Requirement
1. Hazards, first aid and Safety Afloat
Required
Three parts, all required, all dry, and none of them gated by the swimmer test. This is the requirement to do on the first evening, because 1(b) and 1(c) between them are most of what makes the day on the water go safely.
Notes and warnings
Note. THREE PARTS, ALL DRY, AND THIS IS THE FIRST EVENING'S WORK. Nothing here is gated by the swimmer test. 1(a) asks four things about every hazard, not one: anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and RESPOND TO, and the fourth is the one people leave out because the first three sound like the whole answer. 1(b) is seven named injuries and illnesses with prevention, symptoms AND first-aid treatment for each, which is twenty one answers in a single line of text, so treat it as a table rather than a paragraph. 1(c) asks you to review Safety Afloat and then explain how it applies TO ROWING, which is the actual requirement: read the policy itself point by point rather than a summary of it, and have a rowing specific sentence ready for each point.
What this is made of
Where this step comes from
- Rowing Merit Badge Requirements (Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2026-02-18), Requirement 1