It’s because it’s so accessible, you just buy one from Costco for £100 and off you go, no training or anything like that. Kayaks etc are expensive you you probably have a taster session before buying one and an instructor hammers safety into your head.
Pretty much what @daws1159 said - also people generally assume being attached to a big floaty thing will be all the buoyancy they need. Until they aren’t attached to it…or it’s no longer very floaty…
Really interesting video that.
Im not a watersports player, i like hiking as my AT. But that was facinating. 
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…buoyancy aid, im guessing?
Correct
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So to sum up:
Wrong equipment
Wrong conditions
Wrong people (leaders and participants)
Wrong admin
Wrong location
I’ve read the whole report and I cannot envisage a scenario where this would happen in the organisation. Just the hoops we jump through pre-activity alone would have cut out 99% of the issues in this awful incident.
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One of the coaches on my PI course openly told us there was no need to wear a BA on a SUP, “you’re attached to a much more buoyant thing anyway, why would you bother”.
That for me showed which of the two instructors I would rate higher.
Terrifying
In very sheltered water, or sheltered water in benign conditions - I’d probably agree with them. But it’s never a black and white decision; dependent on the environment, conditions and what I’m intending to do there. Also purely a personal choice for personal paddling - when working with groups (or delivering courses) a PFD is the right answer.
I never considered that stand up boarders would attempt white water or weirs it’s many years since I went down rivers in kayaks but I certainly would not have attempted that weir.
The swiss cheese lined up there to lead to such a grave result.
Good to see that the hoops are beneficial
On occasion they are. For example, in this situation:
The route would have been pre-approved, including the weir (or at least explicitly mentioned, noted and recognised as a hazard).
The qualifications of the leaders would have meant the trip didn’t go ahead.
Participants would have had emergency contact details.
I paddle on the tidal thames. BA always even on beautiful summer days. The river is dangerous and very busy. Will be reading that report in depth
White Water Sup is a growing sport, the SUPs are very different for a start, much wider and shorter than a GP or touring SUP.
A friend of mine did the Dart Loop on a SUP just a few weeks ago.
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I think this is really the value in this report - certainly in our organisation - in that it shows the hoops we have to jump through are, in principle, beneficial. Yes, in some areas of the organisation people take it a bit too far (SW Region admin order sounding like one such example) but the standard tasks of documenting your plan, writing a (site specific) risk assessment, planning a route etc and getting it peer reviewed by an SME are important to prevent issues such as this incident. They won’t always prevent the issues of course… it all ultimately depends on the instructor on the ground… but they will significantly reduce the likelihood of an incident.
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