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As far as summer jobs go, I have the best. My name is Mary and Coastal Kayak is one of my happy places. It is an adventure on the water that I want to share with others. Right now my 10th summer at Coastal Kayak is in full swing and I have come to recognize that my greatest pleasure is to encourage older and younger alike first timers to experience the thrill of accomplishing something new. There is something special about kayaking and paddle boarding for the first time. The peacefulness of the open water and viewing land from that prospective opens up the door to imagination. Wildlife and their sounds with cool breezes and a new found control over your destination equates to pure pleasure. I’m so elated when first time kayakers and paddler

If you'd like to rent a sailboat at Coastal Kayak you’ll need to have some sailing experience and be able to answer some basic sailing questions. One of those questions is: ”What’s the safest way to turn the sailboat?" You can turn a sailboat either towards where the wind is coming from or away from the wind. Turning the boat away from the wind, or downwind, is called jibing and can be risky for both you and the boat. When turning downwind you bring the stern through the wind. This will cause the sail to swing across the boat at high speed and failing to duck at the right time can result in getting hit by the boom. They call it a "boom" for a good reason! Most of our boats do not have a

You might want to think twice about lathering up with just any old SPF sunscreen when you head to the beach this year. According to an article written  in The News Journal by Molly Murray back in March, common sunscreens that contain a chemical called oxybenzone may be responsible for lowered numbers of horseshoe crabs in the Delmarva region. Murray interviewed Danielle Dixson, an assistant professor at the University of Delaware College of Earth, Ocean and the Environment, who has been studying the effects of oxybenzone on horseshoe crab eggs and larvae, and the results were obvious. According to Murray's article, the larvae that were exposed to a seawater-sunscreen solution "became sluggish and barely moved while the crabs in regular sea water were much more active." Dixson reported that during trials, the sunscreen had a

Fishing, paddling with the dolphins, enjoying the serenity, getting a workout - there are many reasons that you might want to paddle in the ocean. Regardless of the reason though, the one thing that everyone must do in order to paddle in the ocean is launch from the beach - which means making it through the surf zone. In this short instructional tip I'm going to explain how to launch and land through the surf if you are paddling a sit-on-top kayak. First of all you need to recognize what the surf is doing in the area where you want to launch. If the surf is breaking on the beach (we call that shore break) our strategy will be different than if the waves are breaking out a ways. Due to beach replenishment it seems

Was it just a couple of months ago now that the days were long and warm and we were all wearing shorts and sandals?? As the days get shorter and darker, here are a few photos to help you through the worst of it. We'll see you on the other side!    

In the past two articles we talked about wind - both the effects of fetch, as well as what effect wind has on our kayak. This time we are going to talk about how to tell what the wind or current is doing to our kayak (or paddle board). A lot of times, especially on stand up paddle boards, our renters go out and even thought they are pointed into the wind and paddling forwards, they are actually losing ground and going backwards. Another common scenario is that they are heading out to Point of Cedars Island and even though they think they are going straight towards it they are actually being pushed well to the side making their paddle much longer than expected. So how can you tell, once on the water, exactly what

The four captains strategically chose their teams in secret. Team #1: Capt. Josh, Belle, Lexi AKA The Party Boat Team #2: Capt. Meghan, Hannah, August AKA The Kid's Boat Team #3: Capt. Mary, Michelle, John AKA The Hair Boat Team #4: Capt. Mitch, Sylvia, Bob AKA The AARP Boat Conditions: 8-10 knots out of the southeast, mid 80s, clear blue sky. The Course : Circle osprey island, around Point of Cedars, and back to the beach - all tacks, of course. The start was hectic with The Party Boat taking the early lead thanks to Capt. Josh's running start. The Kid's Boat looked to be in trouble as Capt. Meghan's rudders weren't down when the gun went off. Soon, though, the seasoned defending champion, Capt. Mitch, took the lead with the AARP Boat. The AARP

Assateague Island National Seashore offers many great watersport opportunities, but the paddling on the bayside, heading south from the Old Ferry Landing, on the Maryland end, is truly unique. On a pleasant August morning, it offered a great opportunity to leave the hustle and bustle of the ocean resorts behind. I started heading WSW, toward the southern tip Great Egging Island. Breeze was light as I stretched my arms and got into a routine, I then turned south, paddling toward the “spoils area” (as it is referred to on the USGS Topo). From there, I turned slightly SSE, to the marshy island known as Outward Trump. From there, a little further south and I was just west of Tingles Narrows. There are two aspects of the paddle that always amaze me about paddling in this

In the first part of our wind article we talked about the effect fetch has on the wind and more importantly the water's surface. In this article we are going to talk about how the wind effects our kayak. I think it is easiest to look at what effect the wind has based on the direction (with regard to the wind) that our kayak is traveling. If we are paddling with the wind coming from our beam (90 degrees) most of the time the wind is going to cause our boat to turn. The question is which way? To understand we have to look at some simple boat dynamics. When a boat, any boat, be it a kayak or ship, is moving through the water the bow is knifing through the water and actually pushing

Rise Above Plastics We're following in the footsteps of the Surfrider Foundation in its efforts to Rise Above Plastics! Our 26 oz. stainless steel reusable water bottles just arrived along with a gravity filter to provide you with filtered water to cut down on plastic waste. Purchase a water bottle from us or bring your own reusable bottle to refill and help us and the Surfrider Foundation save our oceans and the planet! The problem: Plastics don't biodegrade, they photodegrade meaning that they never go away. The pieces just get smaller and smaller. When these small pieces end up in the ocean, marine life often mistake them for food, many times with fatal results. More RAP facts: (taken from surfrider.org) The amount of plastic produced from 2000 - 2010 exceeds the amount produced during the