The most dangerous part of any "dangerous sport", whether sailing,
scuba-diving, climbing etc, is driving in your car to get there....

major_rant

At the risk of being 'kill filed' by many .........

I have to take issue with this, it's the dumbest, most ill informed
stupid statement anyone could use in connection with any even partially
'extreme' sport.

In my nearly 50 years I am thankful that I can count the number of
friends, colleagues, relatives and aquaintances killed in motor
accidents on the fingers of my hands. Sure a few have spent periods
recuperating from severe injury and I dodged the bullet once or twice
in my youth including having driven into a moving train at high speed.
I walked away! The same cannot be said of the sports I have
participated in, I have, on average known at least one person for each
of my nearly 50 years that has been killed whilst participating in a
'hobby'.

Gliding, Power flying, Sailing and a few other assorted sports I dont
participate in have all claimed an uncomfortable number from those I
have known. Their skill levels at their chosen pastime ranged from
novice to vastly experienced, like the pilot with over 20000 hours of
gliding time. These people 'participated' for only a couple of hours on
the weekends whilst they spent many, many times that in their cars. In
my 1000 plus hours of gliding I have had at least 3 'close calls' with
the grim reaper and I have been present and witnessesed several
untimely deaths. I spend about 500 hours a year in my car and I can
honestly say ( touch wood ) that in spite of having an extremely heavy
foot I have not had a serious scare in the past 10 years and possibly
200 000 miles of motoring.

The risks of participation in any extreme sport are not insignificant
and anyone who quotes the above statement to someone new to such a
sport could well be exposing themselves to future litigation. At the
very least they are doing their sport a disservice.

Each of us has a moving threshold for 'adventurism', adrenaline, risk
or whatever you call it. Your risk tolerance is probably at its maximum
when at 18 you aquire your first car, its at the opposite end of the
scale when you have just watched your first born take his or her first
breaths. Everyone must balance their own current risk profile and it is
unfair to fob anyone off with this lame statement.

Dont ever try to fool anyone that your pastime is safer than driving.
Be honest about the risks but explain how you balance the risks through
a degree of legislation ( like the colregs ), education, practice,
process and how the really intelligent few welcome and even invite
constructive criticism.

When someone questions your participation in the face of the risks you
have outlined you simply explain, to paraphrase, 'you don't do it to
escape life, you do it to make sure life doesn't escape you.'

\major_rant

Ian