How you can support SUP safety

Did you know there is a way you can support Paddle UK to improve safety research for the SUP community and our wider paddlesports family? How can you share information to help keep SUP boarding a safer activity and help establish an accurate picture of safety nationwide?  

When SUP initially began to grow, it primarily grew commercially, meaning little focus on how incidents and near misses are recorded. Commercial SUP schools, providers, and delivery centres often have internal record keeping, but a central reporting system is something few know about and greatly benefits the wider community. Paddle UK has long had a robust and structured way of logging incidents and near misses, and this incident reporting system is a great resource that all paddlers can and should use.  

Firstly, it’s really important to let you know that anyone can use the online incident report form. You don’t need to be a Paddle UK member, club, instructor, or school. If you’re a recreational paddler who has witnessed an incident or near miss or assisted in helping someone in a difficult situation, we’d like to hear from you. 

It’s also important to note that you can report not just paddling incidents but also access-related incidents, pollution, and wildlife run-ins.

So, how can you get involved? 
Social media and informal groups have often been places for the SUP community to discuss near misses or post about helping someone out of a tricky situation. The information in these posts helps provide us with a complete picture of what is happening, but they often go unreported or stay confined to social media or informal conversations. Paddle UK uses data to drive the direction of their research, so reporting these incidents plays a big part in future research.  

This is where you can help by reporting and sharing the link so that the wider sup community knows about this amazing resource at your disposal. It also helps to collect all the data in one place to ensure trends are spotted, and anything arising can be dealt with swiftly. So if you’re out on the water and happen to be a good samaritan and help somebody who can’t get back on their board, it might be worth logging it as a near miss to help tell the full story of what is happening on our waterways.

Where to find it?
You can access the incident reporting form online at Online Incident Reporting | Paddle UK. It’s super easy to fill out and very user-friendly.

Paddle UK also offers support to those who have been involved in an incident or witnessed one, and this is completely free and, again, is such a wonderful resource that we can now access as a community.