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For Trained Paddlers


Explore the Wide Open Water

Pro guides. Public access. Unrivaled journeys.

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Intermediate

🟦 Hone Your Instinct
2–10 Miles

Multi-hour Hudson outings.
Lunch at beaches and eateries.
REQ: 3 classes or screening.

Advanced

⬥ Build Endurance
10–18 Miles

Half-day trips from GWB to Liberty.
High intensity. Serious core power.
REQ: 4+ Intermed. trips in 2026.

Expert

⬥⬥ Own The Harbor
18–33 Miles

Elite expeditions where few go.
Push your limits over long distance.
REQ: 3+ Advanced trips in 2026.

Schedule for Trained Paddlers

These are real expeditions — athletic, purposeful, and open to any qualified paddler. Our professional guides take you places most New Yorkers never see, from the water.

Check the level requirement before booking. These trips are not for beginners.

Intermediate Trips:
Hone Your Instinct

Ride sea kayaks and paddleboards along the Manhattan skyline. Our season runs 12 months a year using specialized suits to stay safe. Trips are in order of difficulty.
Ready to join? Complete 3 classes or pass our screening.

Intermediate+ Trainings:
Ongoing Skills & Mastery

For those who complete the 3 Classes or screening. Refined technique and situational awareness make all the difference on open water. These repeatable sessions are for intermediate, advanced, and expert kayakers and SUPers.

Advanced Trips:
Build Endurance

Sea kayaks and paddleboards–expect the water wilderness to test you. Trips are in order of difficulty.
Ready? Complete 4+ intermediate trips in 2026 or pass our screening.

Expert Trips: Own the Harbor

Sea kayaks and paddleboards–the path to storing your own boat here and paddling on your own schedule. Trips are in order of difficulty.
Think you’re ready? Complete 3+ advanced trips in 2026 or pass our screening.

  • Locals’ Escape

2026 Memberships

50–100% off all classes, trips, and rentals. Free wilderness escapes, socials, and guest passes. Gear provided. Feel at home on the waterfront.

Join Us →
  • 🟢, ⬥, ⬥⬥
A lone kayaker is carved in black silhouette against a fiery, copper-orange sky as the sun dips behind the industrial cranes of Bayonne. She executes a sharp, determined stroke to cut through the dark, choppy harbor water, while rippled mackerel clouds catch the last of the intense light overhead. Photo by Regina Nicolardi.
The beginning of a movement. David Lee Roth in a red Klepper sea kayak in the Upper New York Bay, looking back at the camera with his trademark grin. A hazy Downtown Manhattan skyline is on the horizon. David wears a backwards blue cap, sunglasses, and a bulky orange PFD. This rock star was Eric Stiller’s first paying client. David asked Eric take him on many unconventional explorations, e.g. from Gansevoort to Coney Island in the darkness of night. Also, David would urge Eric to pull up along shore so they could eat and drink even when there was no place to land. Many of Manhattan Kayak Co’s trip routes today were discovered through these two men’s adventures NYC together.

“Kayaking across that booming channel,
underneath the Verrazzano Bridge,
past the Statue of Liberty in the snow…
it makes me feel timeless.

Everything goes away.
I’m part of history somehow.

Circling Manhattan by the full moon…
that’s where you can touch the history.”

— David Lee Roth
Crazy From the Heat

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