Re: Safe Swim Defense
Alan Houser (troop24@EMF.NET)
Tue, 15 Aug 1995 22:46:26 -0700
Paul H. Brown <phbrown@CAPACCESS.ORG> asked:
>When are the 8 points of the safe swim defense required? IOW, when are
>the scouts "swimming?" When they are wading across an ankle deep
>stream? Knee deep? Thighs? Chest? When they no longer have one foot
>on the bottom at all times? When are they just "playing in the water,"
>and when are they "swimming?"
>My troop was having a glorious mudfight on the mudflats at Goshen Scout
>Reservation this summer, but got chased away by the camp staff because
>they didn't have a lifeguard with them. So, when is the safe swim
>defense applicable?
If you are hiking along the trail and have to ford a stream, I would
consider that not an aquatic activity and would not require SSD. But I
do require them to practice stream crossing safety: unbuckle waist belts
and watch each person cross, especially the last. We haven't experienced
anything over ankle depth (didn't go out this summer to the Sierra high
country).
If you are playing in the water, even a quarter inch deep, I consider that
an aquatic activity and SSD is required. Someone has to be watching
without playing -- i.e., paying attention -- to insure complete safety.
It is also a good training practice for them to know how to set and run
up SSD. If they know it is required EVERY TIME they are in the water,
they will do it. If it's sometimes on, sometimes off, they (and you) will
tend to overlook it when perhaps they shouldn't.
Alan R. Houser ** Scoutmaster, Berkeley Troop 24 ** troop24@emf.net
** WWW page ** http://www.emf.net/~troop24/t24.html **
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
