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DIANA ZAVALA, a member of the Inwood Canoe Club, keeps an eye on fledgling kayakers as they take off from the club’s pier near Dyckman Street on Saturday.
Photos by Marisol Díaz
Up the river with a paddle Kayak enthusiasts share their skills with all comers By Qainat Khan
Inwood based clubs only provide public kayaking
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LUIS LOPEZ, in green kayak, joins the fun on Saturday, at the Inwood Canoe Club.
CHRISTIAN KRAUSE, 7, is launched into the water by Allyn Greenfield from the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club on July 26.
espite the haze and the threat of thunderstorms, the Yonkers waterfront was alive with activity on Thursday. Volunteers from the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club had their hands full, strapping children into life jackets and hauling kayaks onto the pier to launch them into the Hudson River. They helped secure lifejacketed children into the kayaks, showed them how to sit correctly and then how to paddle. “The writing faces you,” Jerry Blackstone, a volunteer, demonstrated standing knee deep in the water. “Forward left moves [the boat] to the right.” Most of the participants were children, who came with their parents or as part of camp groups, and were trying out a kayak for the first time. After the initial chaos of strapping and hauling and yelling instructions, the kids were able to glide out into a protected cove away from the center of the river. Carmen Krause was there with her daycare group and her son Christian. She’s been bringing her campers here to kayak for the past three years. “He usually is afraid, but has the courage today,” she said of her son Christian, who is 7. “He sees the kids having fun.” Christian rode in a double — a boat that holds two people — with Allyn Greenfield, 63, a volunteer from the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club. “It’s an ordeal to make sure everything is right,” Ms. Greenfield said, “but when I’m on the water, it is just fun.” On an overcast Sunday morning, further south on the Hudson River, members of the Inwood Canoe Club were also giving free kayaking lessons. Founded in 1902, the Inwood club is the oldest of its kind in Manhattan. Some people walked up to the ICC’s red boathouse, others had made prior reservations. Some were club members, others were just getting their feet wet. But everyone
CREATIVE CAMPERS Brianna Walton, 11, Mikayla Cudjoe, 8, and Alexandra Krause, 13, carry their kayak to the launching site at JFK Marina in Yonkers.
AT LEFT in near photo, Rich Stout of the Inwood Canoe Club preps Channon Miller, foreground, Rosalia Abreu and Lauren Donais on Kayaking techniques.
Want to give it a try? The Inwood Canoe Club provides public kayaking every Sunday morning until Labor Day, while the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club has public kayaking on Monday and Thursday afternoons until Labor Day. Both organizations require participants to sign a waiver, and ICC asks for a $4 insurance fee. To learn more, go to the club websites at yprc.org and inwoodcanoeclub.com. was accommodated and welcomed. Volunteers gave first timers a rundown of safety and paddling instruction before they were allowed to set foot in a boat. Standing on the pier strapped into their life jackets, the instructors showed them how to hold a paddle and to use it to glide along the water. Once their kayaks were in the water, an ICC volunteer
paddled near a first timer. Amidst the gray of the Hudson’s murky water, of the cloudy sky, of New Jersey’s buildings — the kayakers were splashes of color assembled in the water. With the George Washington bridge towering over them in the background, they appeared to be dots of color disappearing around a bend. While both the Yonkers and
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through Labor Day, Ms. Greenfield, the volunteer in Yonkers, says it is an all-weather sport. “[There are] all sorts of clubs and they are all kayaking on the waters that surround Manhattan,” she said. “If they [aren’t] in the river, [you] can see kayakers in the winter in the park. It’s a New York thing.” --Reporting contributed by Marisol Díaz.
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