Outdoor education--be it canoe tripping, adventure programs, field studies or anything else--is inherently risky. Outdoor educators deal with unpredictable settings and situations, where change is constant and outcomes are sometimes uncertain. In this naturalistic environment, their risk management procedures have the potential to break down and people can get hurt. It might be a change in the weather, staff fatigue, a lapse of judgment or just a freak accident. They may have written the best policies, set the highest standards and hired the most talented people but accidents can still happen. In this article, the author mentions the areas where, as an industry, outdoor educators excel: they have great policies and operating procedures, good standards and stellar people. But there are three more areas where he thinks they can improve. Specifically, he thinks they can do a better job training good decision makers, reporting and utilizing incident data, and providing adequate supervision that leads to proper and regular retraining. Their programs and facilities will benefit from a fresh approach to risk management. (Contains 1 footnotes.)