Outdoor Ed is excited to welcome Dr. Paul Auerbach, world-renowned wilderness medicine expert, to the slate of contributers to Outdoor Ed. We will be periodically publishing articles from his Wilderness Medicine Blog on Healthline.

 Paul is the author or numerous books and articles on Wilderness Medicine including:

Here is his first installment.

Outdoor recreation is the fastest growing category of recreation in the U.S., and perhaps worldwide. In addition to hiking, trekking, backbacking, camping, fishing, hunting, skiing, swimming, boating, scuba diving, and all of the other outdoor recreational activities with which we are familiar can be added sports activities, some of which include competitions. So, when you consider surfing, windsurfing,mountain biking, rock climbing, adventure races, triathlons, marathons, and all of the assorted activities that are perpetrated outdoors, outdoor sports is a huge category.

Each activity has a set of rules for injury prevention. For instance, if you are a scuba diver, there are unique concerns for which you must be aware, such as how long you spend underwater and at what depth, rapidly you ascend from the depth, which marine animals to avoid, and so forth. There isn't enough space in this individual post to consider every activity, but there is certainly room for a list of generalities, which are the foundation upon which are built the specific considerations of injury prevention.

Here is a list of injury prevention recommendations for outdoor sports, whether they be recreational or competitive: Read more...