I am not one to usually start a thread but with the last few months of injuries and fatalities, i have been thinking a lot why I do what we do, I work in safety in the mines and if I was to say lets do a risk assessment on strapping a parachute on attaching a piece of wood to my feet and heading out into head height waves, surfing down a wave over concealed reefs which could cut me to pieces, attempting to do a back flip with a board with a mast and sail attached to it, not to mention dangerous conditions, rips currents and a shared ocean, I would get thrown off site. I challenge anyone of you that when you were standing at that ocean edge at least once you would have thought what am i swimming with.
Yet their we go, we weigh these risks up in our head we do the math and we balance these risks against what we love to do.
I worry and mourn the injury and loss of everyone of my fellow brother and sister water lovers, and I salute your memory,
If i had a choice to die doing something I really loved or play it safe all my life and die an old man without the joy my sport gives me and the friendships i have made, the latter would seem the poorer life. I believe that the after incidents analysis we do gives all of us a chance to make what we do safer.
But please if I was to die smacked on a reef, speared with a mast through my heart or launched into a tree, start a separate thread to Anallise what happened and not put it on the one offering condolences or get wells.
It would be nice for my family to hear he was a good pig, the pig lead a great life or get well pig and my family and others might understand why most of us this weekend will be standing on that foreshore with that dopey smile on our face weighing the risks and walking in.
Nice pig doc! 
Most of what we do comes with a risk factor, and if we continue to do it then it means we accept the risk.
However, every time someone comes unstuck, then the circumstances are examined to see if the factor which caused the circumstance can be eliminated or at least minimised.
So in cars, we have seat belts, crash helmets, air bags, and literally billions spent on examining every aspect of everything to make whatever we do safer.
When we reach the point where we can honestly say that we have done everything to make the activity as safe as possible, then we have to accept the remaining risk as being just part of the equation when we decide whether we do it or not.
This is the long established procedure, but in recent events, it is not being followed.
The present problem we have is that people are being killed and there is an obvious and cheap remedy, but this remedy is not being implemented.
Instead, we are being shackled by some lame argument that the most obvious remedy will wreck the planet.
No proof has been given that it will do any damage to the planet or its conservation.
All we are given is catch phrases about 'apex predator' etc, as if this should be regarded as the trump card to prevent any futher action in the matter against so much as one of a particular species.
If it was known to be the last one on the planet, then fine, but it is clearly not.
Try to apply the 'Heirarchy of control' to most watersports, it comes down to the lowest form of control imo;
Elimination - means honestly - ya gotta quit (not going to happen sorry!)
Substitution - you can let someone else take your place - or substitute head-high waves over razor edge reef for beachies - won't last long!
Isolation - ummm, put the danger somewhere else?
Engineering - I guess ensuring your gear is up to a standard safe level.
Administration - pfft! paper & water don't mix.
PPC/E - Helmet/impact vest, the only real option - although at the expense of losing some feeling of freedom.
At the end of the day life is ours to enjoy - not a competition to see who lasts longest, (though also not a race to see who finishes first!)
Select to expand quotepueter66 said..
But please if I was to ...
A "what if" happened to me 6 years and 8 weeks ago... I'm sure y'all know what, God knows I bitch about it enough. Anyway, I'll say again, doesn't matter what you do when sh!t comes knocking on your door it's going to get messy.
The 37yo lady in the hospital room down from me was a ~vegetable who had to be winched up everyday to be cleaned, and got there after having an aneurism while watching cricket.
The guy in the room up from me fell from a 4th floor balcony (while drunk), was in a coma and woke up with a different personality... family said for the better.
I do what I do bcos I like to get high 
Why do we do it???
The thrill to fight what nature throws at us, and because we can.
Those who can not.... Teach.
To encapsulate piggy's sentiment I put forward these quotes:-
"Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar." Don Bamford
???The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.??? Dale Carnegie
???Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.??? Mark Twain
There plenty more of the sentiment here:-
www.bluemooners.com/sailingquotes.htm
