Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25038
"Recreation and competitions have definitely increased on the Hudson," says Roger Meyer of the New York Outrigger Club, based at Pier 63. Since he brought a 45-foot outrigger canoe down from Connecticut in October 1996, the club has gained 45 members. With the growth of canoeing-which requires paddlers to do "change outs" by jumping out of canoes to let the next crew in-people are no longer just on the water, they are in it. "People are playing in the water now. This helps alleviate fears people may have about water quality, " says Meyer. "As more and more New Yorkers have easier access to water, a bulb goes off in peoples' heads-let's use the water." Last year, licensed ship captain John Krevey opened Pier 63 Maritime, a public access pier at 23rd Street, because he believes river access is of the utmost importance in New York. "A few years ago, people couldn't go down to the water in what was the US's greatest port city. Now people come by Pier 63 with all kinds of ideas of ways to use the river. People natu rally gravitate towards water. There should be a lot more facilities for river access. " More people are also taking to rivers simply because it's now pos sible. The Hudson's cleaned-up water is accompanied by the $200 million, 550-acre Hudson River Park project that intends to include some river access. Louisville, Kentucky, is undergoing a waterfront development project to reclaim the Ohio River's shoreline for recreational purposes. The $60-million phase one will be completed at the end of this year. At Denver's Confluence Park on the Platte River, kayakers can run boat chutes. And nearby Boulder has slalom gates on Boulder Creek. "IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT YOU ARE SEPARATE FROM NATURE, BUT WHEN YOU GET IN A KAYAK YOU BECOME PART OF THE CURRENT AND WAVES."