| Abstrakt: |
Safety is one of the main aspects related to physical activities conducted on or in the immediate vicinity of water. Many people drown every year in Poland. The use of a kayak has numerous legal aspects. In the light of Polish regulations, a kayak is a ship. Vessels used on inland waterways must comply with the technical requirements and requirements for life-saving equipment set out in specific regulations. One of them is the obligation to equip the ship with life jackets in the number corresponding to the number of passengers on the ship. With the proviso that to meet the requirement it is enough to equip the ship with life jackets, and not to use them, understood as putting a life jacket on a person staying on the ship. The study was aimed at determining the attitudes and behaviors of Polish kayakers in the field of kayak use, especially regarding safety and comfort, with particular emphasis on the life jacket as a popular means of increasing safety on the water. The study was conducted in the form of an original questionnaire placed in groups of kayakers on a popular social networking site. In total, all kayaking groups in which the survey was placed count nearly 15,000 participants. The survey was anonymous and voluntary, it did not collect data about respondents. The study involved 257 people, including 172 men (67%) and 85 women (33%). The participants of the study assess their kayaking skills as: intermediate 43.6%, advanced 38.9%, beginner 9.7%, expert 7.4%, one person declared the level of "instructor". 42% of respondents declare that they kayak several dozen days a year, 37.4% - several days a year, 15.6% - one to several days a year, 4.3% - several times a week, some people gave different answers. Most respondents (72.8%) have their own life jackets. 27.2% of respondents do not have such vests, which suggests that they rent them together with kayaks. Conclusions: There is lack of coherent and clear laws regulating the safety obligations of persons using kayaks as amateurs in Poland. Among the surveyed intermediate and advanced kayakers there is high level of awareness regarding the safety of using a kayak and measures to increase safety. Among interviewed kayakers there is significant popularity of life jackets in the absence of a legal regulation considering them as basic and sufficient safety measure when kayaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
