Sports & Activities Coverage for Extreme Adventure Travel

Who doesn’t like to have a little adventure when it comes to travel? We recognize that most travellers do! That’s why Visitors to Canada and Emergency Medical Insurance for Canadians cover many of the activities you love to do while away, like skiing, parasailing or ziplining. That said, if you’re a more daring traveller who really likes to have an adventure, we’ve also got you covered.

Our Sports & Activities Optional Coverage makes it easy to customize your travel insurance to plan your next adventure trip—and take it to the next level.  

Sports & activities to add to your bucket list

By adding Sports & Activities Coverage to your Emergency Medical Insurance, you’ll be able to enjoy:  

• Backcountry skiing/snowboarding

• BASE jumping

• Boxing

• Downhill freestyle skiing/snowboarding in organized competitions

• Downhill mountain biking

• Hang gliding/paragliding

• High-risk snowmobiling

• Ice climbing

• Mixed martial arts

• Motorized speed contests

• Mountaineering

• Organized team sports* includes:

  • American and Canadian football

  • Ice hockey

  • Rugby

• Parachuting/skydiving/tandem skydiving

• Rock climbing (includes canyoneering but does not include indoor rock climbing)

• Scuba diving or free diving over 40 metres

• White water sports (Class VI)

• Wingsuit flying

*Not required if you’re aged 20 years old or younger.

Which sports & activities aren’t covered?

All sports and activities not included in the list above are covered under the Emergency Medical Insurance plan, meaning you don’t have to buy the Sports & Activities Coverage.  

However, there are a few exceptions that aren’t covered, even with the Sports & Activities Coverage added: 

• Barrel racing

• Bronc riding

• Bull riding

• Chariot racing

• Chuckwagon racing

• Harness racing

• Rodeo bareback riding

• Rodeo clowning

• Rodeo team roping

• Steer wrestling /chute dogging

• Trick riding

  Avoid any areas closed off to public access by safety authorities

  If you’re participating, training or practicing in any areas that have been closed off to public access by safety authorities (or areas that can typically only be accessed by crossing a fenced, gated or roped-off area marked as off-limits), you won’t be covered for: 

  • Backcountry skiing / snowboarding

  • Downhill freestyle skiing / snowboarding in organized competitions

  • High-risk snowmobiling

  • Ice climbing

  • Mountaineering

  • Rock climbing

  While we’ve always encouraged travellers to have fun exploring the world, we recognize that travel has changed with COVID-19. Please always put your health and safety first; and before you go, be sure to peruse our comprehensive guide “Understanding Your Travel Insurance Policy”. 

  Safe adventures,
  Melissa 

  Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2020 and has been updated for freshness and/or accuracy. 

Out cold – ski & snowboard injuries leading cause of winter sport hospital admissions in BC

Winter sports are a great way to stay active, but come with an element of risk. In BC, skiing and snowboarding injuries account for nearly five times as many hospital admissions as hockey. 

“As soon as it snows, we see a spike in emergency room visits related to winter sports injuries,” notes Dr. David Evans, medical director for Trauma Services BC, a program of the Provincial Health Services Authority, and a trauma surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital. “Many of these injuries are serious and require long recoveries. Some result in permanent disability. Fortunately, most are preventable – often simply by wearing a helmet, and avoiding excessive speed or reckless behaviour.”

In 2014/15, 455 people in BC were hospitalized with injuries caused by skiing or snowboarding, compared to 94 people who were hospitalized playing hockey. Of the 455 ski/snowboard-related hospitalizations, more than half (52 per cent) were for major injuries such as extremity fractures, brain trauma, internal organ injury or spinal cord injuries.

With ski-related injuries, males are hospitalized twice as often as females. For snowboarding, males are four times as likely as females to end up with injuries requiring hospitalization. Of these, males aged 15 to 30 are the most likely to get injured while snowboarding.

These statistics come from BC’s provincial trauma registry. The BC Trauma Registry is responsible for the collection and management of clinical data on trauma patients to help ensure patients are getting the best possible care, no matter where they live in the province.

Quick facts:

• While snowmobiling accounts for fewer hospitalizations than ice hockey, more people who go to hospital following a snowmobiling incident have major injuries. 

• Snowmobiling hospitalizations commonly involve males age 20 to 60.

• 70 per cent of people who go to hospital after a toboggan, or sledding, related injury have a major injury. 

• Those hospitalized for hockey injuries are most likely to be males age 10 to 19. 

• Winter sport-related injuries in BC: 2014/15 BC Trauma Registry data:

Skiing  

• 310 hospitalizations (including major injury)

• 154 hospitalizations for major injury

Snowboarding 

• 145 hospitalizations (including major injury)

• 81 hospitalizations for major injury

Ice hockey

• 94 hospitalizations (including major injury)

• 38 hospitalizations for major injury

Snowmobiling

• 80 hospitalizations (including major injury)

• 42 hospitalizations for major injury

Tobogganing

• 10 hospitalizations (including major injury)

• 7 hospitalizations for major injury

According to the BC Coroners Service:

• between 2007 and 2013, 136 people died in BC related to winter sport activities.

• 50 per cent of these deaths were ski and snowboard-related.

• Head injuries were responsible for 26 per cent of the ski-related deaths and 20 per cent of snowboard-related deaths.

• The other 50 per cent of deaths were linked to snowmobiling.

Source - Melissa Mueller - Corporate Communications - Provincial Health Services Authority