ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CLAYTOR LAKE
SOURCE: Story and photos by PHILIP HOLMAN
The small cove echoes with shouts as a group of Boy Scouts mills around on a floating pontoon.
Several of the Scouts don snorkeling gear and leap into the cool, green waters of the lake. They spread out, paddling slowly inside a roped-off section of the cove, their faces submerged as they scan the murky lake bottom for clams scattered by their instructor.
Just beyond the swimming enclosure, more Scouts skitter about the surface of the water in rowing skulls. Their movements, at first awkward and slow, become fluid as they acquaint themselves with their new environment. En masse they move leisurely out of the cove, like waterbugs on a backyard pond.
The boys, from all over the country, are spending a week in and on the water of Claytor Lake as part of a new aquatics program offered by the Boy Scouts of America. A different group of Scouts arrives each week. They spend their days on the water and their nights at nearby Camp Powhatan, a 16,000-acre reservation where, over the course of the summer, thousands of Scouts will earn coveted merit badges in a variety of land-based pursuits.
Only a small number - less than 40 each session - choose to enjoy what the lake has to offer. They spend their evenings with the other Scouts at Powhatan, or "base camp," but it doesn't feature very highly in their week. Base camp is a place to sleep and eat breakfast; everything else goes on at the aquatics center.
Besides, at base camp, "they make us do all these chores," says Chris Anderson, 14, of Salem.
The aquatics program broadens the Boy Scout experience, offering new skills to learn and merit badges to collect - for sailing, rowing, motor boating and water skiing. Snorkeling is a supplemental activity; the participating Scouts earn patches for their bathing suits denoting their achievement.
The main push to establish an aquatics camp was to keep older boys interested in scouting, says Bob Morgan, aquatics director and a biology teacher with Roanoke City Schools.
"They've already done the traditional camps," he explains. "So now they're ready for something more adventurous - so it's to keep their interest."
And thus far the camp seems to be a success.
``It's been great,'' says Morgan, who runs this program with camp Director Steve Wilburn and seven fully trained instructors. ``Everything has gone very smoothly so far. There are a lot of boys coming through this program and the feedback we've been getting from both the boys and the Scout leaders has been very positive.''
Though the BSA Blue Ridge Mountains Council had long been interested in creating an aquatics program, it took time to find a suitable site.
The Scouts are settled in a rambling white house that most recently served as a conference center for American Electric Power, from whom they are leasing the property.
The house serves as the program's operations base and dining hall during the day and provides a home for the instructors, who are either BSA lifeguards or working on their certifications, at night. It stands on several acres of partially wooded lake-front property, with docks and a handkerchief-sized beach.
All told, the Scouts' summer playground is a large one. When the New River was dammed in 1939 it backed up for more than 10 miles to create a 35,000-acre lake - plenty of room for messing around in boats. One of the great benefits of Claytor Lake, Morgan points out, is that it doesn't suffer from the water traffic that besets Smith Mountain Lake. While Claytor Lake is far from empty on the weekends, the campers' water activities run Monday through Friday when the lake is relatively free of other boats.
Of the 38 Boy Scouts participating in the aquatics program on a recent week, eight are from Troops 34 and 55 from Salem. Others are from troops in Lynchburg and Blacksburg and from states all across the nation. Some of the boys are seasoned campers; others are relatively new to the experience.
Almost all of them are new to water sports.
``It's fun,'' says Troop 34's Anderson. ``It's definitely different.''
Different from the two previous camps he has attended this summer. Before aquatics camp started, he managed to fit in backpacking camp and leadership training camp.
But it is this camp he's interested in now, he says, as he turns the conversation to his first attempts at water skiing.
``The first time I wasn't up for long enough to know,'' Anderson explains. By his third try, however, he managed to log two minutes on the surface before his attempt to move outside the ski boat's wake brought him crashing back into the water.
``It's kind of fun,'' says Jason Hoke, 14 and also of Salem's Troop 34. But ``skiing's kind of hard for me.''
``You were just getting dragged through the water,'' Anderson interjects.
``I like the sailing though,'' Hoke says.
Four Aqua-Finn sailboats move slowly move across the water, their brightly colored sails harnessing the power of a robust, if somewhat intermittent breeze.
``This is the best wind we'll have all year,'' Wilburn, the camp director, had said before they headed out. At times the boats move along at a healthy clip. They slow as the wind softens. The boys sprawl across the cockpits of their boats, chatting and occasionally calling out to others as they pass close by.
On land and in the ski boat, these boys are boisterous and energetic. But the sailing seems to have a collective calming effect as they ply up and down the lake watching the shore go by.
The sheltered waters of the cove offer protection for rowers and swimmers, as well as a place to moor the program's small flotilla of boats. For the most part donated to BSA for use in the aquatics program, there are 17 vessels in all, ranging from a motorized pontoon boat, used for teaching motor boat safety skills, to the four rowing skulls.
The most popular boat - and the newest in the fleet - is the ski boat, one of the few vessels the program was forced to purchase new.
Activities on the lake start at 9 a.m. and run until 8 p.m.
Evenings are held over for other pursuits. Volleyball is an option, as is "The Rocket," a long, narrow inflatable rocket-like contraption that enables a handful of Scouts to be towed behind the ski boat at one time.
Packing so much activity into one week does take its toll on the campers.
``It's kind of tiring,'' says 13-year-old Matt Franklin, the only member Troop 55 to sign up for the aquatics camp.
``We go to bed when we get back to base camp,'' Troop 34's Chris Herby, 13, elaborates.
LENGTH: Long : 149 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. While attempting to negotiate the tow boat's wake asby CNBhe works on his water-skiing merit badge, Matt Franklin of Salem
loses a ski and braces for impact on Claytor Lake. On his third day
at the camp, Franklin turned 13 and officially became eligible to
attend.
2. To reduce his chances of getting swimmer's ear, 15-year-old
Jason Hoke of Salem uses vinegar water. The concoction facilitates
drainage after a swim.
3. Three of the camp's six Aqua Finn sailboats slip through the
waters of Claytor Lake (above). Sailing was a popular activity, but
it often was hampered by unpredictable breezes.
4. Chris Herby (right) watches intently as another member of
Troop 34 demonstrates tying a knot. "This is the boring part," Herby
said.
5. Program director Bob Morgan (center) demonstrates a stroke for
a swimming class. When summer's over, Morgan teaches biology at
Glenvar High School in Roanoke County. He's an Eagle Scout and he's
been a Scout leader for eight years.
6. After his skiing session, Matt Franklin, 13, of Salem watches
shoreline pass by at 35 mph as the tow boat speeds back to the dock
to pick up another group of Scouts. The boat is one of the camp's
few pieces of purchased equipment. Much of the rest is donated.
7. Chris Anderson, 14, of Salem (above) tightens the riggers of his
rowing scull. While he regards water-skiing as the best activity at
the aquatics camp, he also enjoys the more peaceful rowing.
8. Troop 55's Matt Franklin (left) bobs in the middle of Claytor
Lake as he awaits pickup by his tow boat. The aquatics camps
provided Franklin with his first water-skiing experience. He didn't
succeed in getting his merit badge, so he hopes to return next year
to complete it.< color.< PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff