The U.S. Coast Guard recently released the 2024 Recreational Boating Statistics, and while overall boating deaths are at a 50-year all-time low, paddlesports are seeing an alarming trend. Paddlesports continued to account for approximately one in every three boating fatalities in the United States last year. In particular, standup paddleboarding saw a 164 percent increase in fatalities, from 11 fatalities in 2023 to 29 fatalities in 2024.
Coast Guard reports increase in paddleboarding fatalities
Paddlesports overall saw 165 fatalities in 2024, down from 183 fatalities in 2023. Drowning accounted for three-quarters of all 556 recreational boating fatalities last year, and of those victims, 87 percent were not wearing life jackets. Alcohol use was the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating accidents.
Overall, the type of body of water where the most recreational boating fatalities occurred was on lakes, including ponds, reservoirs, dams and gravel pits. The greatest percentage of reported incidents (2,398 incidents and 282 fatalities) occurred when the water was calm. Calm water for the purposes of this study was defined as less than six-inch waves. Similarly, most incidents and fatalities occurred when wind was light and visibility was good.
While standup paddleboarding saw a 164 percent increase in fatalities from 2023 to 2024, kayaking saw more individual fatalities than standup paddleboarding, with 89 fatalities (down from 95 in 2023). In general, paddlesports fatalities remained high, accounting for 30 percent of known vessel type fatalities, although down from 33 percent in 2023.
Overall, participation in paddleboarding continues to be on the rise, with standup paddleboarding participation increasing at a rate of 26 percent over the past three years, according to a report by the American Canoe Association.
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It would be interesting to know the percentage of SUP fatalities who were a) not wearing a PFD and b) not tethered to their board.
If there were youth fatalities and I hope not, were they supervised while on the water.
Common sense safety is often lacking,
What does the increase in SUP fatalities tell us? That SUPs have become more dangerous? That an increasing number of SUP users lack necessary skills? Without knowing how much SUP use has grown, it’s impossible to know what the fatality figures mean. I’m not a SUP user, but it seems to me that SUP use has grown enormously, and it’s to be expected that fatalities would do the same. What we need to know is what has happened to fatalities per participant hours, and the numbers published here are useless for that purpose.
In the previous comment, it was suggested that not being tethered to the paddleboard was a safety risk. In fact, I know of 2 fataities where the board got stuck on a stump or sucked down in shallow, but moving water, In both cases, the paddle boarder was unable to release the tether and they got dragged under and unable to keep their heads above water.