We reported last week that free kayaking on the Hudson was back. Lo and behold: we were wrong! Although kayaking was still listed on the Riverside Park Conservancy’s calendar as of this morning, it’s not actually happening, because the dock where it happens has destroyed in Hurricane Sandy.
Sorry for the misinformation! We were going off of the conservancy calendar and had no reason to believe it was wrong.
The city parks department contacted us to let us know: ” Unfortunately, the kayak dock at 72nd was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy and The Downtown Boathouse and the Riverside Park Conservancy are working to get it back in use. It has not been finished at this time. We will go live with kayaking on our Summer on the Hudson website once it is active. Until then, there is no kayaking at 72nd street.”
The department had no timeline as to when it will be repaired.
As seen in the photos above and below, the walkway to the dock now leads into the Hudson itself. A sign attached to the walkway boasts that a quarter of a million people kayaked there from 1995 to 2012.
Check out what Riverside Park looked like the night that Sandy hit in these photos.
