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You may also want to review the Trip Rating System.
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Participant Responsibilities:
- Be familiar with and abide by the OOPS Activity
Policies.
- Be responsible for your own safety: Trip leaders
are volunteers, not professional guides. Trip leaders
are not necessarily experienced paddlers.&
- Be safe. Prioritize other‘s safety and
comfort over your own fun.
- Maintain an awareness of the location and condition of
the entire group at all times when on the water. All
participants should stay with the group unless given specific
permission otherwise by the leader. This means keeping
close enough to a leader, co-leader, or assistant leader to
communicate with visible or audible signals.
- Be prepared: Review the rating carefully.
Arrive on time. Know the route. Be prepared for
conditions to be more or less than expected. Be prepared for
immersion. Be prepared to take care of
yourself. Remember – even the most experienced
paddlers can have something go wrong.
- Be honest in evaluating your ability for the
trip. Do not get in over your head, doing so will
jeopardize your own safety and the safety of the group.
- Do NOT do anything that you are not comfortable
doing. Other paddlers cannot know the limits of your
comfort zone. Communicate those limits.
- Be respectful to your fellow paddlers and the
environment. Littering, arguing, bickering, or
simply being rude are not good ways to be welcomed along on
the next trip.
- At a minimum, carry along a personal first aid kit, a
warm dry change of clothing, pump or bailer, and food and
water for the day. For night paddles, carry a
flashlight. On level 3 and above trips, carry a tow system.
- Wear a securely fastened PFD at all times on the water.
- Have a whistle or air horn readily available.
- Equip your boat with positive flotation (Bulkheads, air
bags, or sea sock)
- Fill out a trip report, incident report, or witness
statement as requested by the trip leader. Or simply fill one
out because its good practice!
- Non-members are welcome on many activities and are
subject to the same policies and rules as OOPS members.
- No Alcohol consumption before or during on-water
activities. Illegal drugs are illegal, and will not be
tolerated.
- Trip size is usually limited. The leader will designate a
sign-up deadline. OOPS members receive priority, with
non-members placed on a space available waiting list.
- Trip Leaders have the option to turn away ill-prepared or
ill-equipped individuals.
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- Be familiar with and abide by the OOPS Activity
Policies.
- Fill out the Trip Planning Worksheet and the announcement
paperwork for approval by the Trip Coordinator.
-
Rate the trip as accurately
as possible, and screen participants as the roster is
filled in.
- Send out directions to the put-in and a list of
participants to facilitate carpooling.
- Inform participants of the expected conditions, and
update them with changes as the forecast comes in.
- At the put-in, make sure each and every leader and
participant has signed a current OOPS Trip Liability
Release and understands what they are signing.
- Rate the trip at the put-in based on the actual
conditions. If actual conditions are one level above the
rating, draft an assistant leader if necessary to adhere to
the leader/participant ratio in the Activity Policies. If
actual conditions are more than one level above the rating,
carefully assess the groups comfort level and consider
canceling the trip or changing the venue.
- Fill out a COMPLETE trip report. Wording such as
‘Nice Trip’ is not adequate for the narrative.
List the participants and leaders instead of referencing the
roster. Include the actual conditions encountered. Summarize
the route, note any routine rescues and detail any violations
of the Activity Policies. The more information a trip report
contains, the more valuable it is. Note that this is a
requirement for the Training Assistance Program. For trips
with multiple leaders, there should be multiple trip reports
on file.
- Request participant trip reports for routine rescues,
issues of participants not following the activity policies,
interaction with law enforcement officers, safety issues that
do not result in an injury, or any other reason the trip
leader feels is justified.
- The Trip Leader is responsible for informing participants
of the expected conditions, and for updating the participants
with actual forecasts prior to departure.
- Choice of specific clothing is the participants
responsibility. If there are questions about what to wear for
a specific trip, the trip leader may be a good resource. The
litmus test for correct immersion protection is to be
comfortable swimming for the amount of time a routine rescue
takes – 3 to 4 minutes.
- The trip leader is responsible for turning away
participants who arrive at the put-in unprepared. This
situation should never occur if everyone follows the Activity
Policy.
- For a specific trip, a trip leader may write into the
trip plan and announcement a minimum standard of immersion
protection – example: “Dry suit Required.”
In this situation, the participant is responsible for being
aware of the requirement – read the announcement
carefully. Ask for clarifications.
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