So for most grade 10s at around this age, we all start to enter the workforce, maybe working a summer job or maybe through the winter as well. This summer I was part of this group, I worked the whole summer at Osaka Sushi in Deep Cove and towards the end of the summer I was also employed at Deep Cove Kayak. I worked both jobs from about the end of August until the beginning of October, so compared to most of my peers I have quite a it of experience working. But this planning section is a lot about safety at the workplace. The first day we took a quiz about work safety.

Then we had quite an expensive class discussion about being safe at work. The dangers that are at the workplace and how we can avoid them. For both of my jobs I could get hurt without trying very hard, working in a kitchen I could get easily burnt, cut and more. Working in Deep Cove on the waterfront I am lifting boats all day, and there is a chance of me dropping them in myself. This has happened. I can also be hit by kayaks, cut myself trying to work with the kayaks and also I am outside in the rain sometimes, so there’s a chance of getting sick as well.

Next what we did is we watched a video. This video is called Lost Youth.

Now, these situation are extreme but the message is clear, the workplace is a dangerous place even when it doesn’t seem like it is.

The final part of this assignment is to make some kind of media that we think relates to the topic of workplace safety, and related to us. I have hinted earlier that I work at Deep Cove Kayak. I am part of the beach crew, our job is to send people out on the water, to make sure they have been given a proper s after talk, they have the right boat, and most importantly that they have the right safety gear. That final part is the most important. From my experience of telling people to wear life jackets, their reaction is often irritation, they’re ‘good swimmers’ and don’t need one. That terrible excuse led me to make an add about life jacket usage and the common statement ‘but I’m a good swimmer.’

This is an add that I believe could be desplayed at any kayak/paddleboard shop or at any place where people are adventuring on the ocean, a river or a lake.

I chose to do this kind of visual instead of one that we talked about in class or that the videos mentioned because this one is close to me. It’s not only a safety precaution I have to deal with at work but I have had a couple experiences where an add like this could’ve made a difference. The best example was a couple years ago in Oregon a very experienced paddle boarder went ‘downwinding’ this is when you surf the waves that strong winds and river currents make. He wasn’t wearing a life jacket or a leash. He was missing for 3 days and on the third day they found his body.

That might sound completely unrelated but during those 3 days I was among the hundreds at the gorge paddle challenge, a race in the exact same place that he was and a race that he was going to participate in. That’s an example of why I see life jackets as a necessity.