Yeah, it goes beyond sea kayaking. The typical modern person is ill-prepared for most encounters with nature. In his phenomenal book, "Deep Survival", Gonzales appropriately notes how most in modern society are like fish in a fish tank. We swim around carefree, and food magically falls into the tank. Modern society has been constructed to remove most risk and hardship.

We then go out into raw nature, and just don't have the training or background to deal with the extreme forces at work.

I don't think this is something that any one industry can combat...unfortunately. Nevertheless, discussion boards like this can be one small part of helping ourselves to become more familiar with the factors at play, and to learn from the mistakes of others, rather than learning the hard way.