Largely unnoticed by the paddling community last year, Transport Canada has updated the Canada Shipping Act.  Of particular importance to guides and instructors are new provisions for guided excursions of human-powered vessels (a fancy name for canoes, kayaks and the like).

Read more: Updates to the Canada Shipping Act

Kayak touring is a very safe sport.  Canadian and US coast guard statistics, and studies by the American Canoe Association (ACA) support this statement.  By safe we mean, that in comparison to other water based activities, kayak touring has fewer and less severe accidents. There are five ‘T’s” present in most accidents: tequila, twenties, testosterone, tattoos, and toothless.  There are at least three important factors that contribute to our collective safety:

• Kayakers wear PFDs
• Kayakers don’t drink and paddle
• Kayakers are male and female, and over the age of 25

In other words, we don’t exhibit the 5 “T’s”.

Read more: Our Obsession With Safety

Paddlers have a complicated relationship to risk.  This relationship is further distorted by laws based a limited understanding of the value of risk in recreation.  Most laws are founded a model of risk defined as the potential for harm or loss.  As implied in this definition, many of us think of risk as a negative consequence.  Certainly law makers and law enforcers spend a great deal of time and money trying to keep us safe from the potential negative risks of daily living.  Mandatory seat belts, bicycle helmets, and health inspections of restaurants are three obvious examples.  This view is useful when the risks are assumed involuntarily, for example, when designing manufacturing standards for cars or trains.  In recreation, however, risk is often assumed voluntarily, and as a result, we need a wider definition when we talk about recreational risk.   

Read more: Our Relationship to Risk