My wife and I, are going to a a location full of beaches.
My wife is 4 months pregnant and she wants to do a para-sailing session.
They take off from the beach, fly over the sea for 5 minutes and then land you back on the beach.
It looks gentle enough to me. There seem to be no jerks except a minor one when you take off.
So is it safe enough?
I never tried parasailing but I will not recommend any sport that might put excessive pressure on the belly of a pregnant woman. The amniotic fluid only protects against moderate pressures by decreasing the intensity of the pressure.
Last but not least, there have been a number of fatalities. I definitely agree with Rory Alsop, it is not a safe sport.
From this article:
Parasail.org, which bills itself as "the official parasailing information website," reports 384 accidents with 83 serious injuries and 28 deaths in the United States and its territories from 1980-2009.
A similar U.S. Coast Guard study from 1992-2001 totaled 59 accidents with 64 injuries and three deaths.
This appears relatively safe. Even accident statistics produced by groups pushing for regulation are pretty mild. Industry regulation is a pretty politicized process, creating plenty of pressures to inflate injury rates -- so if even those are small, it's probably safe. Those sites (such as this one) only have a minor injury rate of 0.001%. Realistically your wife is more likely to be hurt driving to the location to parasail and showering afterwards than in the actual event.
"Statistics" that give raw counts without perspective are useless. Is 59 accidents in 20 years a lot? A little? It informs very little regarding the risk of accident. 59 accidents in 59 trips would be 100% chance of injury. Without knowing the ratio, the number of accidents is meaningless.
(A note, I just edited this after three years and I have no idea where the link was originally intended to go)
