Surviving a career in adventure activities

1 - Personal safety

To survive working in the outdoors you need to have a good attitude towards your personal safety. Many instructors are originally attracted to the freedom, excitement and unconventionality of adventure sports; this doesn’t mean you can ignore the rules and systems designed for your own safety.

You are not invincible. Most accidents occur in simple circumstances.

Avoid complacency, overconfidence and over ambition. All of them increase the risks to you and those around you. A good practitioner will carry out a dynamic risk assessment every time they visit a crag or paddle a river, regardless of how many times they’ve been there before. If you make incorrect assumptions based on overfamiliarity, you might not spot that loose block or fallen tree until it’s too late. Peer pressure, whether it’s real or perceived, can lead to a similar outcome.

Repetitive tasks and distractions can also increase the risks to your personal safety. Flexible working patterns and a professional approach can help to reduce the risks. A good attitude to safety is vital.

Lone working. Working in the outdoors may involve being alone and away from immediate help. Assessing DofE or putting out orienteering controls are just two examples of this. Make sure that you have thought about this beforehand and follow your employer’s guidance.

Working whilst pregnant. Employers should have a policy based on a risk benefit assessment covering expectant mothers at work and you should have regular conversations with your employer during your pregnancy.

2 - Judgement and decision making

As someone who works in adventurous activities outdoors you will recognise that the environments in which you operate - cliffs, rocky mountains, white water rivers, the sea, etc. - are hazardous.

Through the application of skill and good judgment, your role is to reduce the risks to a tolerable level for you and your participants.

Instructors are often very aware of the primary hazards that they have identified in a situation but you also need to be aware of secondary hazards.

• Are you safe on a ledge? Do you always concentrate and stay tied in?
• Are you safe in an eddy? Do you always concentrate and keep control of your boat?
• On winter ascents have you fully considered the avalanche danger as well as the technical difficulties of the route?

Good judgement and decision making skills are developed over time as you learn from your own experiences and those of others. A good instructor is always learning from this process of reflection and analysis so don’t be afraid to share your near miss experiences with others.

It is also important to think about your work in the context of safeguarding. Instructing outdoor activities sometimes necessitates helping participants with equipment that brings you into close contact. Administering first aid and fitting harnesses are just two examples of these. Your employer will have a safeguarding policy and this will normally outline expected protocols and behaviour of staff in this context.

Formal systems relating to personal disclosures by a young person (for example, of abuse) are aimed to protect both the young person and the worker.

3 - Injury avoidance

There are two distinct types of injuries to adventure activity workers: chronic and catastrophic. Chronic injuries develop over time and are often long lasting. Catastrophic injuries occur suddenly and can have serious, long term effects. Both can have a major impact on your ability to work.

Chronic injuries

Common chronic injuries include surfer’s ear, shoulder instability, cartilage and tendon issues in the knee joint, tendonitis in the wrist/elbow and back pain. Endless repetitions of poor movement patterns are often the root of the problem and can lead to significant soft tissue injuries in later life. It can be difficult to spot the cumulative effects and you may not recognise them until years later, when it may be too late.

Unfortunately, we are often our own worst enemies. After a day working on the lake with a group, many canoe coaches will be back in their boats that evening for a personally challenging run down one of the local rivers. Climbers, bikers and sailors all have similar recreational patterns which help with personal motivation and feelings of accomplishment.

The drawbacks of such an active lifestyle are that levels of fatigue can increase, potentially jeopardising your judgement and decision making ability, and minor injuries are unlikely to recover if the root cause is not addressed. Appropriate rehabilitation is really important for recovery and long term employment in the outdoors. Where soft tissue is concerned, scar tissue means that often, repair is never as good as the original and weaknesses accumulate.

Freelancers are at particular risk, as it is often hard to turn work down, and there is no long term employer monitoring your work pattern.

Most employers take their legal requirement to protect employees very seriously. They are your first source of information on specific local hazards such as radon gas accumulations in caves or water borne infection. Imaginative contracts offering varying work patterns may well be one of the best solutions to repetitive injury - why not take this up with your employer?

Catastrophic injuries

Within adventure activities catastrophic accidents appear to be most likely when operating at height, on water, or travelling at speed. As a practitioner and instructor, you will likely manage hazards well nearly all of the time. It only takes one mistake or error in judgement to increase the chances of something going seriously wrong because those hazards always exist.

In the last thirty years drownings have been the cause of several fatalities affecting both workers and participants. As a result, some excellent guidance aimed, in particular, at the difficult water/rock margin has been produced.

4 - Health and well-being

The benefits of the outdoors for health and well-being are becoming more and more widely understood.

Most instructors are very good at radiating positivity and enthusiasm to their clients, but behind this façade they can have the same issues and feelings of anxiety or depression as workers in any other field. Cumulative fatigue, or a sense of failing as the years advance, can all take their toll and once a condition is established it can start to affect your professional judgment and your personal life.

You will be exposed to a large number of individuals during your career, some of whom may have their own mental health issues. You may also be involved in or witness a serious accident or near miss either at work or during your spare time. It’s important to recognise when you might need some support to deal with any issues that are affecting you.

5 - Aggressive or challenging participants

In some areas of adventure education, workers may regularly be faced with behaviour from clients that is aggressive and challenging. At best this is disconcerting, at worst a terrifying experience as behaviour swings from aggressive posturing to the ‘worst case’ situation of being physically attacked. The most likely time for this to occur is outside formal activity time, particularly in residential situations. Remember also that aggressive behaviour is not confined to certain individuals, but can be manifested by almost anyone under the wrong circumstances.

Fights do occur and staff will usually feel obliged to intervene, possibly at some threat to their own well-being. Do not underestimate the potential danger of doing this. You need to operate cautiously and conservatively. The most important consideration is your own safety – just like rescuing someone from any other dangerous situation. Wherever possible, aim to defuse the situation and try to get training to prepare you for this. Don’t be a dead hero! Seriously aggressive encounters are beyond the skills of most outdoor instructors.

Organisations working with challenging individuals will normally have:

• Policies and procedures regarding child protection, discipline, reporting of incidents and violent behaviour.
• Methods and means of gaining important information about the young people they are working with, in order to ensure that appropriate staff are given responsibility and are aware of the young people’s needs.
• Access to specialist departments, staff or agencies that can advise and give support.
• Staff training that is proportionate, relevant and timely. Recognition of behaviour patterns, avoidance techniques and training in how to ‘defuse’ may be essential topics.
• Opportunities to review the above with staff from time to time.
• Risk assessments identifying the main hazards.

The support of visiting staff from the school or agency can be invaluable since they will often have relationships with individuals which have been built up over a longer period of time.

It is reasonable for staff to expect some emotional support to be available in challenging work of this kind and be able to discuss situations with an experienced colleague. In some situations personal and professional counselling may be necessary.

6 - Other health issues

People working in the outdoors should be aware of hypothermia, hyperthermia, frost bite, sunburn, dehydration and similar conditions. Less common but equally serious are the illnesses associated with ticks (Lyme disease) and rodents (Weil’s Disease). Awareness of these illnesses is of course equally important for participants.