These guidelines are intended for educational purposes only. The are not intended as a basis for evidence of legal responsibility or negligence in any legal action. TAPS's suggested guidelines are for commercial tours, rentals and lessons and it is recognized that each area and each situation calls for different responses and implies no limitations on solutions the o perator may choose. It should be remembered that every situation is different and your trip may not fit readily into one category or another.
Sound judgment is the most important quality for a group leader.
Tour party members can not be relied upon to help themselves or other party members though the competence level of the group is always a consideration. Involve gentle tours in sloughs and deltas, and in inhabited, non-challenging, protected waterways not exposed to current more than one knot or open water. Such trips are usually undertaken for a secon dary purpose such as bird watching, photography, etc. Involve protected water tours in lightly populated areas with exposure to currents up to two knots and crossin gs of one hour or more with a fetch greater than five miles, sheltered coves and safe beaches every mile or so with small surf and a schedule of less than four hours a day. Factors that affect this ratio include all factors that increase or decrease the seriousness of the situation as defined above.