Injuries Associated With Whitewater Rafting and Kayaking

Abstract

Whitewater rafting and kayaking are growing exponentially in popularity, with almost 10 million rafters and 2 to 3 million kayakers, yet little has been published concerning the safety or hazards of these activities. This article reviews the demographics of such injuries and the types of injuries commonly encountered. Fortunately, fatalities are uncommon in these activities, with rafting and kayaking fatalities occurring at a rate of 0.55 and 2.9 per 100000 user days, respectively. Injury rates for kayaking and rafting are 3 to 6 and 0.26 to 2.1 per 100000 boating days, respectively. Acute injuries in kayaking are usually due to the transferred force of the water on the upper extremity, most often the shoulder, or the impact on an object while "swimming." Acute rafting injuries are more often due to contact with another rafter's paddle or other equipment; the next most common injury is the rafter hitting an object while "swimming." Chronic injuries are very uncommon in rafting but account for 25% to 40% of all kayaking injuries and are most often either shoulder or wrist complaints.

Canyoning adventure recreation in the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (Australia): The canyoners and canyoning trends over the last decade

“…The majority were also male, aged in their 30 s and educated. This reflects the profile of visitors to United States of America (US) wilderness areas (Cole, 1996), together with those participating in adventure recreation such as 'traditional' rock climbing (McIntyre, 1991;Waldrup & McEwen, 1994), skiing (Edensor & Richards, 2007), white-water kayaking (Fiore, 2003) and cross-country mountain biking (Chiu & Kriwoken, 2003;TRC/EKOS, 2007). Also similar was that canyoners encompassed a wide age range (9e71), which paralleled the age range of US wilderness hikers (Shin & Jaakson, 1997).…”

Task-dependent cold stress during expeditions in Antarctic environments

“…Experience has shown that equipment failure can result in hypothermia during excursions, but simple discomfort from body cooling is far more common with proper equipment upkeep [38–40]. However, it should still be noted that uncomfortable body cooling has been shown to alter the perception of risk and even increase hazardous decision-making independent of hypothermia [41,42].…”

Injuries, Ill-Health and Fatalities in White Water Rafting and White Water Paddling

“…Adventure activities, such as white water (WW) canoeing, kayaking and rafting have shown to be especially popular [2][3][4]. Although popular, outdoor activities do carry a risk of injury or, in rare cases, death [5,6].…”

“…However, WW paddling and rafting are associated with acute and chronic injuries [5,6]. Acute injuries are incidents of pain that occur rapidly due to a specific event or trauma.…”

“…Fiore [6] highlights that research examining injuries within WW activities has been relatively neglected, and there is a specific lack of prospective studies assessing true injury and fatality rates.…”