Free Kayaking in Nyc!? How New York Became a Paddling City
Free Kayaking in New York City?! How New York Became a Paddling City
From Pristine Wilderness Paddled in Dugout Canoes to Industrial Harbor to Urban Adventure, New York’s waterways have quietly undergone one of the most remarkable transformations in the world
There was a time the idea of paddling around Manhattan sounded almost absurd, yet my dad and members of the City Island Kayak Club did it annually in the 1960’s, the apex of max NYC maritime industrialization and pollution.
I asked him in his later years. “Do you remember that the water was really dirty or smelly?“ .
He said with a smile, ” No, I do not. But I remember what a a great trip it always was….and the laughs and some beers we had afterwards“.
When my father, Dieter Stiller, first imported and distributed Klepper Folding Kayaks into the United States in the late 1950’s from his shop on 820 Greenwich Street .. New York was a working harbor-commercial, gritty,.
The NYC/NJ waterfront was a pretty rough place made famous by Marlon Brando’s epic movie “On The Waterfront“ inspired by Malcolm Johnson’s 1949 Pulitzer Prize winning articles for the New York Sun called “Crime on the Waterfront”.
So his colleague and my namesake Eric Seidel was doing first run descents in his kayak in Colorado.
While my dad took a Klepper Kayak in its two canvas bags on a bus from San Diego to Seattle visiting potential dealers. The various hiking, canoeing and ski shops watched the two green bags turn into a beautiful kayak in less than 10 minutes every time.
He went back to NYC and was busy doing the business to make sure this new sport worked by getting boats to people in boxes in trucks picking up and leaving NYC.
The first office was a second floor walk up. When the 13 foot rigid kayaks first arrived, he needed to pull them up the side of the building and through the window
Soon, they moved to 35 Union Square West as popularity grew in the country. The time my dad was able to get in the boats was reduced as the need to make sure invoices were filed, catalogs were printed, rent and payroll was paid, checks were deposited.
He answered every phone call cheerfully.He greeted every person who walked in the door, to build and serve a brand new community of paddlers one satisfied customer at a time.
He prized his perpetually updated list of books, magazine articles and local clubs.
So customers could learn more about kayaking.
And where to do it safely and competently.
He was a steward of the sport.
He kindly declined offers by the big canoe companies to offer him their best boats on consignment in be displayed in the heart of Manhattan.
” We are bringing kayaks to America“
He informed all his new customers through stories that he learned and gathered from all his dealers and clients across the country.
“Some one has to do the work to make sure people receive enjoy their boats in a timely fashion“
He always made sure his clients were served to the best of his capabilities.
My friends called him “Gandalf“
New York City’s waterfront got worse in the early 1970’s as NYC almost went bankrupt. The hey day of famous ocean liners visiting NYC declined and hundreds of piers decayed. An era was coming to a close..
This story began a long time ago…
For thousands of years, the area we call New York , was one of the most verdant, flora and fauna rich, estuaries on the planet.
” So many birds that it blocked out the sun”.
“So many fish you could pick them out of the water with your hands”.
Henry Hudson said when he first arrived in 1609.
He also said “The land is the finest for cultivation that I’ve ever in my life set foot upon“. That phrase when it got back to Holland changed everything.
What we now call New York Harbor was once navigated by Lenape Canoe routes traveling all around Manahatta
It eventually became one of the busiest maritime and industrial ports on Earth.
Sailing Ships, steamships, ferries, barges, factories, container traffic, and dense waterfront infrastructure dominated the shoreline in just over two hundred years.
New York’s waterways including the Hudson River and the Erie Canal had made it the business capital of the world!
The food and products from the most of the USA could now get to every country that had a harbor.
However
By the 1960’s into the 1970’s recreational access to the waterfront had become psychologically and physically maritime non grata.
Many of the aforementioned illustrations come from a most wonderful book called River Of Dreams by Hudson Talbott. The best written and pictorial representation of the full history of the Hudson Rivers transformations from 1600 to 21st Century I have ever found. The smattering I have shown here do not do full justice to the book.
Meanwhile, the sport of kayaking was spreading in America.
My dad was importing and distributing the kayaks all over the country through dozens of dealerships from Maryland to Fairbanks Alaska. Kayaking was gradually joining canoeing as a primary from of paddling recreation in the United States.
Then a branch of kayaking became its own phenomenon along the coasts of oceans and large lakes.
It was soon to be called “Sea Kayaking“ by John Dowd who had taken a couple of Kleppers on a trans Caribbean expedition from Venezuela to Miami.
It was clear that , this form of self propelled travel was superior to canoes and rowing vessels on open water. Lower center of gravity, long sleek hulls, lightweight, efficient use of both sides of the body alternating in rhythm like walking, running or cycling. The kayak had become home to its indigenous design origins with some modern whistles and bells.
Concurrently, in Britain, a Sea Kayaking evolution using fiberglass versions of indigenous Greenland Kayak type designs was underway. Derek Hutchinson also wrote a great book on it in 1976: Its now in its 40th printing today.
When the Madison Avenue adman came to visit with my dad each year, the local NYC market was low on the priority list except for one 1/8th of page column in one New York Times Sunday Magazine that my dad insisted upon.
It was called
A risky use of a limited budget. Many a New Yorker , some quite famous, came to the shop and bought the boats to ….go somewhere else.
Upstate
Long Island
Cape Cod
Maine
Jamaica
Alaska
Anywhere but the waters around New York City with few exceptions like City Island and the Sebago Canoe Club on Jamaica Bay.
Then, the transformation began.
Some say it was Franny Reese who founded Scenic Hudson that successfully blocked a massive Con Ed Power Plant that would have gauged out a huge piece of Storm King Mountain 55 miles north of Manhattan.
This was closely followed by the famous folk singer Pete Seeger himself a kayak customer of my fathers-= who launched the Clearwater sailing sloop for educating the public about being caretakers of the Hudson River.
In 1963 The Clean Air Act passed
In 1970 The Environmental Protection Agency was formed
In 1972 The Clean Water Act passed
In 1973 The National Environmental Policy Act passed
In 1978 The Endangered Species Act passed
In 1983 Hudson Riverkeeper Inc. was formed
In 1986 The Massive North River Sewage Treatment Plant went online on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
In 1991 -The Hudson Valley Greenway was formed
The combination of so much federal and local environmental protection soon revived the Hudson River and New York Harbor! The wildlife returned!
Followed by self-propelled recreation in a big way!
In mid 1980’s I , Eric Stiller started taking colleagues, friends and a particularly notable rocker all around New York Harbor and the Hudson River
But Launching was a challenge--We would boat cart the kayaks from Union Square to Gansevoort Street Garbage Facility and launch over a concrete barrier to a few meters of “beach”.
David Lee Roth regales about this on a Joe Rogen interview (minute 23:30-28:00). He recounts this like it was yesterday only modestly embellished.
It is well worth a listen!
David says we started many of the routes that MKC and other paddle groups do today. That is true. In those days we called it commando kayaking.
In 1989-The venerable Inwood Canoe Club originally founded in 1902 was re-established
In 1994 -The Downtown Boathouse was founded- starting the first FREE KAYAKING program in NYC in 1995
In 1995 –New York Kayak Company was founded
In 1996 –Manhattan Kayak Company was founded at the Chelsea Piers Sports Center
In 1996- The New York Outrigger Club was founded
In 1998 The Hudson River Park Trust Was Established-
In the early 2000’s NYC Parks established dozens of Canoe & Kayak Launch Sites
In 2008 The Village Community Boathouse was established
In 2000 oughts The Long Island City Community Boathouse was established
In 2004 The Hudson River Community Boathouse was established- (Near where On The Waterfront was filmed)
In 2010’s Ke Aloha Outrigger joined them and currently run the Hudson River Cup Paddling Race every year!
In 2010 The Brooklyn Boathouse Club was established
In 2013- The Manhattan Community Boathouse was established
In the 2000 teens -The North Brooklyn Community Boathouse was established
The KCCNY was reinvigorated
In early 2000’s the Hudson River Water Trail was established
As you can see something miraculous has happened!
New York City Became a Genuine Paddling City
A City Rediscovered From Water Level
At A Pace From the Past
From the time before Henry Hudson but with a whole new view.
Not so many trees.
Not so many birds.
But with mountain range called a skyline
that lights itself up at night.
Giant Highways in The Sky
White Sculptures Growing Out of The Water
In Classic Black and White
In the Shadow of the Intrepid
In the Presence of Sirens
With A Good Cup of Coffee always nearby
With more open space than hundreds of Central Parks
An iconic beach all our own..
And Original wilderness still holding on
With Sunsets designed for painters
And a Lovely Lady Liberty to keep watch of it all
Perhaps the Best Paddling City in the World?
After paddling in Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Anchorage I can say with complete confidence and a healthy bias that NYC has the best overall urban paddling in North America.
I would certainly nominate it for some of the best paddling in the world now the seals, whales and dolphins are back in the neighborhood.
“Oh come on ?“ You say! I say absolutely yes.
AND
Some of it is available for FREE!
Unlike any other city in the world.
An amphibious ecosystem of non-profits and public launches that is extraordinary.
An organic ecosystem that has introduced nearly a million people to New York’s waterways in the last 30 years.
A citizens reclamation of clean water access for re-creation and community.
An Inspiration to other cities in the world like London and Paris who have restored the Thames and the Seine Rivers
For all kindred spirits yearning for a return to natures essential elixir.
The “Antidote for Urban Anxiety“ As New York Magazine Wrote.
My late dad would have a lot more people to share laughs, beers, or flavored seltzer water drinks now.
I am pretty sure he’s smiling with other paddling friends, satisfied customers, and the other pioneers and advocates who contributed to this reclamation on the other side of the rainbow bridge. Personally I think its worth an Angel Wing .
However, there is more to to this story….
There is a phrase that was written on A Navy Seals team members barracks wall whom I helped instruct :
“We are the Pilgrims Master We Shall Go Always A Little Further“
Manhattan Kayak Company does not offer free kayaking
We do offer affordable rentals in our protected Intrepid Cove.
We do offer great beginner Skyline Tours to get out onto the river and get a true taste of something bigger…
Our core principles are based on teaching people the true freedom of Kayaking through progressive skill building,trips,training ,navigational awareness, and best practices on safety instruction.
This way, they can become responsible independent paddling citizens.
Paddlers who respect the other mariners in vessel’s large and small. Paddlers who understand and respect the complex conditions they are paddling in so they can make good decisions.
Then see, experience and explore more of theses magnificent NYC waterways
We teach our staff and clients to be able to go ..”always a little further“
And to be able to take their skills anywhere in the world.
To see, to explore, and experience the true joy of paddling!
Yet as we have all learned-Â freedom is rarely Free.
I invite you to join Manhattan Kayak Company for its 30 th season if and when you are ready, willing and able to take your next steps in paddling a Kayak, Sup , or Surfski.
Discover the freedom it can provide for mind, body, and soul in the Best Paddling City in the World!
Cue Sinatra:
“Start spreading the news,
 I’m leaving today,
 I want to be a part of it —New York,
 New York..“
“If I can make it there,
I’ll make it anywhere.
It’s up to you , New York , New York.“
Thank you Dad!
For showing me..
Teaching me
Training me
So I could share with others..
How great paddling really is!
Thank you to the thousands of New Yorker’s who worked and fought so hard for so long to bring the NYC waterways back to life! To give us the freedom to enjoy them this way again!
This includes the hundreds of staff and thousands of clients that has allowed Manhattan Kayak Company to serve New York these experiences for 30 years and counting.
