From the towering 100-story skyscrapers to the depths of the labyrinthine subway system, New York City can often feel packed to the brim. With nearly 30,000 residents per square mile, every inch of space seems spoken for. Yet, amid the concrete jungle, the city’s rivers, canals and estuaries provide a rare opportunity for New Yorkers to unwind and connect with nature.

A dedicated network of boathouses and nonprofits gives New Yorkers from all walks of life access to over 160 square miles of navigable waterways. The network, officially organized as the New York Water Trails Association, comprises local boathouses and independent paddlers in the region who work together to advocate for and educate on non-motorized boating opportunities. The association launched in 2008 and kicked off by designing a map of all of the city’s boathouses and public launch sites. In 2011, the association added citizen science to their repertoire, creating a network of over 70 sites for sewage pollution monitoring.

Through the years, they’ve also spearheaded harbor safety programs as commercial boats, commuter ferries and recreational boats all share the increasingly chaotic waterways. Their website is a trove of resources—not just highlighting basic boater needs like tides and weather data but NYC specifics like the width of security zones around major tourist destinations such as the Statue of Liberty that boaters must avoid. Since its founding, the association has added boathouses and guiding companies in all five boroughs and New Jersey.

The region’s boathouses all share a core mission of ensuring public access to waterways, though each offers something distinct depending on its location and diverse audience.

In Manhattan, just ten blocks away from the iconic Madison Square Garden, the Downtown Boathouse boasts the world’s largest free kayaking program. Every weekend over the summer, the boathouse’s volunteers open their doors to anyone who wants to get in a kayak. 

The boathouse provides all necessary gear, from boats to paddles to PFDs. Beyond the gear, they offer an experience that’s friendly to new paddlers including help with basic paddling technique. It’s also accessible as the embankment is sheltered from the tides of the Hudson River, creating a calmer space to give a new sport a try.

The Downtown Boathouse pioneered free public boating in New York Harbor in the ‘90s. Their first summer season in 1995 saw 100 people on the water. Thirty years later, the Downtown Boathouse is the world’s largest free kayaking program, getting 28,000 people out on boats each summer. Along the way, the Downtown Boathouse has served as a leader for organizing nonprofit boathouses, providing a framework for organizational structures, volunteer training and kayak dock building along the Hudson.

Across all five boroughs, a slew of nonprofits offer similar recreational activities on different waterways from Newtown Creek to the Harlem River.

In addition to recreational programs, every boathouse takes waterway cleanliness seriously, offering everything from clean-up days to youth ecology restoration. In Brooklyn, one boathouse specifically advocates for a local waterway. The Gowanus Canal, previously designated as a Superfund site, has been on the mend since the ‘70s. Often maligned because of its history as a dumping receptacle, today the Gowanus offers a fun, two-mile entry point to paddling complete with pizza stops.

Starting in the 1800s, as New York City industrialized, manufacturers dumped chemicals, oils and other toxins directly in the canal. As the city grew, the sewage system couldn’t keep up with demand and the canal took on wastewater when the sewage overflowed. In the late ‘90s, over a decade before the EPA designated the canal a Superfund site, the Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse formed to advocate for the waterway. The boathouse is set up on the shore of the canal and utilizes free and low-cost canoe tours to introduce people in the neighborhood to the history and needs of the canal. Brooklynites can hop into one of their canoes for a free moonlight tour while also learning about conservation and advocacy efforts. The organization also uses its boathouse to host musical performances and artist shows, enabling local creatives to use the canal as inspiration for their art.  

Other nonprofits go even deeper by creating youth development programs. One standout initiative is Rocking the Boat in the Bronx, which uses boat-building workshops, sailing lessons and environmental science to offer students a safe, enriching after-school space. The goal of the program is not necessarily to train future boatbuilders but to create a fun environment where students can work together towards a goal and have somewhere safe to go after school. The program began in the mid-‘90s when a group of students built an eight-foot dinghy at a junior high school and launched it in their basement pool. 

After seeing success in the initial phase, founder Adam Green was able to grow the program to include additional science education and job skills training and now engages over 4,000 students a year. In 2005, the organization secured a physical space in the South Bronx alongside the Bronx River—connecting students with the river more deeply. Along with sailing and rowing, students also assist in planting native species and doing water quality monitoring (sometimes even using the boats they built!). Along with increasing graduation and employment rates of their students, the organization has received a slew of awards including the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.

New York City may be a tough place for outdoor enthusiasts, but with miles of accessible waterways and a vibrant community of passionate nonprofits, residents of all ages and backgrounds can connect with their environment. These boathouses offer a place to build skills, foster conservation efforts and explore the hidden natural beauty of the city’s waterways, making New York a better place for all.

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Editor’s note: Want to learn more about paddling opportunities in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs? Don’t miss Discovering NYC By Boathouse, Part One. 

 

Guest Contributor Sarah L. Knapp is the founder of OutdoorFest and Mappy Hour, a community platform that connects urban dwellers to outdoor recreation in cities. She is the former publisher of award-winning green travel publication, offMetro. Her writing can be found at Outside, Travel & Leisure and Lonely Planet. She believes that the best way to explore a city is by bike and the best place to get to know someone is outside.

Photography courtesy of Sarah L. Knapp, Manhattan Kayak Co., Red Hook Boaters, and Sebago Canoe Club.