The Sweet Spot between Renting and Owning Kayaks

Like many, I rented a kayak a few times and enjoyed the freedom of getting out on the water. For a while, I thought about buying my own kayak; but didn’t know which one to buy. I knew I had limited space to store a kayak at home, and I didn’t have a rack on my car to transport it, and would likely be troublesome to take it off the car roof and carry it to the water by myself. These were discouraging me from getting further into kayaking.

Then I heard about this club that offered a kayak share program. Similar to a bike or car-sharing program, the club had docking stations to store the shared kayaks nearby water accessible sites. The stations had paddles and life jackets at them. Instead of renting the kayaks by the hour, they offered seasonal access to the kayaks for a reasonable price. As a new member, the club included
training to learn the basis of paddling safely and get my questions answered. Once I had completed training, I could use the kayaks as much as wanted. However, I still felt uneasy about paddling by myself.

The club has scheduled small group outings that I could signup for. As they say, there is safety in number. This made it easier for me to get out on the water and get more confidence with my paddling skills. As I progressed, I found I could get out more by myself for longer distances. The club offered a self-rescue training, which I practiced how to get back into a boat after falling out.
This gave me an incredible boost in my confidence while kayaking.

Then I was able to paddle over to an island and camp overnight with a group outing. Since then I’ve get out regularly by myself into nature with my new paddling abilities. I owe this to the club, the Canton Kayak Club, based in Baltimore, but has stations from Annapolis, MD to Delta, PA. Check them out – you might just find yourself connected to a new social group that gets you out onto the water.

-- Story provided by our current CKC President.