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So now I'm a Merit Badge Counselor


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I read something similar to that when I was reading through the MB requirements... some note to the counselor about needing approval from council or some such thing....

I could be wrong, but I think that statement you're referencing @@KenD500 applies to the certification instructor, not the MBC

The Boy Scouts of America is not a dive certification agency. Your merit badge counselor can help you find a scuba agency recognized by the Boy Scouts of America scuba policy so that you can fulfill requirement 4.

reading the requirements I see no reason why I couldn't serve as mentor for a scout and review the requirements.

 

regardless, if the rule is that I'm "not worthy" and they don't want me.....ok by me.... just offering to help.  That'll give me more time to cut my grass anyway, and then maybe get back into it myself!!

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regardless, if the rule is that I'm "not worthy" and they don't want me.....ok by me.... just offering to help.  That'll give me more time to cut my grass anyway, and then maybe get back into it myself!

I hope you were being sarcastic with the "not worthy" bit.  If not, for the love of Pete, please stop; "not worthy" and "not qualified" are two different things.

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@blw2  - I am a diver.  I was just curious as to the agency.  Most  around here are PADI or SSI and there were some scouters doing NAUI.  I would not worry about it as long as your Council approves your application. My daughter got certified at a Venturing camp program and my son through a SCUBA Crew.  I have been able to take them both diving in the ocean.  My son is expecting a trip to Seabase for SCUBA like I did with his sister.  I would say you need to get your son blowing bubbles and go diving with him!

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So which are you @@dfolson?

 

I was talking with an old diving buddy the other day.  he was always a PADI guy

He was saying that he noticed there seems to be fewer NAUI shops around his area in South West Florida

 

Back when i was diving a lot, I always felt a bit like a stepchild with SSI.... even though they were quite big even back then, it seemed a lot of folks had never heard of them.  Shops and charters were ok of course, but casual divers had not...  Mostly PADI and NAUI folks.

 

There's a couple SSI shops in town.  One big shop here is PADI

 

My local Diver's supply store is now teaching SDI, which I don't think I ever heard of before... at least I don't remember it...

Diver's Supply used to be PADI, so my buddy & I theorized that they moved away from PADI driven by cost....

 

Regardless, I personally don't think it matters all that much... all different twists on the same idea.

 

I think my best training was the stuff through IANTD.  Interesting (but not surprising) that the BSA doesn't include them.  My 1st Nitrox class was through IANTD before any of the mainstream agencies even recognized Nitrox.  It was I think 4 nights of classroom spread over two weeks, followed by a couple of open water checkout dives.... Now it seems that you can be Nitrox certified if you know how to purge your regulator!  (not that's it bad really, I learned a lot more in depth stuff, but really it's not all that useful to a recreational diver).  

The Tech diving classes through IANTD really shined though.  Much more hard core.... ditching your gear at depth including mask, and swimming distances to retrieve it and re-don... stuff like that really increases confidence.... and the bookwork on physiology was very "deep" too.

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I am PADI as is my son, but the daughter is NAUI.  We have an SDI near us.  Sometimes I get flack from the SSI people when they see my PADI card -  and get comments like, well you didn't do this or that with your OW like our program... 

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

 Really have mixed feeling about offering to help everywhere I can.... but also don't want to over extend either....

could also likely help kids with many others

But where do you stop?

 

I'm guessing it's very unlikely I'll ever get called for most of these, but still....

I happen to be the only merit badge counselor in my district, due to the requirements of specialized training, for rifle and shotgun. You would think that with a popular merit badge my phone would be ringing off the hook.....it's not. I do get calls from troops wanting to do a troop event but not from individual scouts.

 

My suggestion would be a counselor for the district and if you find yourself getting too many calls then you can also change your status back to troop only. With you having only one Eagle merit badge, I don't see you getting too many calls for help.

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