Canoeing injuries can broadly fall under one of two categories – overuse or trauma. Overuse injuries are the cumulative result of repetitive motions. The risk of suffering an overuse injury is substantially increased when repetition is combined with doing the motion too frequently, too long in duration, or too vigorously. Trauma injuries are acute injuries, such as when someone canoeing capsizes or is struck by some object within their environment.
Specific injury statistics related to canoeing (as a whole) are very limited due to its many different disciplines. However, there have been several injury studies on specific canoeists . For example, a study of 278 outrigger canoe paddlers was published in the Hawaii Medical Journal. This particular study found that 62% of the 278 outrigger canoe paddlers suffered some type overuse musculoskeletal injury from paddling. Such a finding, regardless of the particular discipline, isn’t uncommon since all canoeing activities center around repetitive, frequent, prolonged, and/or vigorous paddling to propel the canoe through the body of water.