Canoe Polo Safety

Equipment

Nelson Kayak Club hold an annual working bee before the start of the winter league to ensure all Canoe Polo Gear meets safety requirements. Checks are also performed as required.

If you are using your own equipment you are responsible for ensuring that your gear also meets the requirements. See Canoe Polo Equipment Checks for details.

Life Guards

Canoe polo is played at a pool venue and operates under the OSH standards of the hosting pool. It is a requirement that a life-guard from the hosting pool is present to ensure the OSH standards of the pool are followed by all canoe polo players and observe on water activities.

To support the pool guidelines:

• No seal launches – as this can damage tiles
• Brief participants about monitoring one another, that their gear does not interfere with access around the pool. Watch out for boats and paddles causing damage to people or the pool.
• Check that new participants can fir a spray deck correctly and do a wet exit or have them complete this drill assisted by a mentor.
• Report any incidents to the safety officer.

If you are new player you are responsible to let the organiser on the night know this. New players are briefed on all safety aspects of the game when registering for the first time. The organizer will ensure that new players are capable of exiting an upturned boat unassisted and know the correct fitting of a spray skirt and how to release it.

We use the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Polo rules.

There is also the ICF online rules tutorial.

All players are responsible for being familiar with the current and full rules, details available here.

The rules are monitored by experienced canoe polo players familiar with the rules acting as referees; these are volunteers coordinated by the Canoe Polo Officer on behalf of Nelson Kayak Club and take no responsibility for any loss or injury received by any players.
On occasion games between experienced players will not have a referee and will instead be called by other players on the water. There is however a separate pool life-guard on duty who is not in the pool.