Play encourages physical and social activity creativity, and risk-taking. However, unstructured and risky play is on the decline. Our qualitative study explored the perspectives of Play Ambassadors, who facilitated a community-based loose parts play intervention ('play hubs') in Calgary parks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using semi-structured…

Rock-climbing has become very popular adventure sport across the globe. Researchers have begun to investigate how adventure sport athletes perform in a manner that reduces the likelihood of serious mishap, injury or even death. In this paper, we utilize a collaborative autoethnographic approach to explicate a serious traditional rock-climbing…

Rural mothers play important roles in shaping their children's play-related injury experiences. It is thus problematic that their perspectives on their outdoor play-related safety strategies are often considered peripheral to the perspectives of urban and suburban mothers in play research. To center their perspectives on this topic, we examined…

Avalanche studies have undergone a transition in recent years. Early research focused mainly on environmental factors. More recently, attention has turned to human factors in decision making, such as behavioural and cognitive biases. This article adds a "social" component to this human turn in avalanche studies. It identifies lessons for…

In this article, I explore a Bayesian approach to avalanche decision-making. I motivate this perspective by highlighting a version of the base-rate fallacy and show that a similar pattern applies to decision-making in avalanche-terrain. I then draw out three theoretical lessons from adopting a Bayesian approach and discuss these lessons…

Ever-changing weather and sea conditions constitute environmental hazards that sea kayakers must pay attention to and act upon to stay safe. The aim of this study was to propose a tool to aid sea kayakers' situation awareness (SA). We developed a checklist guided by theory on the concept of SA and expert problem detection, judgement and…

This study explored the response of 28, second year undergraduate students to an innovative approach to a five-day solo. Periods of solitude are more likely to lead to positive outcomes when they are freely chosen than when they are programmed as part of a course. The extent to which a programmed solo can be "freely chosen" by the…

Many outdoor organizations integrate whitewater rafting into their programmes. Often this is accomplished by contracting with a whitewater outfitter. This paper analyses rafting accident data collected by the American Canoe Association in an effort to suggest ways in which programmes can better manage risk while contracting with outfitters for…

Leaders working in the outdoor adventure field are faced with making critical decisions that keep students, clients, or customers safe from the perils of risk-related activities while enabling them to benefit from these experiences. The knowledge and competency necessary to analyze and manage risk is integral to those providing outdoor adventure…