From debating what equipment to carry to analyzing neuroscience research, we’ve looked at the topic of river safety and rescue from many angles in our 17 years of publishing Rapid. These are our top five most-read whitewater safety articles:
Risk Formula
Readers love debating the simple way risk is calculated in this article: Risk = Probability x Consequence. Written by the co-author of Managing Risk: Systems Planning for Outdoor Adventure Programs, “The Risk Formula” suggests that this formula illustrates why whitewater carries more risk than almost any other sport.
The Mechanics of Personal Floatation
How can you tell if your PFD is losing floatation, and how do you know when to replace it? Brace yourself for some science—this article by former Rapid editor Michael Mechan explains how your PFD actually works.
The Tool Rule
Recently published in our 2015 Paddling Buyer’s Guide, this article looks at one of our long-standing river safety rules—if you carry a rope, carry a knife—with fresh eyes. Do we need river rescue training to make use of these tools, or should they be basics in every boater’s kit?
Confusion Has Its Cost
How do we make sense of difficult situations and how do we deal with crisis? The opposite of confusion is sensemaking, “the process by which people give meaning to experience.”
Human Factors
Drawing on neuroscience research about decision-making, longtime Rapid columnist Jeff Jackson discusses the subjective elements beyond the hazards of a rapid that can cloud our abilities to make decisions. For example, the “Expert Halo” phenomenon, in which having skilled people around mistakenly lowers everybody’s perceived risk.
Main image taken by flickr user North Carolina National Guard and licensed though Creative Commons.
