We may earn commissions if you shop through the links below. There are several Facebook paddling groups that I find enjoyable and both approach safety in two different ways. The approaches couldn’t be more polarized. One group focuses on safety and understands safety. The other group rallies against safety. Two recent posts demonstrate the difference. In one group, a respectful safety conversation was had after someone posted about safety. In the other, people railed against the original poster and eventually the post was deleted by an admin. The Post in the Pro Kayak Safety Group The first post was in Inland Seas, Kayaking the Great Lakes from one of the most experienced kayakers in North America and he posted a photo taken by Chris Burkard of a kayaker on calm water and asked, “What was the kayaker doing wrong?” Join REI and Earn $30 towards your next gear purchase. The responses were: Not dressed for immersion/no wetsuit or drysuit Wearing Parka Wearing backpack instead of life vest Backpacks are a search and rescue no-no Paddling alone Rudder on glassy water is a boat control red flag Snow line in the mountains and color of water indicate glacial silt therefore cold water Knitted hat on Only a foam paddle float for safety combined with no immersion wear equals a red flag As an advertisement it could cause someone to go out and buy a kayak and put themselves into the same risk No spare paddle The ACA/we teach “Avoid paddling alone” Skirt not around coaming — commenter admitted he couldn’t tell for sure Not enough torso rotation Wrong exit location with the paddle An inexperienced person might do this if they saw the ad Not in a canoe At the time I wrote (because I’m a smartass), “Considering this was shot for an advertisement and took place near the shore on completely calm water, I don’t see any real actual concerns other than if he doesn’t have immersion gear on, which we don’t know, he could die if he somehow falls out of his kayak in completely calm conditions and plunges into cold water. In other words, low probability and high consequence, but only if the water is actually cold and he isn’t dressed properly, which we can’t tell.” Side note: If you’re going to post a picture and ask people to comment on the safety mistakes make sure that the readers know it is an exercise. But, if you just see a picture on the Internets showing unsafe practices, it’s probably best to ignore it and not post on that photo. Things go better that way. While I find value in these types of posts, I do believe that there is a hyper-critical culture of safety in sea kayaking. I’ve written about that before in my Sea Kayak Safety article. I’ve also wondered about what is our burden as more experienced kayakers. And I’ve written about when the kayak community goes wrong on safety. I’ve also written about people that want to control safety so that everyone is safe even when they themselves don’t understand the risks. You can read my response to a first descent in Namby Pamby, a Kayaker and Minnehaha Falls. But, just because there is a hyper-critical culture of safety in sea kayaking, it doesn’t mean that safety should be ignored. And it doesn’t mean that proponents of sea kayaking safety should be told to shut up because they are “safety-shaming” or “chastis[ing] for someone else’s safety standards” or “criticizing.” And in a kayaking group, when someone posts something about safety, it shouldn’t be deleted even if some people disagree with safety. By doing so, the admins fall into a trap of blissful ignorance and bow down to those folks that don’t see safety as important. This conversation usually involves people who don’t wear lifejackets and freak out when someone says they wear a lifevest all the time. Which brings us to the second post that eventually was deleted. The Safety Post that Was Deleted Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Subscribe Over at the Church of the Double Bladed Paddle, a kayaker affected by the death of a local kayaker wrote that he would be enforcing a rule that if you wanted to paddle with him, you’d have to wear a lifevest. That’s sensible advice. There is nothing controversial about it. And, it is something I insist on as well. His post was deleted, because it was considered too controversial. Before the post was deleted, one commenter said that it was “safety-shaming” to post about lifejackets. Safety isn’t something that someone should be ashamed about nor is it controversial. Using safe and proven safety practices saves lives. And wearing a lifevest is a safe and proven practice. Here are the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention’s article, “Unintentional Drowning: Get the Facts.” Failure to Wear Life Jackets: In 2010, the U.S. Coast Guard received reports for 4,604 boating incidents; 3,153 boaters were reported injured, and 672 died. Most (72%) boating deaths that occurred during 2010 were caused by drowning, with 88% of victims not wearing life jackets. Here are a few samples of comments that were posted. Names obscured. In many of the anti-lifejacket comments, it was easy to see a sort of Dunning-Kruger effect. As explained in my article, 22 Ways to Improve Your Kayaking Skills Forever, Dunning-Kruger is: Many kayakers never take a kayaking course, because everything seems so easy. The main problem is that you’re setting yourself up to experience the Dunning-Kruger effect. Just read the four points below about the D-K, and I shouldn’t need to say more. 1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill. 2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others. 3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy. 4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill. In the thread, many didn’t recognize the danger that they were putting themselves in by not wearing one. For example, the poster who said that she paddles Class 2 rivers without a vest is putting herself into a situation with current and rocks. During a capsize, she could easily get hurt in a Class 2 rapid and not be able to stay afloat without the help of a vest. And there are other scenarios on a river that could happen and you wouldn’t want to be without a vest. Luckily for paddlers, the probabilities are low enough that it doesn’t happen often — even though the consequences are high, i.e. death. What Happens When Admins Delete Posts About Safety The response from the two different groups is significant. In one group, other than my smartass remark, the safety post was taken seriously and discussed seriously. In the other group, many people objected about someone who wanted people to wear lifejackets because someone died, and it was eventually deleted. Ideally, the admins in the second group would have address the situation differently. Instead of deleting a post about lifejacket safety, the admins could have turned the situation around and put an end to those actions that were making the post into a controversy that wasn’t controversial. They could make a rule that users need to be respectful. If they don’t agree with a post on lifejacket safety, then they should refrain from commenting on it. Here are the group’s rules: The problem with groups deleting safety posts is that it becomes a de facto endorsement of the other side’s opinion. And, in kayaking or any other watersport, safety is of the utmost importance because kayaking takes place in an environment that once entered could kill you. Having rules that mute the talk of safety could increase the likelihood of accidents and hinder the transfer of important knowledge, especially for those participants new to the sport or those suffering from Dunning-Kruger. It also encourages one side to show further disrespect of the other across the entire paddling community. That isn’t healthy. If there’s a problem, it isn’t because of the topic; it’s because of the participants. The rules should reflect that by banning disrespectful behavior and encouraging good conversations. I enjoy the Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle. I hope that they revise their rules to encourage respect, instead of disencouraging conversations about lifejackets. In the meantime, if I want to engage in a respectful conversation about safety, I’m heading over to Inland Seas, Kayaking the Great Lakes. ————— Note: After I posted this article, Cat Severson, one on the group’s two admins, and I had a phone conversation. She said, that deleting posts is not meant as a judgement; it’s only meant to keep the group in a peaceful state. With nearly 15,000 members, it’s difficult to moderate threads that get out-of-hand. Deleting a safety thread shouldn’t be taken as any sort of judgement or reflect her position. It’s just about keeping the peace.