If you want to learn to kayak, you can do so for free thanks to Red Hook Boaters at Valentino Pier Park.
The Red Hook Boaters are a group of volunteers who teach people how to kayak twice a week: Thursdays from 6-8 p.m. (May 30-August 15) and Sundays from 1-4 p.m. (June 2-September 15). In addition to helping anyone interested in kayaking get started, volunteers also pick up trash and help clean up the park.
“We‘“We’ve been around since 2005,” said Todd Seidman, one of Red Hook Boater’s volunteers. “It‘s New York and we‘We are an island, so this is the ocean. When the tide rises and falls, it creates currents. The tide is high right now, but when the tide is low,‘“You can go under the pier and have twice as much space to paddle.”
Seidman also explained that those who come by to kayak are welcome to donate or help volunteers pick up trash at Valentino Pier Park, but that they don’t have to. He helped a few people get started in kayaking and moments later more people arrived wanting to kayak as well. The weather was nice and it was a busy night on the water.
Anyone who learns kayaking‘Don’t go beyond the bay as the current is strong further out, but about 20-30 feet from shore it is fairly calm. Kayakers just need to be careful not to get too close to the rocks that are near the beach area.
““One of the cool things for the volunteers is that we occasionally leave the harbor and take trips to the Statue of Liberty or Brooklyn Bridge Park,” Seidman said. “It‘It’s also nice that so many different people come, including people from the Red Hook Houses, families with children, Muslim families, Hasidic families.”
Additionally, Tim Gamble talked about the founding of the Red Hook Boaters in 2005 and explained how Seidman first became involved.
““I was very involved with the Downtown Boathouse (at Pier 26 in Manhattan) when they started their free kayak program there and served on the board there,” Gamble said. “In 2005, I decided to leave the East Village. While riding my bike through Red Hook, I saw a rental apartment on the corner of Dikeman and Richards. I took the apartment and moved to Red Hook.
“I immediately began thinking about building a boathouse in Red Hook and began talking to waterfront property owners and looking for a location. I knew Owen Foote, the founder of the Gowanus Dredgers, well and asked him if the Dredgers would support a new free paddling group in Red Hook. He agreed and so the Red Hook Boaters began.”
Initially, Gamble and the Red Hook Boaters rented a private garage space at Coffey St. and Richards St. The Dredgers supported them financially so they could buy equipment. They had free programs at the park, but it was a challenge to get the boats into the park and they had to “Attach them to drywall sleds and roll them back and forth.”
“I spoke to the largest landowner in the area, Greg O‘Connell,” Gamble said. “He wouldn’t rent or give me space for insurance and other reasons, but he put me in touch with Les Nelson of Bare Wood. This was a wood restoration business in the space that now houses Resiklo, in the building directly above Valentino Park. It was around this time that I met Todd. He helped me put up the storage racks in the Bare Wood space. We stayed there for a year, but then Bare Wood closed down.
“Then I worked with Sal Cattuci of American Stevedoring, who donated a damaged shipping container to us. Brian Robbins of the Cornell newspaper rented us a piece of land for a small fee and we moved into a shipping container near where Steve’s Key Lime Pie is now.
“At the time, we were negotiating with the NYC Parks Department for a space in the park. In 2008 or 2009, NYC Parks allowed us to put a container in its current location, and the program continued to grow from there. We are still associated with Gowanus Dredgers. They are our financial sponsor and provide us with banking services, insurance and extensive support.”
Although Gamble moved out of the neighborhood in 2008, he remains involved with Red Hook Boaters. He also mentioned that boating will soon be possible in Sunset Park and that there will be a public paddling day at Bush Terminal on August 24 from noon to 4 p.m.
