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Edition 2026Active Merit Badge
Water Sports
Official Requirements & Fillable Workbook · 2026 Edition
Water Sports is an exhilarating test of balance and strength behind a powerboat on skis or a wakeboard. You must pass the BSA swimmer test before participating. Requirements 4 and 5 require learning towing hand signals, deep-water starts, crossing boat wakes, and completing a continuous run under Scouting America Safety Afloat rules.
Key Requirements Covered:
- Water Skiing & Towboat Safety Protocols
- Hand Signals, Life Jackets & Spotting
- Deep-Water Starts & Towline Handling
- Carving Wakes, Surface Turns & Skier Recovery
4Printable Pages
6Requirements
2026Reqs Revised
What is on the worksheet: Water Sports Requirements
Every requirement for the Water Sports merit badge, word for word as published, with room to write under each one on the printed worksheet.
1Hazards, First Aid, and Safety Afloat
Do the following:
- a Explain to your counselor the most likely hazards you may encounter while participating in water sports activities and what you should do to anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to these hazards.
- b Review prevention, symptoms, and first-aid treatment for the following injuries or illnesses that could occur while participating in water sports: blisters, cold-water shock and hypothermia, dehydration, heat-related illnesses, sunburn, sprains, strains, minor cuts and bruises, spinal injury, and concussions and head trauma.
- c Review the Scouting America Safety Afloat policy. Tell how it applies to water sports.
2Life Jackets and the Safety Code
Do the following:
- a Discuss with your counselor the characteristics of life jackets most appropriate for water sports, and tell why one must always be worn while waterskiing or wakeboarding. Then demonstrate how to select and fit a life jacket for water sports activities.
- b Review and discuss the Water Sports Safety Code with your counselor. Promise that you will live up to it and follow it in all water work for this merit badge. Review the safety precautions that must be used by the boat operator in pulling waterskiers and wakeboarders.
3Swimmer Test
Before doing requirements 4 through 6, successfully complete the Scouting America swimmer test. Note: See the Swimming merit badge pamphlet for details about the Scouting America swimmer test.
4Safety and First Aid
Show the following skier signals to the safety observer in the boat: skier safe, faster, slower, turns, back to dock, cut motor, skier in water.
5Skiing or Wakeboarding Skills
Showing reasonable control while using two skis, one ski, or a wakeboard, do the following:
- a Show how to enter the water from a boat and make a deepwater start without help.
- b Starting from outside the wakes, show you can cross both wakes four times and return to the center of the wake each time, without falling.
- c Show you can fall properly to avoid an obstacle. Also show that you can drop handle and coast to a stop without losing your balance.
6Adjusting Bindings
While on shore, show that you know how to properly adjust the bindings of your ski(s) or wakeboard to fit yourself. Then, in deep water, show you can adjust bindings to fit. Recover and put on your ski(s) or wakeboard that has come off during a fall.
Two dates, two different things
Requirements Revision vs. Worksheet Date
Scouting America last revised the Water Sports requirements in 2026. That is the badge, not this sheet — an older year does not mean the worksheet is out of date.
Verbatim Fidelity & Verification
This worksheet was checked against https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/water-sports/ in Aug 2026 and reproduces the requirements word for word. Both dates are printed on the sheet, so a copy in a binder can always be placed in time.
Requirement text is © Scouting America, reproduced verbatim. The worksheet layout and design are original to this project.
Spotted a discrepancy on this sheet? Tell us and we will re-check it against the official requirements.
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