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Participation in water-based recreation activities does not arise in random fashion nor simply as a result of having a water resource immediately available. Neither do individuals and groups engage in the same activities or a specific activity in the same way. The purpose of the present paper is to describe an alternative framework whereby differences among recreation users can be identified. Prior to this time, research directed toward understanding participation patterns at a recreational site have emphasized the activities while ignoring the human behavior factors which determine how participation arises. People consider recreation sites to be leisure settings in which the definition of such places has a broader socio-cultural meaning than that the site was designed. These definitions are reflected within the context of the social group and can be observed in the subsequent orientation to leisure and play. When activities are considered in the context of a human group, differences in participation patterns can be discovered.(KEY TERMS: leisure settings, social groups, water-based recreation activities)The study of leisure, while having a long history, is only now emerging as a legitimate research problem area for social scientists. We mention this fact not as an apology for what information is available because, in fact, there is an abundance of literature. Nor do we mention this fact as an indictment against those who have treated leisure as little more than an esoteric topic, only important to those who undertake its study. Rather, we note the face because in the investigation of any problem area there must be a systematic and rigorous effort by many so that studies are progressive and research findings are accumulative, if a critical mass of theoretical and substantive knowledge is to emerge. In the study of leisure we are coming of age.Researchers are turning their attention away from typically descriptive studies like the social characteristics of boaters and swimmers of Soleman Lake in search of the underlying behavioral components of such participation. Studies like Burch's (1 959) analysis of the play world of camping and Devall's (1973) investigation of hikers and surfers focus upon the underlying social organization aspects of those activities which in Paper No. 74010 of the Wuter Resources Bulletin. Discussions are open until Febmary 1, 1975.