adventuremark

Reviewing incidents from other sectors and operators

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 02:34:12 GMT

How do we make internal reviews improve our Safety Plans?

Gareth Locke is world-renowned for his Human Factors in Diving, The Human Diver programme .

Gareth explores incidents with a goal of identifying improvements. One of the key issues Gareth has identified is also identified in the updated Safety Management System Requirements for Adventure Activities Operators: “Have we reviewed other, similar incidents known to have occurred outside of our own operation?”.

When asked about incidents that have occurred overseas or in a different sector, people will often say, "This doesn't apply to me because I am running a business the same way as that one". The academic community has long ago identified this as a known barrier to learning - distancing through differencing. I am different, therefore it doesn't apply to me. Try to suspend those thoughts, and consider the similarities rather than the differences. Themes like supervision structure, environmental conditions, time constraints, budget, all begin to show similarities across historical incidents and can help us direct resources to reduce the likelihood of repeating an incident that has already occurred. “These sorts of incidents happen” becomes, “Because of these trends, I see how they’re happening, and I can start to address the causes”.

For a good demonstration of reviewing incidents across different sectors, check out this article, Learning through Loss , from Mountain Training in the UK.

Reviewing and Testing Emergency Response Plans

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:28:07 GMT

Have you noticed more natural hazard emergencies in the news lately? Are your emergency response plans designed for major events, or just single incidents—like when a participant breaks a leg and the guide calls for an evacuation?

We’ve seen the impact of the Nelson-Tasman floods in 2022, and more recently, the disruption caused by Auckland Anniversary and Cyclone Gabrielle’s rain, wind, and flooding. Fires have also flared up in the Christchurch Port Hills, Castle Hill, Waikato, Coromandel, and Northland.

Dr Nicola Day from Victoria University in Wellington warns that, “modelling suggests that in the next decades, we will have a climate that's sort of similar to Australia, which is kind of alarming for us because we have not really had to think about fire a lot. We really need to be more prepared for wildfires in the future. If you think of Otago, it is full of those beautiful iconic tussock grasslands, and those catch fire really quickly and will help a fire travel really fast.”

While coastal flooding is New Zealand’s fastest-growing insurance risk, fires are likely next, says insurance and climate researcher Belinda Storey.

In January, my wife, two kids, and I were doing part of the Great Ocean Walk in Victoria, Australia. After a few rainy days of walking and camping, we took a break at Bimbi Park to dry out our tent and gear. At 3am, we were woken with news of an approaching bushfire—apparently sparked by an unattended campfire—and told to evacuate immediately. It became the Cape Otway Bushfire that made the news. We were directed on the best route to avoid the approaching fire and warned that fleeing kangaroos and other wildlife posed additional hazards.

Three days later, we returned to retrieve our gear. Chatting with the owners, they explained that they had been there for over twenty years and this was their first bushfire evacuation. However, they had identified the risk and planned, and reviewed and tested the plans, over the years. This approach meant that the first time they encountered this emergency situation, they responded with calm professionalism. I found out that the first iteration of their fire evacuation plan included the camp assistant manager going straight into Apollo Bay, the nearby town, to help set up the evacuation centre with the owners’ infant son. On the day of the fire, it was that now 20-year-old son who calmly woke us and guided us to safety.

Encourage your staff to imagine worst-case scenarios—collective brainstorming often reveals risks we might not consider alone. When reviewing emergency plans, think about how they can support guides, staff, and participants through serious Emergencies (with a capital “E”).

It's unlikely that you need a separate plan for every scenario. The key is to test your current plans against foreseeable situations to see if they hold up or need adjusting. For instance, you may be ready to evacuate someone with a medical emergency—but what if it happens late in the day, with a storm approaching faster than expected? Emergency services might not arrive until the next day at the earliest. Can your group shelter safely overnight, or do they need to move? Can they move? What if a flood or fire is approaching?

These are the kinds of questions that can help refine your Emergency Response Plans for those big emergencies.

End of Year 2024

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:47:05 GMT

Seasons Greetings from the AdventureMark Team

2024 has been an eventful year with the implementation of the updated Adventure Activities Regulations and SMS Requirements for Adventure Activity Operators. At AdventureMark, we’ve noticed that most operators have taken a positive approach to understanding the changes and updating their safety plans accordingly. This has meant that audit activity is fairly straightforward, as our reviews have been able to focus on looking at how operators have implemented these changes.

Unfortunately, a few operators had not updated their SMSs to align with the changes and this led to more protracted surveillance reviews as they tried to understand the changes during the surveillance, instead of simply providing evidence of their amendments and ongoing conformity.

I’m pleased to report that these operations were in the minority and, based on the recent surveillance period, it appears that New Zealand’s Adventure Activities sector is well-trained and well-prepared to continue to provide the high-quality experiences expected by clients.

The compliance aspect of work is seldom fun, but it does provide assurance that systems are working as intended and set us up for success when used properly. The AdventureMark team would like to thank our operators for their diligence and professionalism, and we wish you all the best for the summer season.

Please note that the AdventureMark office will be closed from 20 December until 13 January. If you have audit or surveillance documentATION that is due, please ensure you submit it well in advance of this period to allow for the necessary processing. If you currently have an audit or surveillance underway, please communicate directly with your appointed auditor to discuss their work schedule.

We’re approaching audits the wrong way around.

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:17:10 GMT

“Safety procedures should be acknowledged as bureaucratic tools that do not create safety by their mere existence. Procedures manage risk, but do not necessarily create safety” Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Branch.

We don’t service our cars, change the tires, and replace brake pads to pass a Warrant of Fitness. We do all these things to make our journeys on the road as safe as possible. Audits are like a WOF. Your Safety Management System shouldn’t be designed to pass an audit. A SMS should be designed to make the operation of activities as safe as possible. When all the different components of your car work properly together, you have a safe ride. When all the components of your SMS work well together, your operation runs smoothly, managing the risks as effectively as possible. Getting a WOF or audit becomes what it was designed for: simply a check that you are already doing the things that you’re supposed to do.

We have to remember that you can pass a WOF, but if your standards slip (like your tyres going bald) before the next 12-month check, you can still be charged by the cops; audits work in a similar way. You might pass an audit, but if your compliance standards drop in the interim, you could still face penalties in the event of an incident or investigation. This isn’t about auditing, this is about you ensuring that you continue to adhere to your SMS all the time, not just when the auditor visits.

The Regulations, Standards, and guidelines that we are supposed to adhere to were all designed with the intention of reducing incidents and increasing good practice in the adventure industry. If you use this intent when reviewing your SMS, the result will be much easier to follow than if you only use our SMS as a way to pass an audit.

Incident investigations – what are we really trying to learn?

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:05:30 GMT

We’re always told to investigate any incidents, including near misses. The Safety Management System Requirements for Adventure Activity Operators requires every operator to “establish a process for investigating and reviewing incidents, understanding the underlying causes, identifying improvements to the SMS, and analysing trends.” This is so that we can learn from events and don’t miss out on a valuable opportunity to improve.

I had a great chat with an app developer who has designed an app for farmers. Her business gets regular complaints that the font is hard to read, the buttons are too small and the app is too complicated to use. Now it would be easy to simply say that the farmer’s phone is the size that it is and there’s nothing that can be done about that. Or that the farmer has thick fingers from a lifetime of hard work so his fingers aren’t designed for smartphones. But saying “it is what it is” doesn’t improve the situation; the farmer goes away unhappy and the company loses a client. Instead, they acknowledge that it is the farmer’s lack of ability to use their phone properly BUT what can they do to improve their system to make it easier? What can they do to reduce the likelihood of mistakes and frustration from inexperienced app users? Investigating the complaints to identify what can be done to reduce this identified human error keeps their customers happy and reduces the likelihood of more farmers having the same issues. This increases their customer base.

In Adventure Activity incidents, we’ve seen that ‘human error’ is often listed as the underlying cause. But what led to that human error? What allowed human error to occur? Could it happen again? What could we change to reduce the likelihood of that same error being made by another customer? Asking questions like these could really help to improve our systems to reduce the chance of people being able to make avoidable mistakes. We’re all human, and we all make mistakes. What can we put in place in our activities to make sure that when we do make a mistake, it doesn’t have terrible consequences?

Changes to the Adventure Activities Regulations and Standard

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 19:46:58 GMT

What operators need to know

These changes have been coming for a long time, so hopefully there are no surprises. There are many sources of information already available to help operators understand their responsibilities. WorkSafe's website has multiple pages dedicated to Adventure Activities, including Changes to the Adventure Activities Regime . This information should really help you understand your responsibilities.

As always, we recommend regular engagement with technical advisers. By communicating with peers and people with a good understanding of the sector, rules, and regulations, you will be well informed and your safety management system can be maintained to comply with the new requirements. Keep in mind that your auditor is not your technical adviser. Auditors and their technical experts need to remain impartial and are not allowed to provide advice or consult with operators.

Industry bodies like Tourism Industry Aotearoa and Recreation Aotearoa , as well as professional associations, represent adventure activity operators and advocate for operators. We strongly recommend being members of these organisations. The more members they have, the more impact they have when advocating on your behalf. They also have regular newsletters and webinars with up-to-date information.

Don't forget to follow SupportAdventure as well.

All of these platforms have worked hard to ensure the changes coming this weekend are understood and communicated to operators and other relevant parties.

They key thing to keep in mind is that from 1 April, regardless of when your next audit is scheduled, all Adventure Activity Operators need to understand and meet the Safety Management System Requirements for Adventure Activity Operators 2023 and adhere to the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Amendment Regulations 2023

What to expect from 2024

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 21:14:56 GMT

Please remember, just because you haven’t necessarily been audited against the new requirements, doesn’t mean you are not subject to them. When we transition to the new Adventure Activities Regulations on 1 April 2024, all Adventure Activity Operators are subject to those Regulations, regardless of when your last audit was, or when the next one is scheduled. As a WorkSafe registered Adventure Operator, it is your responsibility to know what the rules are that you are subject to.

If you’re not sure about the changes, it’s a good time to discuss them with your technical adviser(s). A good technical adviser will be up to speed with the changes, or will be bringing themselves up to speed.

It’s a common theme but we always recommend planning ahead to reduce stress. WorkSafe need to review certification decisions carefully before they can update your registration. If you leave your audit right up until your certification expires, it’s likely that WorkSafe won’t have updated your registration before that expires, putting your ability to operate at risk. The Certification Scheme allows recertification audits to be done up to three months before the expiry date. So, if you want to reduce the stress, and risk, of leaving things until the last minute we can get your audit rolling early. Easy!

We’ve fielded a few questions about what audits under the new Regulations look like. Please rest assured, they will still be conducted by the AdventureMark team using the audit process you are all familiar with. You will have more direct communication with WorkSafe, for example, instead of AdventureMark submitting your registration, we will complete your audit report and certification and send it to you. You then provide that information to WorkSafe, who process your registration.

In addition, you will know that there are beefed up requirements around when and how you communicate risks to potential customers. A ‘belt-and-braces’ approach is advisable here. Try and implement several ways to ensure people thinking about booking can be aware of what dangers are involved. You can brief booking agents on famil trips, publish a risk disclosure on your website, tripadvisor, etc. Consider it from this angle: If a client arrives at your activity and, during the safety briefing says: “I didn’t know that could happen, I want to pull out” then the risk disclosure may not have been sufficient.

WorkSafe have published a guide to the coming changes that you can find here: https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/topic-and-industry/adventure-activities/changes-to-the-adventure-activities-regime-what-they-mean-for-you/

End of year message from AdventureMark

mike@adventuremark.co.nz (Mike Pennefather) — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 21:05:50 GMT

What a year it has been!

We want to extend a public heartfelt thank you to the AdventureMark team of auditors and technical experts. The roles carry a real sense of responsibility and thanks need to be extended to the crew who put in the mahi to help our operators understand the rules and get their audit requirements done in these stressful times.

It is with reluctance that we have accepted Simon Reynolds’ resignation from AdventureMark. Simon has been with AdventureMark from the very beginning, providing us with expert advice and passionate service to the off-road and event operations he has audited for almost a decade. Simon’s next move is to spend more time in the bush and exploring rivers in his inflatable jetboat.

Simon, we are confident your clients will share our disappointment, your wealth of experience and practical approach will be missed by everyone. Thanks for all your hard work since the beginning, you’ve helped get us where we are today, and your efforts are much appreciated.

We also want to congratulate all the AdventureMark certified operators for getting their audits completed. It’s been heartening to note that most operators have developed a solid understanding of the Adventure Activities Regulations and the relevant Standards and good practice references for the relevant activities. If your 2023 report was overall positive, it’s likely that you are well-positioned to be ready to transition to the updated Regulations and Standard in 2024.

Please note that the AdventureMark office will be closed from 20 December to 15 January.

If you need to submit information to us, please ensure you do it well before 20 December.

Is your recertification audit due this year?

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 16:48:26 GMT

A few operators have asked why we’re reminding them that their recertification audits are due several months before the due date. The short answer is to reduce stress at the last minute.

Below is a simple list of the steps to have your recertification completed and, more importantly, your WorkSafe registration updated.

First, what’s the difference between certification and registration?

Certification comes from us, your certification body. We can issue a certificate once we’ve completed a certification audit. The certificate and audit reports then go to WorkSafe, who review that documentation and, if satisfied, register you as an Adventure Activity Operator. The legal requirement is registration so, if you registration is not current, you could be in breach of the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016.

Recertification steps:

Get a reminder email from us, nice and early to prevent last minute stress that there won’t be time to get it all done.
Complete an Operator Profile Form and return it to us.
We send you a cost estimate and contract, which you review and, if satisfied, sign and return to us.
Then we can appoint your auditor, who will send you a document review checklist.
You complete this (at your leisure because we’re nice and early) and return it to us, along with any supporting evidence.
While we’re reviewing the documentation, we should plan for your onsite audit so that we can keep travel expenses to a minimum. Last minute plans mean last minute prices.
We come onsite to observe your activities, chat to staff, and go through anything we couldn’t ascertain from the initial document review.
We’ll always have a closing meeting after the onsite so that you know what the contents of the report will be, including any areas that might need to be worked on. Because we’re planning ahead, you may have time to address any nonconformities before the final report, keeping thins tidier.
The final report is then drafted and sent to the audit manager for review and then a certification decision is made and your new certificate issued (this can take up to 5 working days). Once approved, it is then sent to you, and on to WorkSafe.
WorkSafe then review the final report and audit documents before making a registration decision. This can more time (up to 20 working days).
Your registration is then updated.

The New Zealand Adventure Activities Certification Scheme 2023 says that “Recertification audits can occur up to three months before the operator’s certification is due to expire.” so, if you’re keen to get your recertification audit done, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll make a plan that works for you and fits within the rules we’re subject to.

New Zealand Adventure Activities Certification Scheme 2023

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 16:47:28 GMT

Have you had a look through the New Zealand Adventure Activities Certification Scheme 2023? This was published in January and contains the ‘rules’ that auditors and audit bodies need to follow. If you’ve ever wondered why we need to do surveillance every year, or if you can extend your certification date, the answer is in this document.

Currently, we audit against the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities 2017. Hopefully you’re familiar with the contents of this document by now because it contains the rules that operators need to follow. The next version of this standard for adventure activity operators is due to be published soon. We don’t know when this may be. WorkSafe have indicated that we’re flying a holding pattern until the Adventure Activities Regulations are updated. Until they are, you are still subject to the same requirements as the last few years.

The Adventure Activities Regulations 2016 are the 3rd leg of this three-legged stool that hold up the Adventure Activities regime. These are the laws that are attached to the Health and Safety at Work Act that all adventure activity operators need to comply with. MBIE are hoping to take the 2023 version of these Regs to cabinet in the next couple of months. Once ratified by cabinet, the new Regs will be gazetted and come into law. It sounds like the new Standard will be implemented at the same time.

We don’t have a crystal ball so can’t say when this will happen. WorkSafe have indicated that it may be later in 2023, perhaps pushed out to 2024 so, for the time being, we recommend this:

Refamiliarize yourself with the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities 2017
Read newsletters and articles relating to the Whakaari tragedy and prosecutions. These findings show how the law is interpreted, especially around explicitly disclosing risk, identifying and managing natural hazards, as well as operating parameters and emergency response plans.
Keep doing the good work that the New Zealand Adventure Activities industry is renowned for.

Are my risk assessments accurate?

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:46:47 GMT

So you assess the risks involved in your activities and come up with a nice, neat score on your risk register. Does your assessment consider the chances of something happening in isolation, or do you think about how severe an incident could be if it happened in combination with something else?

For example: if I slip and break my ankle at home making dinner, I can crawl to my phone and call an ambulance. I’ll probably be in hospital within an hour. Now, what if I’m solo guiding and I slip and break my ankle in a canyon at 4pm on a windy, cloudy day. I don’t have cell signal but I’ve activated my PLB. Hs the signal gone to the Rescue Coordination Centre yet? Is a helicopter going to fly in this weather? How long will a rescue team take on foot? Will they have the gear and training to get me out the canyon? What about my participants? We can see that the risk of a broken ankle can be significantly different, depending on where and when it happens, although the injury is the same.

Has this happened before? Not just to you or your operation, but in the wider industry. Do we know of people suffering anaphylaxis is remote areas? Did they carry EpiPens? Was one enough to control the reaction before emergency help arrived or should we consider additional adrenalin?

Have people encountered rapidly rising rivers from rain or dams opening unexpectedly? How did they respond and was their response adequate?

Hindsight is demonised as a way of making somebody's decision look wrong, but what if we can use hindsight to our advantage? Sure, we would do things differently, in hindsight. So let’s review these incidents and use them to check our own risk assessments and incident and emergency response plans.

Paperwork is a pain in the butt, why do we need it?

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:46:05 GMT

This is a bit strange coming from your auditing body but there’s no real reason to have a huge safety plan The biggest headache for us at AdventureMark is reading huge safety plans! One of my favourite quotes I heard recently is, “I didn’t read the whole thing, but who does?” This leads to the question: Who is the safety plan for? It’s not for the auditor.

Your safety plan (SMS, SMP, SOP, AMP,SOG’s, etc) needs to be written in a way that you and your staff have a clear picture of the operation and how to perform each role. If your staff don’t understand what in the plan, it needs to be changed or simplified.

2023 has been a year of 'hurry-up-and-wait' for Adventure Activities. We’re expecting a new Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities to be published but this looks like it may only be implemented next year (on a separate note, don’t think of it as a Safety Audit Standard, but rather a Safety Standard: operators have to comply with the Standard every day of operating, but only get audited against it about one a year).

Why not use 2023 to have a good look at what your safety plan looks like, what it is supposed to achieve, and whether it could use a really good haircut to be easier for everyone to follow? The changes to the Safety Standard will likely require you to make some minor changes anyway. This is a good opportunity to make the best of the situation.

What can I change?
Goals and objectives are sometime perceived to be a requirement of the Safety Standard that doesn’t really play a valuable part in operations. In reality, almost every operator has great safety objectives that just aren’t identified as such. Something like renewing outdoor 1st aid quals or upgrading them to a higher qualification is a great objective that’s often overlooked as normal business.

Another good update that a lot of us can make is to consolidate all our operational information (how we run activities) into a simple, step-by-step handbook. Imagine how easy it would be to train staff, and have trips run to plan if there was a bulleted method for all the steps from the beginning to end of the activity. Once completed, you’ll probably find you’ve met all the criteria in the Safety Standard around what a SOP is supposed to contain.

Document control. When we make any changes, it can be valuable to record what and where these changes are made. This way your staff can see what new information there is since they last looked through the safety plan without having to read through the whole document to find any updates. Have a tidy filing procedure for ensuring that only a single version of the latest documents is usable by yourself and staff. Audits can go over the estimated time because half-way through the operator says, “Oops, I sent you the old version”. I did an audit where three different incident report forms were being used. Taking the time to archive previous versions means you’ll have a simpler safety plan and staff will spend less time on paperwork and more time with your customers.

Technical advisors are probably the most underrated part of the whole Adventure Activities Certification Scheme. While there is a lot of good intellectual property in businesses, safety should be shared and not be hidden from other people in the industry. When incidents happen, everyone in the industry should have the opportunity to learn from them, so that something similar can be avoided in the future. Discussions with other operators, guides and instructors should happen wherever and whenever possible. Getting someone else to look over your SOP or risk management plan normally always provides a different perspective and helps identify things that we can overlook because we’re working in it every day. This should be a two way street, I bet you’ve got lots of valuable insight for them.

This is not a comprehensive list of improvements and considerations. I’d recommend going through the new Standard when it is published and ask yourself, “how can I use each criteria to update my safety plan to me more user-friendly?”. The requirement to follow the Adventure Activities Regulations isn’t going to go away. The best thing we can do is make it for us as best we can.

How can I be best prepared for my audit?

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 16:45:22 GMT

Communicate with your auditor. Audits are meant to be an open, transparent process. There shouldn't be any surprises. Make sure you are clear on what the scope (what activities/ locations are in or out) of the audit is. Once we complete an audit and you realise you've forgotten to include an activity you're intending to provide, it's likely to be an expensive process to try to add it to your scope of activities.

Remember to include travel expenses when budgeting for your audit. Cost estimates can be fairly accurate for the auditing work but, until you and your audit team have made a plan for the audit, we can only provide you with a breakdown of the disbursements. This is another good reason for communicating with your auditor.

Use good technical advisors. We say this a lot, mostly because it's true. If you struggle with the audit process, look for an operator who seems to get through it easily and finds good value in it. They could be of real value to you to help you understand some requirements and to discuss any news in the industry, like new or increased risks and improved ways of doing things in your operation.

Accept that your audit needs to happen if we're going to continue to provide Adventure Activities. Be open and help the auditor and technical experts to get a good look at your operation to be able to make an accurate assessment.

Certification bodies and auditors don't make the rules, we have to follow them. Shooting the messenger doesn't change the message, it just means you're less likely to get the message. Being sad about having to work in the rain makes you less happy. It doesn't make less rain. Make the most of the process.

Ensure you know what you are being audited against. An audit needs to be an objective assessment against a specific set of criteria. If you know what those criteria are, then you know what the auditor is looking for. Make sure you know which standard and guidelines are being used. An audit is actually a very valuable and should be embraced as a health-check of your systems and processes. If you ever end up in an investigation, you're going to be asked all the same questions that happen in an audit. Think of an audit as a fairly consequence-free test to see if your systems hold up under the scrutiny of an investigation.

2023 Recertification is coming, and change is in the air.

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 16:44:35 GMT

A lot of our operators are due for the big recertification audit around August- October 2023. Here are some things to keep in mind between now and your certification renewal:

Your certification date is the date that your certificate expires, not the date to be audited . Well-prepared operators should aim to have their audit completed and put to bed at least two weeks before the expiry. Remember that after your auditor finishes your closing meeting and leaves, they still need to go over all your audit information and write your audit report. The audit and report then needs to be reviewed and passed through the moderation process and then approved by the certifier. Once that’s done, a certificate is issued and all the information is sent to WorkSafe. WorkSafe will be processing all the other recertifications at the same time, so from the time AdventureMark gets your report and certificate to WorkSafe it can take around 10 working days for them to accept your certification and renew your registration on the WorkSafe register. If that doesn’t happen before your existing registration expires, you may find yourself exposed to operating without current registration, which is a breach of the Adventure Activities Regulations. So the message? Plan ahead and start early.

Q: I submitted on the review of the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities, what is happening there?

MBIE and WorkSafe will be working through all the submissions. Adventure Activities is a small industry so you can probably expect your submission to be taken seriously. This is a good thing. WorkSafe have indicated that we can expect a revised standard in April 2023. This means that, for a lot of us, the next audit will be conducted against an updated standard. Until the new Safety Standard is published, we don’t know what it will look like but here are some recommendations:

Review the existing standard to be comfortable with the content, we don’t foresee enormous changes.
Review the proposed changes to the standard. It’s likely that, unless there are lots of submissions proposing something very different, the new requirements will already be fairly apparent.
Keep up to date with industry newsletters. TIA, RA, and all the specific activity sector associations, etc, all work to advocate on your behalf. AdventureMark publishes articles like this one and Facebook posts to keep you informed. Change is coming and the only way to keep on top of it is to stay on top of news.
Follow the news. Our industry hasn’t had many instances of prosecutions or trials so the outcomes of the Whakaari tragedy court cases show us how lawyers and judges interpret the rules that we are subject to.
When the new standard is published, try to conduct an internal audit against it. Don’t wait for your next audit to identify all the areas where change is needed.

There is opposition to audits, and how audits are conducted. We definitely acknowledge that there are operators who work very hard to keep their customers safe and provide an enjoyable activity. Sometimes, compliance requirements can even be seen to get in the way of that. That doesn't mean standards and rules aren't needed (they are as they provide a baseline) but if everyone involved had a better understanding of the rules and requirements, we’d all be able to make the system fit better for our own operations.

What do we learn from incident trends?

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 16:43:32 GMT

The adventure activity sector is diligent. Everybody wants their customers and clients to feel safe and have an unforgettable experience. We notice that a lot of safety is driven by quality. If you’re focussed on providing the best experience possible, it just makes sense that keeping people safe is part of that.
We have to remember that serious risks are inherent in adventure activities. If you aren’t exposing participants to these risks, you’re probably not an adventure activity (as defined in the Adventure Activities Regulations).
To borrow some wise words from Judge Arthur Tompkins in 2009:
"Participants in such tours do not want or expect a sanitised, excitement-free experience that isolates or insulates them from the very countryside they come to see and experience first-hand.
"It is neither possible nor desirable to remove all risk. To do so would be to the longer term detriment of New Zealand."

As a sector, although deemed high-risk by nature in the Adventure Activities Regulations, adventure activities operators generally keep serious incidents to a minimum. Our audits note that a lot of operators struggle to identify trends because they haven’t had incidents to review. It would be greatly beneficial if we could collate incidents across our industry so we can learn as a sector as a whole. This is a really strong argument for using external technical advisors – somebody providing similar activities to you might have some valuable information, and you might share something similar with them, increasing safety all around.
It seems more operators are noticing medical events occurring during or after activities. With the advent of guided and instructed activities, easier access to the outdoors and a more active aging community, there are more issues around angina, heart attacks, fainting, etc. Reviews of safety plans should ask questions like: how do we screen our participants?, do we ensure they bring any medications?, do we know how to treat that medical condition they wrote on their risk disclosure form? Immediately excluding people based on age or fitness is a bit extreme, we’re much better off understanding their conditions and seeing what we can do to manage the activity appropriately.

NATURAL HAZARD AND SAFETY STANDARD REVIEW

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 22:47:52 GMT

Hopefully, you’ve all seen the news that Minister Woods announced regarding being more specific about how adventure activity operators must assess and manage natural hazard risks.

So far, we don’t know what this will look like or what, if any, changes will need to be made to operators’ safety plans. We do know that WorkSafe intends the changes to have been fully implemented by late 2023.

For a lot of our operators, late 2023 is right in the middle of your recertification audit, so it could be well worth planning ahead as much as possible.

We recommend the following:

1. Talk to other operators and professionals in your industry. Discuss what sorts of natural hazards might impact on your activities and how you currently manage them, and how you might improve how you manage them. Explore whether your existing emergency response plans can manage these natural hazard events.

2. Plan for your next audit. Are you familiar with the requirements of the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities? Operators are required to adhere to this standard so being conversant with it means your audit should go smoothly. Check your expiry date and consider getting the ball rolling early to ensure there’s enough time to plan, go through a good document review and have an onsite audit. Remember that you need to have the audit at least 2 weeks before your certification expires to give us and WorkSafe time to review the audit findings before WorkSafe can update your registration.

3. Keep up to date with the news. If you’re feeling out of the loop, you need to engage with your sector better. Join Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Recreation Aotearoa, your industry advocacy body or association, etc. These organisations are responsible for looking after your best interests and sharing information with you. The better represented they are, the better they can represent you.

4. Make a submission on the proposed changes to the New Zealand Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities This is the key requirement for all Adventure Activity Operators and there aren't that many in the country so it stands to reason that every submission will have weight.

THE VALUE OF EXTERNAL TECHNICAL ADVISORS

Mon, 23 May 2022 21:57:27 GMT

Why does my auditor keep recommending I engage with an external technical advisor?

Here’s the definition straight out of the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities:
Technical adviser: Person or group of people that has professional credentials such as a high-level, nationally recognised qualification, or extensive knowledge, skills and experience to assist an operator with various technical tasks, including advising and reviewing the policies, procedures and practices relating to an activity.
An operator’s technical adviser(s) may be contracted by, or closely connected to the operator. The credentials may be achieved by combining those of two or more people, who may be staff members.

Technical advisers are mentioned several times in the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities: Sections 4.2, 5.1, 10.2 & 10.3, so they must be quite important. They are. In previous articles the value of having staff with nationally recognised qualifications has often been brought up. Qualifications show that your staff have been independently assessed, that they are current with wider industry practices, etc.

What about the value of using good technical advisers?
Consider this: Jeremy has been running a quadbike operation on his farm for the last 20 years. He’s carefully groomed the track, built up berms and invested in a couple of side x sides recently. He’ll be the first to admit that he doesn’t like the paperwork side of things and honestly doesn’t understand a lot of the bureaucracy involved. During audits Jeremy explains that he was involved in establishing the initial ATV ASG in 2013 and surely meets the definition of a technical adviser. Jeremy is right, he does.
He goes on to explain that nothing has changed so why should his SMS? He still runs the trips the same way he always has and hasn’t had any incidents/ Why should he involve anyone else in his risk and hazard management or internal SMS review?

Not too far away is another quadbike operator, Jane. Jane was also involved in creating the ASG and put in some work when it was reviewed. Jane also doesn’t enjoy the paperwork aspect so every year Jane rings up a couple of other operators to see how they’re getting on, what they’ve noticed and if they’ve had any incidents. They email each other any interesting trip reports and incidents and discuss possible issues, including any new risks they’ve spotted. One operator mentions that he noticed that when they introduced side x sides people were veering off the track and it took a while to realise they needed a bit more training – we’re not used to the steering wheel being on the left of the vehicle in New Zealand! Jane and these other operators use each other as technical advisers and have a very good picture of what the wider industry is now considering good practice.

I would always recommend using external technical advisers. As a kayak instructor, if I’m teaching by myself, I’m naturally going to evolve some techniques and methods of delivery to suit my own teaching style. Over time, this could lead to quite a wide divergence from what I was taught to do (This is why staff monitoring is important, but that’s a different subject). The same concept applies for an operation; If you’re not engaging with technical advisers from outside your own operation it becomes easy to start drifting away from what the rest of the industry considers normal good practice.

All of the above is one good reason for using external technical advisers. Both Jeremy and Jane from our story above hate paperwork. They’re practical, hands-on people who know how to run a great quadbike tour and look after their customers well. Risk registers, safety objectives and monitoring legislation and guidelines are necessary evils that draws them away from the core of their operation. This is another reason to call in a technical advisor. Perhaps not another quad operator but maybe somebody who is conversant with outdoor activity safety plans – an operations manager from the big outdoor education camp over the hill, or a consultant familiar with the Adventure Activities Regulations. Let them check over your work to ensure you aren’t overlooking things that a fresh set of eyes can spot. One of our operators recently said to me: “It’s amazing how many times you look through a list and don't see what's missing.”

Lastly, please remember that a technical advisor provides advice. Just like a school teacher can't write a student's exam for the student, don't expect TAs to be responsible for your safety plans.
Audits are expensive and auditors time is a big part of that cost. If your TA can help you better understand your requirements, you could shave hours off your audit time, saving money and a lot of stress, as well!

MAKE IT EASIER - UNDERSTAND THE RULES

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 21:03:34 GMT

Audits: To make it easier to follow the rules; understand the rules

Being audited and providing evidence to your auditor can be a painful process. We don’t want it to be, and we work hard to make the process as smooth as possible. Bear in mind, we get audited too! The key thing to make an audit easier is to know what the audit is all about.

Here are three questions we are routinely asked:

How am I supposed to know the difference between a technical expert and a technical adviser?
Why do I need safety objectives when we are already operating safely?
Why are you telling me something is a non-conformity but you won’t tell me what I need to do to fix it?

Adventure Activity Operators are subject to the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities. Prior to your audit, we strongly recommend reading the Safety Audit Standard document. If you become more conversant with it, you’ll find definitions for technical advisers, as well as gain greater clarity around having clear objectives that address safety and effect improvement (yes, this is a requirement!). The ability to show compliance in the first instance will keep audit costs as low as possible because your auditor’s time isn’t spent explaining what elements of your operation ‘need’ auditing.

The Adventure Activities Regulations require a Compliance Audit. The easier it is for your auditor to identify that you are compliant with all the requirements (of the Safety Audit Standard), the earlier they can report and complete your audit (keeping expenses to a minimum). Highly compliant operators are also subject to lower levels of surveillance during the certification period.

Auditors are not consultants and are not technical advisors. In fact, to answer one of the questions above, if we tell you how to fix a non-conformity, we become non-compliant ourselves. It doesn’t matter how we feel or what our opinion is on this topic, those are the rules.

To help understand the rules:

Read association newsletters and industry updates.
Use nationally recognised qualifications wherever possible.
Take note and consider observations made during your audits.
Engage with other respected people in the industry (these are your technical advisers).

COVID-19 AND DIVER SAFETY

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 23:01:47 GMT

WorkSafe have published a safety alert that highlights the serious health and safety risks posed for divers if they have been exposed to COVID.

WorkSafe advice is that anyone with respiratory symptoms should not dive and should arrange for COVID testing.

You can find out more and read the full safety alert on the WorkSafe website .

ADVENTUREMARK END OF YEAR

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 23:04:22 GMT

The AdventureMark office will be closed on 22 December until 10 January. Please contact Mike mike@adventuremark.co.nz before that time if you have any conditions that need to be addressed during this period so that we can ensure smooth, ongoing certification.

This year has been another challenging year for the outdoor industry. We want to acknowledge the strength and spirit of the adventure sector. There have been some long phone calls and lots of emails trying to make sense of compliance rules while stuck in lockdown and unable to operate. Thank you to those of you who contributed with submissions on the proposed changes to the Adventure Activities regime. Hopefully we can continue to work in system that is driven by the operators it oversees.

Please remember to check your conditions of certification. Reports may contain open nonconformities and if these are not closed out on time, we may need to require additional audit work to ensure ongoing compliance, which is an unnecessary cost. There is also a requirement to inform your certification body of any notifiable events or if you have any changes to key staff.

From everyone at AdventureMark, we wish you all a peaceful, merry Christmas and an active and prosperous New Year.

ONLINE RISK DISCLOSURE

Sun, 05 Dec 2021 23:11:55 GMT

There has been a lot of talk about disclosing risk this year. We’ve identified that a lot of operators are still very attached to liability waivers and disclaimers and that their own lawyers have encouraged them to keep this information in. The Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities doesn’t mention waiving risk, but the Health and Safety at Work Act says that you cannot contract out of any duty owed under the Act. We recommend checking out the new risk disclosure template on the SupportAdventure website.

The Safety Audit Standard does say that “The operator must have procedures for risk disclosure between the operator and participant, and subsequent acknowledgement.” Consider the type of participants you may get, I recall customers arriving for raft trips in tailored pants and patent leather shoes, shocked that they might get wet on their “boat ride”! It makes sense to manage their expectations early. A clear disclosure of risk on your website or online booking system would help with this and could even minimise the chance of a bad TripAdvisor review from someone who was in over their head!

If an opportunity is being provided on the website to register and in particular pay for an activity, then sufficient information should be made available at that point in time to enable a reasonable person to make an informed decision as to whether the adventure activity is suitable for them.

The Whakaari investigation has thrown some weight behind the view that risk disclosure should be made at the time the contract between the parties was entered into, ie when the participant registered. It is not appropriate to semi-disclose risks at the time of booking and then fully disclose the risks when the participant arrives on site.

Talking about risks and the potential danger of adventure activities is not something you should sugar-coat or downplay. Don’t use obtuse wording- tell it as it is. The best form of risk disclosure is good old fashioned basic language with no legal spin. Our society is changing and many of your clients may not have English as their first language. Ensure you know your clients and where possible, cater for additional languages. Disclose risks multiple times to help aid understanding.

As the operator, you have a duty of care and part of that includes taking reasonable steps to ensure the client understands the potential risks and what they should do and should not do to stay safe.

LEARNINGS FROM 2021

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 23:14:03 GMT

One of the encouraging trends we’ve started to notice in 2021 is that operators have started to take a real interest in their Safety Management System. It’s been heartening to see that the SMS is shifting from a dusty ring binder required for compliance, to a living system used by staff daily to ensure they follow correct procedures. This leads to better continual improvement with shorter, more specific safety plans that staff understand and can adhere more easily to.

Some of our operators tell us that they’ve been running a safe activity for 35 years and there is no need for paperwork. You may be able to provide a great experience but there is still the requirement for a Safety Management System that meets the requirements of the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities. If you know how to provide a safe activity, write it down. Who knows, maybe others can learn from your knowledge.
Start by figuring out who the SMP is for…it’s not a marketing exercise. It should be succinct and easy to navigate. If a contract guide comes back after three months, how easily can they find any amendments, or what equipment is required for a particular tramp?
Contracting a consultant can be good but please shop around for someone who actually works in or understands the activities you provide! We have audited several safety plans this year that have been obstructed, instead of helped, by generic health and safety information that has nothing to do with the activities provided. This can leave you vulnerable as any investigation will quickly notice that there is no possible way you (an owner/operator running weekend abseiling) can adhere to the 200 pages of requirements (including safety committee meetings and re-evaluating staff heavy machinery licenses) that you probably haven’t even read properly.
When reviewing a draft good practice document earlier this year, one of the emails from a fellow reviewer stuck with me. The document was a bit long and I’d just got through it when my email pinged with this:
“I didn’t read the whole thing but then again, who does?”!
The best safety plans are short and to the point. Richard Branson is credited with saying, “Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple. Complexity is your enemy”. Consider this when you next review your SMS.

DISCLOSE RISK, DON'T WAIVE IT

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 22:17:45 GMT

This article was originally written for a SupportAdventure newsletter (July 2021)

A common issue that has been raised during audits and by WorkSafe is how participants are made aware of the hazards and risks in the activity they have booked onto. The traditional terms we use for the sign-in sheet our participants use can be 'Waiver' or 'Liability Release' but with HSWA and ACC legislation, we can’t really waive risk at all: Lots of operators still consider a 'waiver' or 'liability release' to be the way to go, but Section 28 of the HSWA says this:

No contracting out

A term of any agreement or contract that purports to exclude, limit, or modify the operation of this Act, or any duty owed under this Act, or to transfer to another person any duty owed under this Act--

(a) has no effect to the extent that it does so; but

(b) is not an illegal contract under subpart 5 of Part 2 of the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.

The Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities (a document all commercial adventure activity providers should be conversant with and need to comply with) requires: “The operator must have procedures for risk disclosure between the operator and participant, and subsequent acknowledgement” .

In other words, you have to tell your clients what risks they can expect to encounter and have them acknowledge that risk. Using a clear, concise “Risk Disclosure Form” could be a better way to meet requirements.

This can be a two-way form as you can disclose the reasonably foreseeable risks in the activity and also use the form to identify risks presented by the participants, such as medical and physical conditions, etc. It’s important that the risk disclosure, required by the Standard, isn’t diluted or lost in a long wordy 'waiver' that section 28 of the HSWA says:

“has no effect to the extent that it does so”.

When you review your waiver/liability release/risk disclosure ask yourself: If a WorkSafe investigator asked your client “What were you given and asked to sign before the activity?” would they say that they were informed of the likely risks or would they say it was a generic form to “sign their life away”?The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

LEARNING FROM INCIDENTS

Sun, 08 Aug 2021 22:20:24 GMT

Annual surveillance is coming up for a lot of operators soon.

One of the things you'll be asked is how you review incidents and analyse trends. Section 8.2 of the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities 2017 (SAS) says this: "The operator must establish a process for investigating and reviewing incidents, understanding the underlying causes, identifying improvements to the SMS, and analysing trends.

Recommendations from incident reviews must be implemented and communicated to staff and relevant other parties."

It's pretty common for operators to report their incident pretty well and conduct comprehensive interviews with their staff. What isn't always done well is the second bit - understanding underlying causes and identifying areas for improvement.

We often see detailed records of events leading up to the critical moment of injury or incident but significantly less focus on why it happened. Often "human error" is concluded to be the root cause an no improvements are suggested - "these things happen in adventure activities, otherwise they wouldn't be adventures".

These things do happen, and will continue to happen, and lives will be enriched and tragically affected for as long as we continue to pursue adventure, and that shouldn't change.

But while we are providing adventure activities to paying customers in our incredibly beautiful "offices", we need to ensure that we are doing all that we can to ensure everyone goes home safely afterwards. "Human error" can cause incidents, as humans we're fallible. With that knowledge, in an investigation we need to ask why human error wasn't considered as a hazard when assessing the risks. We need to move away from "who" and focus on "what"; If we look at what circumstances or procedures were in place, we can start to identify what made it possible for that person to do the wrong thing. We can't prevent human error, but we should strive to improve processes where an error is less likely to lead to a significant event. Change (continual improvement) happens through learning. This is most likely to happen when we stop looking to blame a person, and start looking to improve the process that allowed the error to occur.

I learnt a new term recently - "fundamental attribution bias". This is the tendency to blame the situation or conditions if I make a mistake but to attribute human error to the same incident if it happens to someone else! The flip side of that coin is we accept success to be a result of our own hard work, but when others succeed, we attribute this to the opportunities they had, and not their hard work! - Feel free to forget the term, but there's an interesting lesson here.

"What if I haven't had any incidents?" Don't despair, if you're engaging with good technical advisors (Sections 4.2, 5.1 & 10 of the SAS), they should have a good idea of what incidents your sector has experienced and how the reviews/investigations went. It would be a waste if we didn't use previous incidents to minimise the chance of making a mistake that's already been made by someone else.

Remember, mistakes are much less likely to happen when we have systems in place that have considered human error and planned ahead for it.

ADVOCACY AND STAYING UP TO DATE

Tue, 11 May 2021 22:24:49 GMT

Since the implementation of the Adventure Activity Regulation scheme, SupportAdventure.co.nz has been the one-stop-shop for outdoor/adventure tools, templates and good practice documents. Recreation Aotearoa and Tourism Industry Aotearoa have partnered to represent the interests of the Adventure Activity sector. RA and TIA have jointly provided the SupportAdventure website, published the SupportAdventure newsletter and led the development of the first Activity Safety Guidelines.

Both these organisations rely heavily on membership for funding and, since COVID hit our industry, these memberships are more important than ever. It's easy to say that without clients the first cost saving measure can be to drop an affiliation or membership but bear in mind that these organisations continue to work hard on all of our behalf. It's a "help us to help you" situation.

The Whakaari/White Island disaster has resulted in numerous investigations, reviews, and enquiries by various government departments. These include Coronial investigations, WorkSafe NZ’s 13 prosecutions, the Department of Internal Affairs' consideration of access to Whakaari/White Island, and Department of Conservation visitor risk management.

Currently a targeted review by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) of the adventure activities regime is underway and representatives from these groups are involved and continue to provide perspectives to WorkSafe, MBIE and other government entities. As auditors who need to remain impartial, we have been specifically excluded.

If you want to have an opportunity to influence changes to the Adventure Activities regulatory regime, membership through these advocacy groups may be the best way to have your voice heard.

More about the review can be found on the MBIE website .

You can watch a webinar from Recreation Aotearoa on the review here .

EVENT AUDITS

Tue, 11 May 2021 22:22:19 GMT

Running a major outdoor event is a challenging business. Managing the safety of hundreds of people over challenging terrain is fraught with difficulties. Risk is an inherent part of running an event and part of the reason so many people in New Zealand enjoy participating in major events.
Although not all events in New Zealand are subject to the Adventure Activities Regulations, they are subject to the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA). At AdventureMark we offer our Green Certification Audit to give you confidence that your safety management system stacks up against the best in the industry. This full audit against ISO 21101 and/or the New Zealand Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities involves a comprehensive review of your documentation, with the Events Team working with you on-site on the day of the event. This helps identify issues that aren't always picked up in the documentation and provides an impartial perspective of the safety performance of your event.
Our Events Team has many years’ experience, competing in, running and assessing major events here in New Zealand and overseas. Our extensive reporting allows you to continually improve your safety systems and our internationally recognised certification will let your participants know that you take their safety seriously.
Please contact us to find out more.

Reflecting on 2020

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 16:41:10 GMT

2020 has been a strange year, to say the least. I can't help but be impressed by the resilience of the New Zealand adventure activity sector. As soon as lockdown first hit, we were the pinch point between operators and WorkSafe and JAS-ANZ, trying to ensure operators could maintain certification, during lockdown and then in planning for this busy recertification period.
As difficult and challenging as it was, it was heartening to hear from so many of you who had managed to find innovative ways to keep your businesses going through such tough times, from modifying activities to better suit the Kiwi market, to starting landscaping side-hustles to bolster income.

We've had some good learnings from audits, too:

Gregory Smith, a respected health and safety author writes: "For most organisations, the biggest source of legal liability is the level of non-compliance with their own documented procedures". We've definitely noticed that, as a Safety Management System evolves, it can easily lead to different sections specifying different requirements, leaving your staff unable to adhere to one or the other. It's important that a SMS is clear and succinct, so that staff are clear on their requirements. Duplication can lead to deviation.

Keep up-to-date with practicing emergency procedures. Most emergency test reports we've seen have recorded good learning opportunities which have led to improving emergency plans. If you don't test your plans properly, you could miss out on these learning opportunities. Talk to other operators, Coastguard, LandSAR, etc about their procedures. A real emergency is NOT the time to practice.

Sensible goals and objectives a a good idea. Think about Sensible, Measurable, Appropriate, Timebound (SMART) objectives that help you achieve your safety goals. Some good objectives include: Streamlining the SMS by removing redundant forms and duplication; Renewing 1st aid quals with an outdoor-specific course that is more appropriate for the location of activities; Engaging with other operators in the sector as external technical advisors (TA) to update currency in the wider industry.

Understand the requirements of the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities. Stay up-to-date with the legislation, guidelines and bylaws relevant to your region and activities. If you're adhering to this document, you're well on the way to following good industry practice.

Continual improvement is real. The argument that "we've been doing it like this for 15 years and nothing has changed" is unsound. With this thinking internal combustion engines would never have replaced steam-power, which would never have replaced the original horse-power. We've never been as well-informed as we are today - and tomorrow we'll have more information to use to make our staff and participants safer than before. Opportunities to improve our activities and safety should be continuously sought.

Season's greetings and best wishes for 2021 to all.

Rafting now under WorkSafe Regulation

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:40:32 GMT

Congratulations need to go out to all the rafting operators and everyone who worked so tirelessly to get the rafting across the line on 1 October.
Operators from other activities will remember their first round of certification audits and the doubts and stress that came with this new set of regulations. This was compounded for the rafting operators with all the unknowns presented by COVID rearing it's head in the middle of it all.
At AdventureMark we take pride in knowing that our auditors are also active in the outdoor industry and having such experienced, competent rafting auditors certainly helped give our rafting operators comfort that the people auditing them knew what they were talking about.
For the most part, the audits have identified well-qualified guides with plenty of competence. This really highlights the value of having a high-quality national qualification. Areas that needed work were more around updating systems and procedures. Several observations were made that the SMSs were often bulky and contained outdated information or duplication that could use a good "haircut".
This could be a good objective to include in your SMS to help make compliance with your own documented procedures more efficient.
The Adventure Activities Regulations will still be pretty new to some of you so please don't hesitate to contact Mike at AdventureMark if you ever have any questions at all.
Again, well done to everyone who put in the hard yards to get registered by the 1st October. Hopefully we'll have a bumper season getting Kiwis down our rivers and look forward to welcoming back international guests in the not-too-distant future.

Recertification

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:38:19 GMT

For some operators, you'll be breathing a sigh of relief as your new certificate arrives in the post. Some operators are in the middle of recertification and others among you are just getting started.

The one common theme that we're hearing is that the cost of compliance is very high and a threat to some businesses.

We touched on this point in the last post.

The Adventure Activities Regulations require any business providing adventure activities to undergo a recertification audit every three years to be registered as an Adventure Activity Operator on the WorkSafe Register.

For AdventureMark to be accredited to provide these audits, we need to be audited by JAS-ANZ. It is the cost of accreditation that determines the cost of audits. Most of your auditors work in the adventure industry as well, and have to be audited themselves. We full-well understand the impact these expenses have to business, especially at this time.

The single-most effective way to keep costs as low as possible is to plan early and get your audit done as efficiently as possible. The most expensive audits are the ones where there is a scramble at the end to get everything completed just before certification expires.

Once you've had an auditor appointed you can discuss a suitable date that works for everyone. This will always be easier if there is more time for you to plan.

TIA offers helping hand to adventure tourism operators

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 16:37:33 GMT

These really are extraordinary times. We wrote these words back in March and they ring as true now as back then.
When the first Lockdown hit AdventureMark started discussing and planning with industry bodies like WorkSafe, JAS-ANZ and TIA, among others, to try to find a way through these unprecedented circumstances.

We've been talking to many different organisations to try to find some form of compliance cost relief for operators. The truth is, for AdventureMark the cost of being accredited to provide audits dictates the cost of audits to operators. TIA understood this and used this information to petition government to provide financial relief to operators.

Below is the media release from TIA:
TIA offers helping hand to adventure tourism operators
TIA is offering adventure tourism operators a helping hand so they can complete safety audits.
Many operators covered by the Adventure Activities Regulations are due to undergo their full three-yearly safety audit in the next few months. Without an audit, which costs an average $4-5000, they are not permitted to operate.
TIA is concerned that some operators will struggle to cover their audit costs. TIA members facing hardship will be offered interest-free loans of up to 50% of the audit fee.
“This is an unprecedented step for TIA. We have explored the possibility of government funding but have been told by Ministers that none is available, so we are using our own balance sheet to support our members,” TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says.

Read our media release or email member@tia.org.nz for details.

Management of Extraordinary Events

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 16:36:15 GMT

These really are extraordinary times.
Events like the COVID-19 pandemic happen so seldom that we are very rarely prepared for them. The Adventure Activities Regulations certainly don't take this sort of event into account. When we read the Regulations or any audit standards, it seems that we need to continue audit activities (recertification, surveillance, etc) as per schedule. There's scope to use ICT- Information & Communication Technology- to avoid having to visit operators onsite. What isn't really considered is the fact that operators can't even conduct activities - so we can't audit them.

Taking this information into account, AdventureMark is working together with WorkSafe and JAS-ANZ to find a solution to enable us to maintain certification until such time as operators can begin activities again.
Our thinking follows four points:

Activities aren’t taking place.
People cannot access their offices/places of work.
Businesses aren’t receiving any income, making paying compliance costs difficult.
Businesses and staff are under a lot of stress, adding audits for activities they cannot provide could exacerbate this.

We hope to have more clarity soon. We understand that there is a lot of uncertainty at the moment. This is an uncertain time and we're working hard to keep communication lines open to reach a resolution soon. We will update our operators when there is news.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions at all.

Dealing with Isolation

Sun, 29 Mar 2020 16:35:07 GMT

The Owl and the Peacock by Sally Duxfield from Makahika OPC

Loving being at home, treasure the silence and the lack of interaction or are you going completely stir crazy and desire cuddles, laughter and people?
Needing something different at this time will depend on your level of extroversion or introversion.
As leaders, we need to be agile in our support processes and know when to engage with our team and when to leave them in their 'my-sky happy place'.

The HAWK - driven, solo, competitive, low empathy,
doesn't need your approval, drives projects and teams,
essential in times where high energy and focus are
required - introvert.

The PEACOCK - vivacious, happy, funny (particularly in
their own minds), love entertaining, drawing with
brightly coloured pens (on themselves), maintain high
energy for teams however can be a little distracting -
serious extrovert

The DOVE - quiet, kind, peace maker, loves being
around people but not necessarily speaking to them.
Hates conflict and happy to be led - quiet extrovert
who recharges around others

The OWL - process driven, low low low empathy,
technical, routine driven, fantastic at planning and
project management - strong introvert.

W H A T D O Y O U N E E D ?

The HAWK - Thank goodness - I don't have to talk to anyone and those annoying peacocks cannot disturb me - I don't need anyone else at this time, but need you to do what you've been told - quickly.

The PEACOCK - aaaahhh noooo, zoom me, message me, hello hello are you there, someone talk to me, desperately need you to speak to me, regularly, please make a time for us to message and drink coffee or gin together on a screen (quite large screen so you can see me properly)

The DOVE - I hate isolation, I don't know what to do as there are no Hawks to tell me; please don't forget about me. I don't have the courage to zoom you, but would love it if you remembered me and invited me for a coffee zoom call, please, thank you. and sorry for being a nuisance, sorry.

The OWL - the world is in order, we should all work in isolation. I'm about to go down into a rabbit hole and contemplate the end of the world. Constantly considering all things way way outside of my circle of influence and I probably need to be dragged into virtual social interaction so that I don't look up recipes for foxgloves just in case the end of the world is nigh.

SO it's time to nurture - explore the needs of your
team and consider the agility of your response to
your teams mental well-being.

Sally Duxfield
director@makahika.co.nz

Auditors who know your industry

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:34:07 GMT

We are very proud to have one of the most experienced adventure auditing teams around the globe. When our Auditors and TE's are not running audits they are out skiing, climbing, mountaineering kayaking, rafting, biking and are involved in the industry we care so much about. With rafting switching over to the Adventure Activities Regulations, AdventureMark has selected some of the most experienced and qualified rafters in New Zealand to join the auditing team. Having auditors who are also technical experts helps audits run smoothly and you can be assured that your auditor knows what they're talking about. Head over to Our Team to read more about the AdventureMark auditors.

Rafting to transfer to WorkSafe Adventure Activities

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:27:05 GMT

Hopefully by now if you are involved in rafting you will have an idea of the timelines involved in the transition of rafting from Maritime NZ to WorkSafe.

In September last year, Maritime NZ shared this information:

New regime for regulation of commercial river rafting and what this means for you

From 1 October 2020, where commercial river rafting is an “adventure activity” it will be subject to the Health and Safety (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016 and regulated by WorkSafe.
This change will streamline the regulatory oversight of rafting as an adventure activity.
As a result, there will be more flexibility for operators to develop operating procedures that best suit the needs of their business, and of their customers, while still meeting safety requirements.
In addition, the standards of ‘good practice’ will be maintained in the new guidelines developed.

Get ready

From 1 November 2019 you will need to prepare for registration with WorkSafe.
Determine whether the Adventure Activities regulations apply to you.
Get your Adventure Activities Audit done in time to enable you to register with WorkSafe on 1 October 2020.
You will be able to submit applications to WorkSafe for registration as an adventure activity operator from 1 April 2020.
Any certificate of compliance valid and current on 1 November 2019 will continue to be so until 1 October 2020, unless suspended or revoked by the Maritime NZ Director.

The sooner you engage with an audit body, the better prepared you will be when audit time comes around. AdventureMark are proud to have some of the most qualified rafters in the country on our audit team. Be assured that, at AdventureMark, your auditor knows the industry inside and out.

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss how best to prepare for an audit under the Adventure Activities Regulations, please feel free to get in touch with Mike on 021 2929090 or mike@adventuremark.co.nz

Recertification

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:24:21 GMT

Recertification is approaching fast for most operators in 2020. The regulations require that all operators go through a full audit at recertification. This occurs every 3 years. Here are a few tips to help streamline the process, keep costs down and make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible:-

Plan ahead! Read through your old audit reports and documents and make sure you have updated documents and made any changes required.

We will require you to fill in a new profile form and sign a new contract. Please contact us at least 6-8 weeks prior to your recertification date to get the ball rolling. We can audit you up to 3 months early so if you would prefer to get the ball rolling earlier... we are ready. We will be sure to contact you well in advance of your certification date, but it pays to be proactive.

Make sure that you are up to speed with the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016 and the New safety audit standard .

If you have made changes to your operation, staff, management, locations you operate, or scope of activities you offer you will need to inform us as soon as possible so we can plan your audit accordingly.
The Safety Audit Standard requires that you engage advice from technical advisors (internal or external). Staff training needs to be up to date, first aid certificates valid and evidence of emergency scenario training will need to be provided.

Don’t Panic!! As long as you follow the Safety Audit Standard, seek advice and plan well ahead to complete the above steps, recertification should be a straightforward process.

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to give Mike a call on 021 2929 090 or mike@adventuremark.co.nz

Observations from the field

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:21:46 GMT

This Article was published by Support Adventure in 2016. Many of the issues are still being observed in the field on audit.

What the Auditor Saw
Another year, another round of adventure activity safety audits. Or, at least, surveillance audits, to use that creepy auditing term. What did I see? Although operators have improved their safety planning considerably, I often saw review weaknesses – staff monitoring, incident trends, and safety management plan reviews – and some grumpiness too.

Grumpiness
There’s some grumpiness around time and cost, and that’s understandable. However, I did find the grumpiest operators viewing their audit as a compliance exercise rather than a value-added exercise – ‘clipping the ticket’, not an external review of their practices. They were especially grumpy when they had voluntarily worked hard to gain qualifications and received little recognition for their efforts from the audit process. They wanted the focus on leader skills, not on system auditing. They’re right in believing that the leader competence signaled by their qualifications is a key to safety, and I encourage leaders to gain qualifications. It’s a clearer path to determining competence than an internal process, which was often hazy. However, it’s not the whole package. The big picture requires more than competent leaders as the safety audit standard spells out. It requires operators to plan for matters such as hazard ID and management (including drugs and alcohol), staff induction and ongoing training, internal communication, risk disclosure, leadership support, legislation compliance, emergencies, and continual improvement. Operators who had attended workshops tended to understand this better.

Staff monitoring
I often saw good induction and training procedures but poor monitoring records. New staff were deemed competent and then assumed to be working to the plan. The best plan on the planet is no use if staff don’t work to it, and often managers just assumed they did. Accident investigations sometimes found otherwise, but that’s a little late. Monitoring isn’t an easy matter for operators whose staff work alone. Sometimes client feedback was cited as evidence, but if clients know enough about safety to usefully comment, maybe they wouldn’t be clients. The cost of observing a leader in the field is real, especially for small businesses, but what is more important than assurance that your plan is live, well, and driving safety? Sometimes peer review works for operators, and that’s acceptable. Assuming it’s formalised and recorded that is, maybe a standard one-pager that focuses on whether each staff member is working to the standard operating procedures.

Incident reviews
The safety audit standard requires operators to review a group of incidents, usually a season or a year’s worth. The idea is that a trend might emerge that wasn’t apparent when incidents were reviewed individually. This was generally well understood but not always well documented. Individually, incidents were usually well recorded and well analysed, although it was often far from clear whether that work resulted in change to the operating procedures. Better records of that process – record, analyse, change – is the next step. Analysing a block of incidents was not so well done. Sometimes I saw collated incidents only – no apparent analysis, no apparent change to procedures. The hard work had been done but the key learnings were not taken, or at least it wasn’t clear that they had. Not that the hard work always included recording and analysing near misses as well as accidents. Recording these free lessons is slowly becoming part of the sector’s culture, but nowhere as frequently as studies indicate they should be. If the operator’s safety culture doesn’t encourage recording near misses, the trend analysis will be short of data. The alternative is to wait for the accident….

Safety management plan reviews
Good plans need regular reviews, ideally involving staff, and certainly taking into account incidents and complaints, and relating performance to objectives. I saw a sector getting better at reviewing, but not always getting better at recording the process and updating plans, including their document control section. It is a requirement of the safety audit standard but the quality of safety management plan reviews remains variable. Conclusion Operators’ safety planning has improved. Numerous workshops, guidance from WorkSafe, and the SupportAdventure website have all played a part, not to mention the sanctions inherent in the regulations. The sector has come a long way in a short time but monitoring and continual improvement is a work in progress for some operators. They are key parts of the big challenge – building a positive safety culture.

Stu Allan coordinates the AdventureMark audit programme. He was a Tourism Industry Aotearoa Project Leader, an NZOIA Board member, and has worked as the Principal Advisor, Adventure Activities, to WorkSafe NZ.

Management Changes at AdventureMark™

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:20:29 GMT

AdventureMark™ has reluctantly accepted Jamie Simpson’s resignation as General Manager of AdventureMark. Jamie is leaving AdventureMark to focus on his investigation work with Kelvin TOP- SET. He’ll depart at the end of October but will remain available for quite some time should clients need his assistance. Jamie will also work for us as an auditor and as a consultant for the adventure industry and will still be heavily involved in adventure operations.

We’re very fortunate and excited to announce that we have someone of the calibre of Stu Allan to step into the General Manager’s role. Stu has been involved for many years in the adventure industry and is one of the most experienced outdoor safety auditors in the country. Stu has acted as a principal advisor to WorkSafe on setting up the adventure activities certification scheme, and will be on hand to guide clients through the audit process.

Those who’ve worked with Stu really enjoy his pragmatic approach to auditing. Jamie and Stu have been working together very closely over the past few years, and this will ensure a smooth transition for our clients.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jamie for all his hard work in not only managing AdventureMark over the last two and half years, but especially for the work he’s done raising its profile and growing the business. AdventureMark now works with over 250 operations and feedback from our operators and the wider outdoors industry has been excellent.

From 15 October, the contact for AdventureMark will be stu@adventuremark.co.nz and 0800 394 436

Hemi Morete- Managing Director AdventureMark™

The Simple Checklist

Wed, 30 May 2018 16:17:09 GMT

Many industries use checklists but they are often viewed as a tool for the inexperienced. This is not so. Look at pilots, doctors and construction workers. It is a necessity for safe operations. I can almost guarantee you feel more comfortable knowing that your pilot is following a checklist when you next jump on a plane.
In high hazard industries where expertise is respected it can be difficult to implement something as simple as a checklist. There is a kind of expert audacity that the use of a checklist may be below them. When the World Health Organisation implemented checklists for surgeons they faced huge criticism and kickback. However the mortality rate has dropped significantly globally. Large construction projects simply would not get off the ground without checklists and project management tools.

Pilots use them all the time even for mundane tasks. They are used especially in emergency situations. It allows the pilots to focus on problem solving.

They can be very very useful in outdoor adventure operations.

Here are a few situations checklists may be of use.

Common emergency scenarios
Guide unconscious procedures for clients.
Safety Briefs
Vehicle/Equipment checks
Pre departure checks.

The sign of a good checklist is one that is simple to use, efficient, and to the point. It acts as a memory aid. It should not slow down your procedures. If you have been involved in an emergency situation in an outdoor setting, you would likely agree that panic almost always sets in. Even with the most experienced instructors. A checklist keeps you on track.

I used to encourage all of my guides to have a small laminate of the safety brief in their buoyancy aid pockets. The most experienced guides can forget things. We are human and humans make mistakes. A simple checklist can help you keep on track.

As an adventure business owner it is another tool to ensure that your safety systems are being followed by your team.

Would you want a pilot to fly or surgeon to operate on you without a checklist?

Jamie Simpson is General Manager of AdventureMark™ and also works globally for Kelvin TOP_SET running major incident investigations around the globe.

Lead Auditor Stu Allan in Arapiles

Wed, 30 May 2018 16:15:19 GMT

Our Lead Auditor and TE for Rock and Abseil Stu Allan has recently returned from a climbing trip in the Arapiles.

In April, we made our annual pilgrimage to Arapiles in western Victoria – New Zealand’s best crag they say. Actually, it may be the best crag in the world. Once it was home to the world’s hardest climb, but now the big boys and girls seek out steeper stuff. However, for moderate and low-grade traditional routes (placing your own protection), Arapiles’ multi-pitch climbing is as good as it gets. The quartzite rock is 400 million years old, which explains why the holds tend to stay put.
We camped and climbed with a bunch of other NZers and ventured over to the nearby Grampians too. There we got happy (and a little scared) on yet more stunning routes that just quietly wait for climbers to come by.

QUAD BIKE HUI

Sun, 27 May 2018 16:13:05 GMT

Last week AdventureMark auditors Jamie Simpson and Simon Reynolds attended the Annual Quad Bike Hui organised by Tourism Industry Association and hosted by AdventureMark certified operator Wellington Adventures. After a great afternoon ride through stunning country it finished up with a BBQ and opportunity to meet other operators in the sector.
Day 2. The operators reviewed the revised ASG's for Quad biking. A vital part of ASG's is that they are owned by operators and all parties in the industry have the opportunity to contribute. AdventureMark ran presentations and discussions on the auditing process and common issues that arise in the sector. We looked at how to deal with incidents along with the likely course of action from the regulator should you have a major incident. It was a great opportunity to meet a group of really active operators from the Quad biking and motorsports sector.

AdventureMark™ TE Grant Prattley out exploring new Canyons

Sun, 13 May 2018 16:11:49 GMT

AdventureMark Technical Expert Grant Prattley has just been out exploring Holt Creek an undiscovered Canyon on the West coast. For a full article and photos check out this link

Swift Water Rescue Training with Rescue 3 International

Thu, 03 May 2018 16:10:47 GMT

AdventureMark Auditor and Manager Jamie Simpson has just been refreshing his swift water rescue skills on the Rescue 3 White Water Rescue Technician course. It was a really wet weekend in trying conditions which was ideal for the course. The Kaituna river was in flood on day two and the course covered lots of really practical simple techniques for recreational and commercial river users. Its a great course and widely recognised around the globe as a benchmark in swift water rescue training. For more details on the NZ courses contact Rescue 3 Assessor Dan Manzano on this link

Outdoor Qualifications and Auditing

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 16:18:59 GMT

Qualifications and Auditing

The Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities states that, to verify staff competence, ‘Nationally recognised qualifications should be used where relevant’.
Audit bodies need confidence that operators are working to a high level of safety standards, and qualifications are one way to evidence this. The alternatives are internal assessment and attestation, which can be cumbersome for the operator and less reliable for the auditor.

Qualifications are about individual competency

While some believe that qualifications should exempt operators from the audit process, this doesn’t really hold water. While outdoor qualifications benchmark you against an instructing or guiding standard, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can run a company safely. That is a very different skill set.
A good analogy is a taxi company: you may be a good, confident, licensed driver, but it doesn’t mean you can run a taxi company well.
The audit looks at a huge number of aspects, and staff competency is just one area we look at, even though it’s a very important area. As humans, we make mistakes and need good safety systems in place to back us up. I’ve seen very good instructors working in operations that simply don’t have good systems in place for them to operate safely.

Qualifications do have benefits
When an audit body carries out a site visit, qualifications do give an extra level of confidence. Qualifications have benefits and can save time onsite for the audit team and reduce the audit cost for operators.
If you run an operation with no qualified staff, you’re required to provide evidence that your competence has been verified by a technical advisor*. Your hazard assessment and risk management processes and annual reviews also need to involve a technical advisor. Technical advisors can be internal or external and shouldn’t be confused with the technical experts used by the audit bodies. The latter are independent, impartial, and aren’t allowed to allowed to provide specific advice.
Staff with the right level of nationally recognised qualifications and experience can act as a technical advisor internally. This saves operators the cost of bringing in external advisors or consultants. However, it’s still a good idea to have an external pair of eyes look over your systems because when you’re close to an operation you can miss things.
Qualified staff can also mean that your audit certification will cover a wider geographic scope. The audit body may be more confident in certifying you to operate in wider locations if staff have qualifications, particularly high-level qualifications.
For example, an operation with caving instructors who aren’t qualified may only be certified to operate in one local cave network. A company that uses NZOIA Cave 2 instructors may find that the audit body is happy to certify them for cave networks across New Zealand.

There will be more demand for qualified staff

Overall, qualifications give the audit team an extra level of confidence and should make the audit process smoother. It’s important that qualification bodies work hard with operators to develop qualifications that are relevant to the ever-evolving industry and are widely available across the country. As the industry grows and matures, there will be more and more demand for staff with professional qualifications.

* For the definitions of technical advisor and technical expert, please see the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities 2017
Jamie Simpson is the General Manager of AdventureMark and also works as an investigator and trainer for Kelvin TOP-SET . Jamie and Stu Allan will be covering this topic, along with other areas of the audit process, at the NZOIA Symposium.
For more information please go to www.adventuremark.co.nz

PADI Diving Risk Seminar

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 16:08:26 GMT

At AdventureMark™ we are constantly working with industry partners to discuss and improve safety across the adventure sector. This week our Diving lead auditors and technical experts Brian Franks and Robin De Guess attended a PADI diving seminar discussing risk and incidents in the diving industry. Great discussions were held around learning from incidents. If you would like to hear more about our safety audits for the diving sector here in New Zealand and overseas please do contact us.

TUSSOCKBUSTER 2018

Wed, 28 Mar 2018 16:06:55 GMT

An update from AdventureMark™ certified operator The Offlimits Trust

Offlimits is a charitable trust that raises funds to support the wellbeing of members of the New Zealand Defence Force and their families. It raises funds by conducting motorbike trail rides, motorbike guided rides, 4x4 guided tours, mountain biking and guided horse treks on the 65,000 ha that comprises the Waiouru Military Training Area. The trust would never be able to operate on Crown Land if it did not hold its Adventure Tourism Operator certification. This certification gives the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) a degree of peace of mind that events will be conducted professionally plus it helps NZDF meet its obligations as the land owner.
23-25 March saw 1500 keen motorbike riders participate in the annual TUSSOCKBUSTER event. This is the largest motorsport event in Australasia. The event is entirely run by volunteers and approximately 70 helpers come together once a year to fill the roles of track marshals, sign on crew, administrators, command post staff etc.

Offlimits is a certificated Adventure Tourism Operator. David Greenslade- one of the Offlimits trustees indicated that due to the diverse range of events, its SMS is huge. However, we handle this by having good SOPs, job descriptions, good induction processes, a marshal’s manual plus an annual training weekend for helpers.
TUSSOCKBUSTER has approximately 300km of marked trails covering approximately 20,000 ha so there are significant geographical and logistical challenges with safety. This issue is overcome by having approximately 50 RTs on hand that operate via the military radio repeaters located around the training area. Additionally, marshals are despatched with military precision to ride the tracks and assist riders. Quad bikes with specially designed recovery trailers are positioned at key locations to quickly move to recover broken bikes or injured riders. Offlimits has a dedicated helicopter on site to quickly recover the more seriously injured riders and return them to the large medical support team at the Offlimits event HQ.
Motorbike trail rides are traditionally a high risk activity. Offlimits has always had an enviable safety record achieved via good track marking, well defined rules that all participants must follow, plus a high level of written and verbal briefing and explanation of the hazards. However, injuries still occur and the TUSSOCKBUSTER18 medical team (in this instance ProMed) sent 13 riders to hospital for a variety of injuries. This might sound like a large number but when viewed in the context of 1,500 riders participating for three days and covering approximately 400,000 km off-road, then the hospitalisation injury rate is only 0.0086% which is extremely low when compared to other motorbike trail ride events.
Offlimits is happy to talk with other Adventure Tourism operators about how it operates and share its experiences around how it keeps participants as safe as it possibly can. For more information on The Offlimits Trust please check out this link.

Learning from Incidents in the Outdoors

Mon, 26 Mar 2018 16:04:34 GMT

“Good judgement comes from experience…and experience, well that comes from bad Judgement”

Learning to Fail Safely

I was recently camping in the bush with my 5-year-old son. We had a small camp fire and as I ran off to collect some more wood, my son put his finger into the edge of the fire and burned his finger. I had warned him several times on the dangers of the fire but the situation got me thinking.
What could I do better in the future and what have we both learned from this. There is no point dwelling on the past and getting angry about the situation. (At least that’s what I told my wife when home). It would be best to look to the future and look at what I could have done better.

What have we both learned

I need to be a better dad and keep a closer eye on my very young and inexperienced son.
My son definitely learned a painful lesson and it is likely he won’t put his finger in a fire again.
I need to have burn cream in my first aid kit

In many ways, the second point has provided my son with a painful but useful lesson. Not ideal but probably more effective than his dad telling him over and over again about the dangers of fire. Ideally, we want outdoor instructors to gain hands on experience but perhaps failing in a safe way would be a better way of achieving this. They do need to be allowed to make mistakes to improve.

Traditionally having incidents has a stigma attached to it. People in the outdoor industry and many other industries analyse too quickly and make judgement too fast. If you are operating in dangerous activities it is very likely you will have incidents. It is how we react to them that is important. Safety should not be judged by the absence of incidents but by the absence of controls you have in place.

Working as a safety auditor in both the adventure industry and auditor and investigator in wider industries around the globe. I am often bombarded by people who see little value in safety. They see it as unnecessary red tape and systems that tend to slow down productivity. If implemented correctly it should do exactly the opposite.

Essentially good safety systems are based around constantly learning and constantly improving. Something that should be entrenched into outdoor instructor training on day one.
If you work in a shoe factory you are trained how to make shoes first and typically safety is a side-line to productivity. Outdoor Instructors learn about safety from day one. It is integral to running activities in dangerous environments.

What the outdoor industry are often not so good at is recording minor incidents, near misses and documenting the learnings from these incidents. We have lots of them. These are just free lessons.

Humans make mistakes. That is not only your clients but your instructors and the owner operators too. We can build systems around clients and instructors to allow them to fail safely. Car manufacturers realised this early on. We won’t stop humans from crashing cars but we can improve systems around them. Air bags, ABS, speed limits, seatbelts etc.

Formula 1 racing used to have a huge number of fatalities in Jackie Stewarts era. Today we can witness a formula 1 car crash at 200kms/hr and the driver walks away. This is due to the companies sharing data and learning from incidents. Something we need to get better at in the outdoor world.

Unfortunately there is a conflict between those that wish to learn from incidents and share data. Those that like to assign blame too quickly, and the commercial and legal pressures of keeping incidents confidential. The media play a big part in this too. This will hopefully improve over time as people start to realise incidents do happen when humans are involved. Its how we react and deal with incidents that is important.

If I take 3000 people to the cinema over a year I would expect to have some minor incidents or close calls… just like if I take 3000 people over a mountain pass. It is just probability. No matter how small an incident we can always learn and always improve and always share our findings.

What we want is people to fail safely. You cannot control whether your client or instructor has a random heart attack or is stung by a bee. You can have systems in place to deal with these situations effectively and efficiently. Clear emergency procedures, staff trained in first aid, charged and tested communication devices. You can essentially set up to fail safely.

Incidents don’t just have to be safety based. If your booking system fails or a client turns up with the wrong gear then that is an incident. If your weather forecasting was off the mark for the day and you had to turn a kayak trip back… that is an incident. An Incident in simple terms is:- “something you did not want to happen”
You can review the situation as a team and improve your operation. The same process for an incident on the river or mountain can be used for a bookings failure in your company.

So, next time you have an incident don’t look at it as a negative. Learn from it, make improvements, share the findings and move on. It will make you a better more experienced instructor and operator. Sharing the information with other operators and competitors is key. A major incident in the adventure industry impacts everyone.

If you genuinely believe that you are at the top of your game, won’t have incidents and can’t improve anymore... then you are probably in the wrong industry. It could be time to hang up your climbing boots, sell your kayak and move on.

“If you want 100% accuracy get a machine. It is not possible from Humans” – Dr Todd Conklin

Jamie Simpson is General manager of AdventureMark™ . He also works for Kelvin TOP-SET around the globe investigating major disasters and teaching companies and individuals how to run effective simple incident investigations and learning teams.

Heliski Himalayas

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 16:03:01 GMT

We are very pleased to have one of the most experienced adventure auditing teams around the Globe.
Our team are constantly working at a high level here in NZ and around the World. Here is a shot just sent in from one of our lead auditors Hugh Barnard out working with a heli ski operation in the Himalayas this week. Next week he is of to British Columbia and Alaska for more of the same.
You can find out more about our team here

February News

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:01:48 GMT

A Link to our latest February Newsletter. Sign up for regular updates on our homepage

Recertification Dates.. Plan Ahead

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 16:01:09 GMT

If you are an existing AdventureMark™ certified operator and your recertification date falls in October or November then you will have received a recertification email with a new contract for 2017. This must be returned to AdventureMark™ before we can start the recertification process. Please contact us if you have not received that email.
Clients with recertification dates in December and January will receive a notification email in the coming weeks.
It is important you return the new signed contract to AdventureMark™ ASAP. We can then appoint your auditor and start the document review process. The sooner you return your documents..... the sooner we can plan your on site visit. This allows our team to try and plan your audit with other operators in your region and keeps travel costs down. Your documentation review and on site visit must be completed at least 14 days prior to your recertification date. WorkSafe need at least 14 days to complete your registration. Please make sure you plan ahead so there is no disruption to your certification. There is very little leeway on recertification dates from WorkSafe. Please do Contact AdventureMark™ if you have any questions about the process at all. If you are thinking of transferring over to AdventureMark™ from another audit provider, please contact us as soon as possible so we can be sure to schedule your audit before your recertification date.

Recertification

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 15:59:22 GMT

Recertification is getting close for a lot of operators. You can complete your recertification audit up to 3 months prior to your recertification date. It is important that you plan well ahead. We have started documentation reviews for a number of operators. We can start your document review immediately. Planning ahead will allow our team to keep travel costs lower. We will also try and schedule on site audits so you can share travel costs with other operators. The recertification audit requires a full document review and on site visit. We will need to sign a new contract and send you an audit plan so please get in touch as soon as possible to get the ball rolling and avoid any disruption to your certification. For more information and tips on recertification please see here

Safety Alert Scuba Cylinders

Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:58:47 GMT

A recent safety update from WorkSafe on Scuba Cylinder approvals being withdrawn

Am I running an Adventure Activity?

Sun, 30 Jul 2017 15:57:43 GMT

If you are unsure whether your adventure activity is subject to the adventure activity regulations, you can have a look here to help you decide. If you are still unsure you can contact WorkSafe adventure activities desk to clarify on this link.
If your operation is subject to the regulations you will need to register with WorkSafe and will require A Full AdventureMark™ Blue Audit. You may find that some of your activities are subject to the regulations and some are not. If this is the case we can easily carry out a full audit encompassing both the AdventureMark™ Blue and Green Audits. For more information on the audit process check out this link. If you have any questions at all please do contact us and we will happily talk you through the process.

Latest News from Support Adventure

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 15:56:28 GMT

Here is the latest update from Support adventure .

Tips and Resources

Mon, 29 May 2017 15:55:44 GMT

We often have requests from operators for advice on developing documents in preparation for audit. Unfortunately as auditors we have a strict set of guidelines which means we cannot consult. We need to remain impartial. However here are some really useful tips and tricks available from various sites

1. Activity Safety Guidelines
2. The New Legislation
3. The Health and Safety at Work Act
4. Overlapping Duties
5. Guidance for Operators
6. The 2017 Safety Audit Standard
7. Notifiable Events
8. Managing Drugs and Alcohol
9. Forms and Templates

2017 Recertification

Fri, 12 May 2017 15:54:00 GMT

Recertification is approaching fast for most operators in 2017. The regulations require that all operators go through a full audit at recertification. This occurs every 3 years.

Here are a few tips to help streamline the process, keep costs down and make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible:-

Plan ahead! Read through your old audit reports and documents and make sure you have updated documents and made any changes required.

We will require you to fill in a new profile form and sign a new contract. Please contact us at least 6-8 weeks prior to your recertification date to get the ball rolling. We can audit you up to 3 months early so if you would prefer to get the ball rolling earlier... we are ready.

There have been changes to the Health and Safety at Work (Adventure Activities) Regulations 2016 and the New safety audit standard . Your SMS will need to reflect these changes, and you will also need to demonstrate that you have implemented these changes.

If you have made changes to your operation, staff, management, locations you operate or scope of activities you offer you will need to inform us as soon as possible so we can plan your audit accordingly.

The Safety Audit Standard requires that you engage advice from technical advisors (internal or external). Staff training needs to be up to date, first aid certificates valid and evidence of emergency scenario training will need to be provided.

Don’t Panic!! As long as you follow the new standard, seek advice and plan well ahead to complete the above steps, recertification will be a straightforward process.

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to give Jamie a call on 0220912347 or Jamie@adventuremark.co.nz

New auditors join the AdventureMark™ Team

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 15:52:31 GMT

AdventureMark™ are pleased to welcome 5 new team members that bring a wealth of outdoor and auditing experience to the company. Stu Allan, Hugh Barnard, Ray Goldring, Mark Smith and Mark Woods (Budgie) have recently joined the AdventureMark™ team.

We now have a large team of auditors that have a wide range of technical expert qualifications. This keeps the cost of audits down for you as operators as it can reduce the expense of having large audit teams on the ground.

Our Current Team
Simon Reynolds – Lead Auditor- TE- Motorsports/4WD/Quads
Todd Karipa – Lead Auditor- TE- High Ropes/Zip
Tony Hill – Lead Auditor
David Greenslade – Lead Auditor- TE – Motorsports/ 4WD/Quads
Jamie Simpson – Lead Auditor- TE- White Water/Kayaking
Stu Allan – Lead Auditor- TE- Rock Climb/Abseil
Hugh Barnard – Lead Auditor- TE- Mountaineering/Ski Touring/Rock Climbing
Mark Smith – Lead Auditor- TE- High Ropes/Zip
Brian Franks – Lead Auditor- TE- Diving
Ray Goldring – Lead Auditor
Mark (Budgie) Woods – Lead Auditor- TE- Mountain biking
Hemi Morete – Lead Auditor
Ben Anderson – Lead Auditor

We also have a great team of technical experts available.

If you would like more information on the AdventureMark™ team or wish to discuss the simple process of transferring your audit body over to AdventureMark™ contact Jamie Simpson on jamie@adventuremark.co.nz or 0220912347

NZ Adventure Activities Certification Scheme - Three years on

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 15:49:14 GMT

The Following Webinar hosted by the NZ recreation association helps break down the findings.

Some Really Interesting stuff on the impacts and benefits of rolling out the scheme.

AdventureMark™ Tips

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:48:26 GMT

We are often asked in the field by our clients when do we pick up the phone and report an incident to WorkSafe.

Here is a link on notifiable events from the WorkSafe site that should help explain this.

Transferring to AdventureMark™

Fri, 02 Dec 2016 15:47:36 GMT

Transferring your audit provider over to AdventureMark™ is a very simple and straightforward process. It can be done at any stage throughout the audit process and is free.

Our team prides itself on focussing on you as a client and making sure that your audit process is simple, straightforward and transparent. Our hugely experienced team are spread over the North and South islands which means we can work hard to keep travel costs down for you. Our office is run by a lead auditor with years of experience running his own adventure operations so you can be sure that when you pick up the phone you will have a knowledgeable team ready to help.

If you would like a free no obligation quote on transferring your audit provider to AdventureMark™ please contact us for more information

AdventureMark™ General Manager

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:46:43 GMT

AdventureMark™ is now JAS-ANZ Accredited

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 15:44:33 GMT

We have now completed our JAS-ANZ accreditation. This rigorous auditing process makes sure that as clients you will receive the very best, consistent and professional auditing service from AdventureMark™. Our professional friendly team have a huge amount of experience running adventure operations and working in high hazard environments around the globe so you can be sure AdventureMark™ will make your certification process as simple as possible.

If you would like to hear more about transferring your audit provider to AdventureMark™ contact us to find out how easy it is.