their scuba gear at the same time, etc.). The closer you arrive to 2pm, the more you can get done on your first day. But you are on Keys time down there!
Mike Meenehan
We're heading down on June 4; can't wait!
Our plan is to do a series of brush-up dives in the months leading up to Sea Base, starting around March. Start with the 19 skills on the PADI scuba review, maybe do a boat dive on the lake to get the scouts used to giant-stride entries, getting back on the boat via ladder, and so on. At one of the meetings, we're going to do hand signal review -- I show a scout a card with text like "low on air." He signs it to his buddy, who correctly identifies it back to me to score a point. Some sort of token prize for the winners. Then maybe a couple of dives to work on multilevel dive buoyancy, compass navigation, and so on.
Anything else we ought to be practicing?
Thanks
Matt
Our plan is to do a series of brush-up dives in the months leading up to Sea Base, starting around March. Start with the 19 skills on the PADI scuba review, maybe do a boat dive on the lake to get the scouts used to giant-stride entries, getting back on the boat via ladder, and so on. At one of the meetings, we're going to do hand signal review -- I show a scout a card with text like "low on air." He signs it to his buddy, who correctly identifies it back to me to score a point. Some sort of token prize for the winners. Then maybe a couple of dives to work on multilevel dive buoyancy, compass navigation, and so on.
Anything else we ought to be practicing?
Thanks
Matt
OP
Now we're moving!!!! The preperation described by these diving folks is absolutely correct. Prep for Philmont icludes Philmont oriented activities, Northern Tier involves activities geared towards the adventure experienced there, Sea Base requires prep geared towards ocean - boat diving. Are you gonna hit everything that can happen? Probably not. But all the skills practiced & sharpened up on prior to getting there kind puts them in the proper place & reduces worry about those skills. That in itself puts the participants in a "ready" state of mind for the adventure. When these things are practiced prior to the trip they are now put in the forefront, practiced & perfected, then put aside for other things. It makes the diver more ready. As for time spent in the arrival procedures, they can be somewhat perplexing. But the diving part of the trip is a non issue. That makes everything that has to be done go a lot more smoothly & everything left goes a whole bunch easier. The program as designed by Steve & those resposible is well thought out. The arrival typically goes on without any situation being overly intensified. "Scuba" ready participants go even faster & more relaxed. So...... keep on keeping on!!! Ya'll are on the ball!!
See ya'll this spring & summer!
YIS
Grady
See ya'll this spring & summer!
YIS
Grady
I'll dive as much as I can, but I'll pass on limbo. A man's got to know his limitations...
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