The Water Sports Foundation (WSF) welcomes outdoor writer and editor Jeff Moag as its new Content Director, with responsibility for managing the non-profit’s media campaigns promoting safe boating and paddling. Moag will also oversee development of a new website and expanded social-media presence for the leading boating-safety foundation established in 2004.
Moag was editor-in-chief of Canoe & Kayak magazine for eight years, and led the team that founded Kayak Fish magazine, SUP the Mag and the Canoe and Kayak Awards. Moag also has worked as a freelance writer and producer for clients including Adventure Journal, Outside, Men’s Journal, The Washington Post, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is a lifelong waterman with experience in power boats and sailing in addition to whitewater kayaking, canoeing and sea kayaking. He’s trained in swift water rescue.
Since 2018, Moag has directed the WSF’s U.S. Coast Guard non-profit boating safety grant titled Lessons for Life: Accidents as Learning Experiences, a campaign that uses video and written narratives of true-life boating accidents and near escapes to deliver safe boating messages. Moag looks forward to an expanded role at the WSF, using his storytelling chops to animate the non-profit’s broad-ranging campaigns to increase life jacket wear, reduce impaired boating, and reach recreational boaters and paddlers through enthusiast media such as boating and paddling magazines and radio outreach to Spanish-speaking Americans.
“The Water Sports Foundation has been a leading voice for boating and paddling safety for nearly a decade,” Moag said. “I’ve been privileged to assist in this important work, first as an editor at Canoe & Kayak, and later as producer of our Lessons for Life program. I’ve seen the positive impact of these campaigns first-hand, and I’m thrilled to take a larger role as the WSF continues to expand its innovative safety content and build its online and social media presence.”
“Jeff Moag’s experience and energy will contribute substantially to the WSF’s boating-safety mission,” said WSF Executive Director, Jim Emmons. “Jeff is an award-winning journalist who brings a deep understanding of boating safety and enthusiast media to our team, plus he already has experience working with the Water Sports Foundation.”
Moag’s responsibilities as Content Director include overseeing the design and launch of a new Water Sports Foundation website and growing the non-profit’s audience on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Moag will also manage the WSF’s YouTube channel, which features nearly 200 boating and paddling safety videos.
Since 2011, the WSF has been a U.S. Coast Guard Boating Safety Outreach partner through its non-profit organization recreational boating safety grants program. The WSF currently manages seven boating safety outreach grant projects, including programs designed to, among others, increase life jacket wear rates; reduce the rate of impaired boating; increase awareness of boater education; and target boating-safety messages to powerboaters, paddlers and Spanish-speaking Americans. The WSF also enlists the boating and paddling industries to promote safe-boating messages to their customers. The WSF has been responsible for the production of nearly 200 safety video PSA’s and hundreds of safety articles, generating more than one billion impressions through its twenty-two media brand partners.
“This work saves lives,” Emmons said. “For a decade, our follow-up Attitude and Behavior Studies show that the WSF’s outreach campaigns are changing the public’s attitudes and behaviors about safety. The Coast Guard has reported a reduction in boating casualties for three consecutive years. Our job at the WSF is to do everything we can to extend that trend. Jeff shares that goal, and I’m confident his experience and safety knowledge will help us achieve it.”
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Headquartered in Orlando, FL, the Water Sports Foundation is the non-profit educational arm of the Water Sports Industry Association (WSIA.net). Since 2011 the WSF has received U.S. Coast Guard boating and paddling safety outreach funding through their non-profit grant program. The Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund administered through Congressional action provides funding for the U.S. Coast Guard’s recreational boating safety initiatives.
