Sunday, October 4, 2015

Let's Talk Water Sports Safety


There are numerous water sports that are very enjoyable involving snorkeling, scuba diving, water skiing, water boarding and wind surfing. All of these activities do have some danger if a person is not aware of what can happen and if they are careless.

Scuba diving is perhaps the most dangerous because it does require a certain degree of training, and if a person does not adhere to the guidelines, he or she can place themselves in a dangerous situation.

Wind surfing is similar to a degree in that you are letting the wind propel a surfboard with a sail on it as you stand on the board. This sport also requires a certain degree of instruction on how to handle the board in all kinds of varying conditions.

Things like surfing and stand up paddleboarding also have their dangers like any other water sport activity. And if you're out in the water when it is cold, then there is an even greater need for safety as demonstrated by Just Paddleboard.

Each water sport that a person undertakes will require some degree of instruction in order to learn how to perform in the sport so that you are able to operate the sport in an efficient manner, and so that you are able to do so in a safe manner.

In order to be safe at anything, a person must first know the things about the sport that can cause harm, and then learn how to avoid those practices. For example in scuba diving it is important to learn how to come up from a deeper dive slowly so that you don't get the "bends" which is the formation of too much nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream if they ascend to the surface too fast.

So, training occurs in any water sport so that safe practices are performed while involving oneself in the sport. Safety needs to be drummed into people because routine safety procedures can be come "canned" and taken for granted, and that is when these procedures are skipped by many, with sometimes disastrous results.

Water skiing is a fairly safe sport unless the skier hits an obstruction in the water or gets tangled in the rope. Windsurfing can get out of hand if the weather makes a sudden change and you are farther away from shore than you thought.

The essence of water safety in water sports amounts to seeing ahead to possible hazards in each scenario of the sport as you are involved. Anticipation is the key to avoiding any mishap and if you are prepared for it, there is much less likelihood that something will go wrong that you cannot handle.

image credit: By Merryfrankster at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons