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General Climbing Discussion

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Extreme sports and kids... 22-May-2015 At 10:33:38 AM martym

Message

On 21/05/2015 patto wrote:
>On 21/05/2015 martym wrote:
>>Seems that clubs have a duty of care to ensure safe conditions for kids
>>climbing.
>
>No surprises there. Clubs can have an extremely high duty of care towards
>kids and adults that join and participate in their activities.
>
>When a novice joins a club and is allowed to climb with a member, the
>club as well as the member have a significant duty of care to the novice.
> Should an incident occur, the potential liability for the club is significant.
> All it will take is a lawsuit from one angry relative to destroy a climbing
>club.

Sorry, it appears sarcasm didn't translate well. As it happens I was co-presenting a presentation on risk management for my university outdoor club two nights ago...
Perhaps I should have added italics?

While obviously clubs & their leaders have a duty of care - one of the issues faced is what is "common" sense?

We stress that people should never assume any prior knowledge - even if someone tells you they have it. Observation of their skills will tell you way more than what they tell you verbally.
With young kids you should be even more vigilant - never assuming they remember what you did last time.

I once watched an amazing 6 year old leading "Santa's little helper" at Thompson's point. While I was in absolute awe of her composure, I couldn't help wondering what the parents were going to do if she froze up, had a tantrum or just freaked and started soloing or dropped all hear gear? (She didn't) They didn't have a rope to jumar up, they didn't even have a friend to help belay one of them up. They'd have to solo.

Another thing people don't think about when young kids roar off up a top rope for 15 meters - is they then look down and refuse to lower! Surely most of us will have seen the parent yelling words of encouragement to the terrified 10 year old clinging to the wall for dear life?