Whitewater Merit Badge

Requirement 3 is another merit badge, and which one depends on you

Requirements 1 and 2 are classroom work: the hazards, the first aid, Safety Afloat and the American Whitewater guidelines, then how to read a river on paper: the Vs, the eddy lines, the ledges, the hydraulics, and how a boat is tilted without leaning the body.

Then requirement 3 stops everything:

Before doing requirements 4 through 12, earn the Canoeing merit badge if you will be using a canoe. If you will be using a kayak, earn the Kayaking merit badge.

Nine of the twelve requirements are behind that. It is a whole merit badge (its own counselor, its own blue card, its own water time), and which badge you need depends on which boat you are in. Answer the first question at the top of this page and the plan says which one, and drops the strokes you will not be demonstrating.

What the boat answer changes

Canoeists have a second choice, and it has a hidden cost

Requirement 4 gives canoeists two options: tandem (Option A (bow strokes, stern strokes, and the braces) or solo (Option B) one longer stroke list, and the braces). A kayaker has only Option C.

The cost that is easy to miss is not in requirement 4 at all. Requirement 10 says that if a tandem canoe is used, all seven moving-water skills must be demonstrated from both the bow and the stern position. Launch and land, paddle forward, backpaddle, both ferries, the eddy turn and the peel out: fourteen demonstrations instead of seven.

Requirement 10 says "a whitewater craft of your choice", so it does not technically have to be the boat you used for requirement 4. In practice it usually is, and that is where the tandem choice is paid for.

The trip is six hours of paddling, and it is planned before it happens

Requirement 12 is one or more trips on Class I and/or Class II water totalling at least six hours of paddling time. For each trip there is a written plan first (route, schedule, equipment, safety precautions and emergency procedures) plus local rules and landowner permission obtained in advance, and a conversation afterwards about how well the plan worked.

A trip taken before the plan is written does not count towards 12(a), and permission obtained afterwards is not permission.

What this page is

The Whitewater merit badge, laid out so the gate at requirement 3 and the boat choice behind it are visible before you start. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.