Do you want to get into whitewater kayaking, improve your skills, or meet fun people to paddle with?

We are one of the largest whitewater clubs in the East, and despite our name, serve New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut as well as New York, where we formed in 1959. KCCNY features a whitewater paddling program with novice, intermediate, or expert trips planned for each weekend of the paddling season, though the die hards paddle year round! We run rivers from Canada to the Carolinas, with most trips within a three-hour drive of New York City.

Our schedule has trips for the normal rainy seasons, most eastern water releases and occasionally ocean surfing, as well as practice and play on the ever-flowing Delaware. But whenever rain or snowmelt fills the rivers, the members hit the phones and website as informal trips hit the whitewater.

KCCNY offers instructional opportunities for everyone from the beginner through advanced paddlers. The winter pool sessions are an excellent time for boaters to begin learning or sharpening up their Eskimo roll, which definitely makes whitewater safer and more fun. While on the rivers, veteran paddlers will gladly give useful hints to better boating. We even have several ACA-certified instructors who assist with pool session rolling practice and schedule various formal instruction trips throughout the paddling season.

Off the river, KCCNY is noted for our longstanding efforts at conservation and river management. We continue to be a force in negotiating with our area hydropower producers and government agencies to make river resources available for recreational use. Many paddlers are unaware of the long battles local clubs have waged to achieve recreational releases on popular rivers such as the Deerfield and Mongaup. We also raise and donate funds to organizations such as New York Rivers United and American Whitewater to help their programs in river conservation and paddler access keep our rivers clean and flowing.

Although KCCNY owns no boats or paddling equipment, we can offer advice on the type of boat to purchase and the best place to purchase new and used paddling gear. Also, paddlers can often find a selection of gear for sale either in the Newsletter or at our conservation benefit auction, a highlight of our annual June slalom race on the Esopus River in Phoenicia, New York.

To join us, please print, fill out and mail our application form, or call our membership chairman, Pierre DeRham at (845) 424-3160.

To be put on our email distribution list, which will alert you to upcoming KCCNY river trips and events, click on the Paddler's Update item in the menu on the left.