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SINGAPORE: At least three outdoor sports operators are reviewing their safety procedures after a man was killed by lightning while paddleboarding last Sunday (Jul 5), even though existing protocols already require activities to stop at the first sign of dangerous weather.<\/p>\n
Operators told CNA that while Category 1 lightning warnings are clear “no-go” signals, instructors also rely heavily on what they see and hear on the ground, since conditions at sea can shift faster than official alerts.<\/p>\n
Fish On, which rents kayaks and runs guided kayak tours, said it is in talks with another kayak fishing operator on how to improve its protocols.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Founder Mohammad Nordin said the company relies on both the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) lightning alerts and its own observations to gauge how close lightning is.<\/p>\n
“Once we see the flash of lightning, we start counting to see when the thunder reaches us, and that’s how we know how far it is,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n “Ideally, when lightning is 6km away, we need to start heading to the nearest shelter. If it’s 3km away, we should be close to a shelter and if it’s 1km, we should all be under the shelter. But in reality, at 6km, the lightning is usually quite faint, so we might not see it.”<\/p>\n On-site lightning warning systems, which use both lights and sirens to alert people at sea, may also be less effective for those farther offshore, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n “We can hear the alarm if we’re nearby but if we’re more than 300m from shore, you can’t really hear it. Even though they have lights, you can’t see them from the sea because there are so many trees blocking it.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mr Nordin plans routes that let participants reach shelter within 30 minutes if weather deteriorates, and issues every customer a walkie-talkie to stay in contact while on the water.<\/span><\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s incident appears to be a one-off situation, he said. “In my many years of kayak fishing, I have never come across this, so it was really a surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if there\u2019s much we can improve on but I want to talk to other operators to see if there\u2019s anything we can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Mikhail Benyamin, a freelance sea sports instructor who worked with Outdoor Adventures, died in the lightning strike off Pasir Ris Beach last Sunday. He had borrowed paddleboards and kayaks from Kokomo Beach Club, a brand under Outdoor Adventures, for an outing with family and friends.<\/p>\n It comes less than two months after a worker at a Lim Chu Kang fish farm died after being struck by lightning, adding to questions about how outdoor activities should respond to fast-changing weather.<\/p>\n The day after Mr Mikhail’s death, Outdoor Adventures chief operating officer Berwin Tan said the company would step up instructor training, particularly on weather awareness and navigating changing conditions at sea.<\/span><\/p>\n Another company that organises guided kayaking, cycling and nature experiences said it reviewed its safety measures almost immediately after learning about the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adventures by Asian Detours said its review covered instructor training, emergency protocols, evacuation procedures and participant briefings, including ensuring participants know their route, nearest landing points and who to contact in an emergency.<\/p>\n Operations staff and instructors independently monitor conditions before participants head out, with instructors reporting back before activities begin. If conditions deteriorate, activities are postponed or cancelled, the company’s head of operations Samuel Tan said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did revisit our protocols to ensure that something like that doesn’t happen, but because it happened in a very clear sky, that is something that we cannot predict. That would become a case where even if the sky is clear, we can\u2019t go out and paddle, which is not possible,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo as much as we can, we control with the amount of data we gather \u2026 and rely on what we see and feel to decide whether to go on with the programme.\u201d<\/p>\n Participants are briefed before every trip on designated evacuation points along the coastline, so they know where to land quickly if the weather turns, he added.<\/p>\n The incident has not led to a noticeable rise in cancellations, but has heightened awareness within the industry, Mr Tan said.<\/p>\n “It’s really a reminder to revisit your protocols. Are you doing everything correctly? Does everybody know what they are supposed to do?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE: At least three outdoor sports operators are reviewing their safety procedures after a man was killed by lightning while paddleboarding last Sunday (Jul 5),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--dVOyzqdn--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/07\/06\/img_2503.jpg?itok=D9NypuGs","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[642,159,9602,5002,10746,4440,14274,28,6091,398,89],"class_list":["post-67249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-among","tag-death","tag-lightning","tag-operators","tag-outdoor","tag-pasir","tag-prompts","tag-review","tag-ris","tag-safety","tag-sports","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}REVIEWING SAFETY MEASURES<\/h2>\n
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