Risk and safety in Nature and Adventure Sports: risks perceived by rafting guides

Resumo

The aim of this study is to identify the risk factors that are perceived by guides in the rafting activity.

We have applied a questionnaire to 39 rafting guides from Iberia and Latin America, with a mean age and standard deviation respectively of 37.49 ± 12.16. The participants were asked about their mental representation of the risk they experience in the Rafting modality.

Data analysis and processing was performed using N-Vivo 10 software. To organize and subsequently analyse the risks identified by the guides, a "tree" was created based on two pillars: human factors and environmental factors. The human factors were subdivided into physiological; operational; emotional and psychological; cognitive; group behavior; and means of rescue. The environmental factors were subdivided into the geomorphological and meteorological dimensions, fauna and flora.

The guides with 76.3% of the propositions and environmental factors with 23.7% of the propositions identified human factors. The most perceived risk factor was the human factor, with greater expression in the dimension "operational", concluding that the greater perception of risk is in factors controlled by man.