Safety and risk mitigation is a primary concern of ARResources and its Organizer Members. As such, ARResources has developed and is promoting the Participant Responsibility Model to increase safety and mitigate risks in adventure races, training clinics and associated activities.

The Participant Responsibility Model is based on the following two guiding principles:

• 1. The only way to guarantee the safety of an adventure race is to cancel the race.
• 2.
The adventure race participant, not the race organizer, accepts and carries the burden of responsibility for his or her own safety in an adventure race.

Adventure racing involves inherent risks that race participants accept as a part of participating in an adventure racing event. Adventure racing is also filled with variability as a desired aspect of the sport: every race is different, held in different locales with changing courses and sport disciplines. This variability makes detailed guidelines and regulation (sometimes found in other sports) impractical to apply to adventure racing. Due to the variability and inherent risks involved in the sport, ARResources has concluded that risk mitigation and safety is most effectively applied at the “frontlines” by the race participants themselves.

ARResources strongly encourages and supports the efforts of race participants to receive training in and continuously improve the skills important to safety in an adventure race. These skills include, but are not limited to, First Aid and First Responder medical training, water and watercraft safety, navigation, survival training, and gear maintenance. Participants are encouraged to follow some of the links below for more information on improving their own safety training and skills.

The Participant Responsibility Model does not mean that ARResources discourages race organizers from being involved in safety and risk mitigation at their events. ARResources is devoted to providing its members with educational material and recommendations for safety and risk mitigation. A minimum set of Event Safety Guidelines for ARResources Sanctioned Events has been determined to be appropriate for the majority of the various types and lengths of adventure races.

A third guiding principle encourages race organizers to be involved in the continuous improvement of their events:

• 3. Adventure race organizers should strive to maximize the enjoyment and satisfaction of participating in the adventure race experience.

It is a race organizers role to determine the appropriate safety and risk mitigation practices to apply based on the unique constraints of their event. Adventure race participants are encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions to race organizers on what safety and risk mitigation procedures and assets they would like to see at an event to increase their participant enjoyment and satisfaction.

Educational programs offered by ARResources:

Peer Race Review - new promoters can have their race plans critiqued by other ARResources Organizer Members.

Additional Links for Safety and information and training:

• First Aid and First Responder Training:
  • Wilderness Medical Associates www.wildmed.org
  • Wilderness Medical Institute http://www.nols.edu/wmi/
  • SOLO http://www.soloschools.com/
• Water and Watercraft Safety:
  • American Canoe Association www.aca-paddling.org
  • Rescue3 www.rescue3.com
  
  
  ATTENTION: ARResources wants to grow this safety resource list! Contact director@arresources.com to submit suggestions and contact information for additional safety training organizations and resources to add to this list.