Boating Facts
Boating Facts
- January 2021 to April 2021 showed a 40% increase in boating fatalities from the same time last year.
- In 2019, the Coast Guard counted 4,168 accidents that involved 613 deaths, 2,559 injuries and approximately $55 million dollars of damage to property as a result of recreational boating accidents.
- Operator inattention, improper lookout, operator inexperience, excessive speed, and alcohol use rank as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents
- Where instruction was known, 70% of deaths occurred on boats where the operator did not receive boating safety instruction.
- Where boat length was known, eight out of every ten boaters who drowned were using vessels less than 21 feet in length.
- Where cause of death was known, 79% of fatal boating accident victims drowned. Of those drowning victims with reported life jacket usage, 86% were not wearing a life jacket.
Paddle Sports
- 22.9 Million Americans Participated in at least one paddle activity (7.6% of the population)
- Hispanic Participation has increased 3% since 2013 (773,000 New Hispanic Participations)
- Males make up 53% of Paddlesports Participants and females make up 47%.
- This gender gap is narrowing by 1% annually
- Females are now the majority participants in stand up paddleboarding
- 30% of paddlers indicate that they don’t own a lifejacket
- 15% of paddlers indicated they didn’t feel a Lifejacket was necessary
- If you extrapolate that percentage, that’s 3.4 million paddlers taking needless risk