How many Scouts and Scouters are on ScubaBoard (Boy Scouts)

[Scubatooth]

rjens i know that feeling it took me a while to get mine done, and i got everything finished 2 weeks before my 18th.


Next question anybody here in the OA and/or going to NOAC this comming summer ?

Dan

[ABQdiver]

This program has and will (hopefully) be a wonderful program for boys all over the country. I was a boy scout, as was the other four boys in the family and went through to Eagle. Even got some of the palms after. Some of the highlights I remember was the monthly campouts and summer jamborees we had. A lot of fun.

I wished we had a scuba division or participation, but in New Mexico the pickings are small for that and camping had more following.

[Scubatooth]

ABQ im kind of surprised that there isnt more participation in your area because you are close to what has been called "scouting paradise" by some and by others the last true remaining piece of unexploited wilderness in this country, IE philmont and all the land it surrounds


Dan

[TwoBitTxn]

Eagle Scout (Class of 86) two palms.

OA Brotherhood.

El Rancho Cima camp staff two years.

TwoBit

[ABQdiver]

ABQ im kind of surprised that there isnt more participation in your area because you are close to what has been called "scouting paradise" by some and by others the last true remaining piece of unexploited wilderness in this country, IE philmont and all the land it surrounds
Dan

Sorry, I wasn't more clear. I was lamenting the lack of scuba activities in the scouting program when I was growing up and in the program. In fact the area is VERY big in camping. Philmont was one of my favorite places as well as the Pecos Wilderness for those week long backpack trips...

[Scubatooth]

ABQ- i dont know why there isnt more of a involvement in scouting as the last couple of national jamboree there has ben a DSD tanks set up for scouts to get a taste of diving, hey thats how i got into diving was the DSD experince at the 1997 jamboree even though i didnt get certified till 2001

Dan

[John C. Ratliff]

I went through the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and finally got my Eagle in Explorer Search and Rescue Post 18 in Salem, Oregon. This was in the 1950's and early 1960's. I also did scuba searches while in the Post. This set me up well for getting into the USAF Pararescue in 1967.

When my sons were ready, they went into Cub Scouts, and and I was a Pack Leader. As the boys got older, I became involved in Boy Scouts, and they began the program. Unfortunately, this troop was oriented to "adventure scouting," and I got into a tussle with the scoutmaster about how he was structuring some of the scouting adventure trips. For instance, he wanted to came out on the top of a mountain in February (this is in the Oregon Cascades). The boys were not prepared for arctic survival, and I was successful in modifying the trip to a lower elevation.

But the "adventures" continued, and the next trip was to a ski resort area, but they skied in a blizzard. I thought the trip was cancelled due to weather, and did not even show up for the trip (driving was extremely hazardous, and it was over 100 miles to the ski area). During the skiing, which occurred in white-out conditions, one boy did a face plant in the snow, was wedged and couldn't move. He sufficated in the snow before he was found, and was pronounced dead later that day after a helicopter rescue unit made a "hairy" lifesaving flight to pick him up.

A little later, my boys faced a decision; they had to give up one activity. They were active in band, swim team, scouts and piano. Each activity had it's own rewards, but they were too busy to keep up their studies. We only said that they each had to give up the same activity. They choose to give up scouting. I had been scheduled to take over the troop, but after the death, and the disagreements I had with the scout master, the board decided not to have me take it over. That whole situation left a bitter taste in my mouth for that type of scouting, which I had felt corrupted the scouting concepts. The boys did not run the troop; adults did, and it was a mill to turn out Eagle Scouts. But the patrol concept, the learning about how to run an organization, the fundamental tenants of scouting, had in my opinion been turned over into an ego trip for the adults. That was not my type of scouting, and that really was my last work with scouting (some 12 years ago).

What does this have to do with diving. Well, I used diving to introduce some of my Cub Scouts to the water. I had a trip where I put the scouts in scuba in a pool, after an orientation, and let them swim around in very shallow water. They loved it, and we could have gone a lot further with it in different circumstances. So scuba does have a place in scouting, which others have discussed.

SeaRat

[Scubatooth]

john

im sorry your boys had a experince like that. I to have run into scoutmasters like that and thought it wasnt fair, but in my area i had other troops to go with where i finished my eagle. It seems like in anything in life there are those who think that there idea of the program is the only way and press it on everyone else and not think of the conseqences, but is life.

Dan

[plsander]

I'm an Eagle scout and currently an assistant scoutmaster.

My wife earned her First Class as a Girl Scout, and is now the leader of the
Cadette and Senior troops, and the adviser of our local Venturing Crew.

[Viper7]

Eagle Scout, class of '88...