Glenn, you may have thought you were being ironic, and in retrospect I can see that. On first reading, though, you came across as sarcastic. There's a big difference: irony generally involves humor, while sarcasm is a form of verbal violence, though you, too, may not have meant it that way. I'm not poking at you, just sharing a neutral perspective.
Now here's a decidedly non-neutral perspective: There's no way on this earth I'd participate in a mass watersport event, for the same reasons the other "nervous nellies" have given. I've been on rivers with inexperienced paddlers (mostly kayakers) who couldn't recognize a hazard if it fell across the river. What happens is one boat gets cockeyed, another one gets caught up, and then there's a chain reaction. I'm just glad I've been behind the clusters that I've seen form on the upstream side of strainers and the downwind ends of lakes. It isn't pretty when you come around a bend and see half a dozen people standing in the river, some in contact with their boats, others not. It gives me shivers to think of that happening in deep water with a much larger group.
This seems a good time to point out that it's complacency that kills. The attitude of "It'll be OK" leads to mistakes, and when there's a risk of drowning, or freezing, or falling off a cliff, or getting caught in a snowstorm or avalanche, the too-common result is a lack of breathing, which is generally considered non-habit-forming (now that's irony).
I guess I've said enough, which is probably too much. Next post .....