What Happens If You Injure Yourself While Kayaking, Camping, or Other Extreme Sports

When you go kayaking, or camping, or any other outdoor activity for that matter, you are supposed to have a good time. One thing that can prevent this from happening is if you or someone else gets injured. Doing outdoor activities comes with a certain level of a risk, and injuries, unfortunately, occur all too often. When this happens, you need to know what to do. Below are some quick things to keep in mind should you ever encounter an injury, and they will hopefully help you out in your time of need.

The first thing you’ll want to do is call for assistance, especially if it is a serious injury. The sooner you call, the sooner help will arrive, so don’t put this off. Getting help out in the middle of nowhere can be difficult, so be sure you know how you will contact them before you go. Have a mobile phone ready and charged, or a handheld radio if you have one. You should also know who you are going to be contacting – the police, a local park ranger, the coast guard, etc – before you head out. Make sure each person on your trip has this information handy so that any one can make the call at any time.

If you can’t wait for help to arrive, or you have no way of reaching them, you’ll need to take care of things yourself. This is when some first aid knowledge will really come in handy. If you plan on doing these types of activities often, it is a good idea to take a first aid class so that you know what to do in case of an emergency. If you are unsure what to do, and the injury is not life threatening, wait for help to arrive instead of trying to do it yourself. Let someone who is more trained to handle this sort of thing take care of it, so that you don’t inadvertently make things worse.

Once you have the injury taken care of by a professional, you may want to think about if you need to contact a lawyer. If the injury is a result of some negligence by the people running your location, then a lawyer may be a good idea. They can make sure that you don’t end up paying for medical bills on an accident that was not your fault. There are many personal injury lawyers out there that are knowledgeable about this sort of thing, so you should have no trouble finding one.

The best thing you can do for an injury is to avoid getting it altogether. To do this, there are certain safety precautions that you should take before you go out. First, make sure you have some basic medical supplies handy. Second, do a thorough inspection of all equipment before you use it. If you spot any suspect equipment, don’t take the chance by using it anyway. Replace the equipment, or cancel the trip – your safety is more important.

Hopefully these few suggestions will help you out should you ever get into an accident while you are kayaking, camping, or doing some other extreme activity. If not handled properly, an accident or injury situation can be made much worse, so be sure you know what to do before you head out.