Articles

American Whitewater Accident Study Covering Non-Motorized Human Powered Craft 1995-1998  By Jennifer L. Plyler, Ph.D. Prologue It’s a bright sunny day. Two friends load an old aluminum canoe and head for the pastoral retreat of a local pond. The fishing poles are along for the ride. The faded orange horse-collar lifejackets will make great backrests as they bask in the sun. In another part of the country, a group of kayakers set a car shuttle. They’ve paddled this Class II-III

 WHITEWATER ACCIDENTS  THROUGH THE YEARS Reported to American Whitewater 1975-2005  Year Kayak & C-1 Open Canoe       Rafts (Com)(Priv)(I-K) Other Total 1975     1           1 1976              0 1977     1           1 1978     2           2 1979     1           1 1980     1           1 1981       1         1 1982     8    

The AW Accident Database has just been updated. It contains over 800 incidents occurring during the last 30 years. Accidents can be looked up by year, state, name, or date and are linked to the river where they occurred. The database also contains detailed accounts first published in the 1989-1999 editions of the River Safety Reports. These books, a joint project of American Whitewater and the American Canoe Association, are becoming difficult to find. Improvements to the American Whitewater Accident Database were

The AW Accident Database has just been updated. It contains over 800 incidents that occurred during the last 30 years. Accidents can be looked up by year and are linked to the river where they occurred. These database also features the detailed accounts that were first published in the 1989-1999 editions of the River Safety Reports. These books, a joint project of American Whitewater and the American Canoe Association, are becoming hard to find. Improvements to the American Whitewater Accident Database were

Laura Wittmann was the assistant to Jason Robertson, American Whitewater’s Access Director, from 1998 to 2000. Although whitewater boating fatalities have been getting increased attention in the last couple of years, the actual fatality rate for whitewater kayaking (2.9 in 1998 per 100,000 participants) is not as high as a few highly-publicized deaths would lead you to believe. In comparison with other sports, it is safer than scuba diving (3.5) and mountaineering (3.2). In fact, driving a car is arguably

Corps to hold Francis E. Walter Dam Flow Management Information Workshop and announce the 2006 plan PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 23, 2006) — The Corps of Engineers and its p artners the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Delaware River Basin Commission, in their ongoing efforts to enhance recreation along the Lehigh River, will conduct a public information workshop to announce the 2006 Francis E. Walter Dam Flow Management Plan and discuss its implementation. The public

Corps to hold Francis E. Walter Dam Flow Management Information Workshop and announce the 2006 plan PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 23, 2006) — The Corps of Engineers and its partners, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Delaware River Basin Commission, in their ongoing efforts to enhance recreation along the Lehigh River, will conduct a public information workshop to announce the 2006 Francis E. Walter Dam Flow Management Plan and discuss its implementation. The public is

Thanks to the ongoing efforts of our webmaster the AW Safety Database has a new look and feel. It is a lot easier to find information. Accidents can be looked up by name or year and each accident is linked to the river where it occurred. With help from AW Web Guru Matt Muir I am now"populating" the database with accident descriptions from the River Safety Reports. I have accident reports in digital form dating back to 1989 and hard copies dating back to 1974.

Corps to hold Francis E. Walter Dam Flow Management Information Workshop and announce the 2006 plan PHILADELPHIA (Jan. 23, 2006) — The Corps of Engineers and its partners, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Delaware River Basin Commission, in their ongoing efforts to enhance recreation along the Lehigh River, will conduct a public information workshop to announce the 2006 Francis E. Walter Dam Flow Management Plan and discuss its implementation. The public is

There will be a meeting in Belmont NH this week regarding the flowmanagement of the Winnipesaukee River. It is very important for thepaddling community to express our interest in this. Please try toattend if possible. Details below and at the NHDES website:http://www.des.state.nh.us/press/press011206.htm Meeting to Discuss Lake Level Management and River Flows inWinnipesaukee River and Silver LakeConcord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Serviceswill hold a public informational meeting on January 18, relative tothe management of lake levels and

There will be a meeting in Belmont NH this week regarding the flowmanagement of the Winnipesaukee River. It is very important for thepaddling community to express our interest in this. Please try toattend if possible. Details below and at the NHDES website:http://www.des.state.nh.us/press/press011206.htm Meeting to Discuss Lake Level Management and River Flows inWinnipesaukee River and Silver LakeConcord, NH – The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Serviceswill hold a public informational meeting on January 18, relative tothe management of lake levels and

What can bring top whitewater names like Jimmy Blakeney, Christie Dobson, Eric Jackson, Willie Kern, Tanya Shuman, and Clay Wright together united for one common goal?  Answer: American Whitewater’s new athlete ambassador program.  In 2006 American Whitewater launched its Athlete Ambassador Team, a core of whitewater paddlers who will publicly represent American Whitewater and reinforce its mission of preserving and restoring ’s whitewater resources.  AW sought out the leaders of the whitewater community to come forward and publicly promote and