Imperial College Canoe Club - Safety

This page is a work in progress, to develope some text for a new 'Safety' section on the Imperial College Canoe Club website.

This relates to our canoe club, but we may also develop some general safety information which could be refactored into a new page Whitewater Safety

[edit] Is whitewater kayaking a dangerous sport?

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[edit] ICCC Attitudes and Culture

Imperial College Canoe Club has a good collective culture and attitude towards safety.

[edit] Kayaking Experience

Imperial College Canoe Club attracts people with widely varying levels of kayaking experience, from complete beginners to kayaking experts. We always manage to maintain a good proportion of experienced to inexperienced people within a group. This is a crucial (but often overlooked) factor influencing whitewater safety.

Several of our club members have 5 or more years of experience in kayaking and river leadership. The means that a good level of supervision and safety cover is provided on the river, by a selection of the experienced canoeists in the club

[edit] River Risk Assesment

We always make use of the whitewater grading system, and other guidebook information (including specific hazards) when preparing to go on a river. In places like Wales, where we normally go kayaking, we have a wide variety of rivers to choose from, and so we are able to pick a river which is suitable for the kayaking abilities of the whole group. We normally also have prior experience of kayaking on the same rivers.

[edit] General Club Risk Assesment

We have to submit a general risk assessment to the union every year.

[edit] Comments

Would suggest several things to put in this section:

• List of safety/rescue kit in a river group, ie, x throwbags, first aid kit, etc.
• Links to other areas on the site about rescue techniques, eg Rob's notes from the safety course.
• Description of individual club safety equipment and standards, eg BA, 50N, etc.
• Possibly a record of qualifications held by members? eg, first aid, BCU stuff, training, etc - not sure whether this is a good idea or not, as it may highlight the lack of formal training!
• Link to our annual risk assement sheet given to the union.
• Links to common club river desriptions, maybe altered to highlight rapids/grades to base on a future risk assement per river?
• List of common injuries and procedures to treat/deal with them (eg shoulder dislocation)? Would this put people off?
• Upload the BCU uni clubs guidelines and Jon's river risk assessment form to this section -- Jim - March 8, 2005

[edit] Update

The union hierachy have decreed (after a poke from college) that we need to have a form for every member detailling their skills and experience so that we can show that they are capable of paddling whatever river they chose to get injured on. This can be paper/computer or web based. We need to decide what gos on this form, who fills it in, where it is kept, etc. We have until October to come up with something.