Tours will focus on the best of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, beginner instruction and more
Ultimate Watersports, the Chesapeake region’s largest stand-up paddle board and kayak outfitter, offering instruction, rentals, tours, summer camps and team-building events, announced today, its expansion into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor with a brand-new location at the Living Classrooms Foundation Marina. This announcement comes on the heels of Waterfront Partnership’s 7th Annual Baltimore Floatilla and the start of the 2024 paddling and on-water recreation season at Baltimore’s waterfront.
“The team at Ultimate Watersports have been longtime partners of Waterfront Partnership, and for a local business like theirs, to open a new location in the Inner Harbor is a testament to the progress we’ve made and the trust they have in Baltimore’s future as a recreational resource for the region,” said Adam Lindquist, vice president of Waterfront Partnership.
Ultimate Watersports has partnered with Waterfront Partnership’s Baltimore Floatilla, managing paddler safety and event logistics for the annual paddling event to raise awareness for a healthy and recreational Inner Harbor, since 2016 and on June 23, will serve as the safety management partner for Harbor Splash, the first-ever organized public swimming event in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, hosted by Waterfront Partnership.
“We’ve been in business for almost 40 years, but it was not until the launch of the Baltimore Blueway and water quality data continued to significantly improve that we knew it was time to bring Ultimate Watersports to the Inner Harbor,” said Hal Ashman, president of Ultimate Watersports. “We’re excited to continue building momentum around recreational water sports and introduce paddlers to a new way of experiencing what we’ve always known is so fantastic about the Harbor.”
Tucked directly between Harbor East and Harbor Point, the new inner harbor location offers a picturesque view, a wind and weather-protected paddling area ideal for beginners and instructional programs, and brand-new Paddling Center infrastructure at Living Classrooms’ new marina.
Instead of its traditional rental operations, Ultimate Watersports’ programming at the Living Classrooms Marina will focus solely on pre-booked tours, corporate team-building outings and classes taught by professional instructors with strong credentials in risk management. Open now through October, the new location will offer kayak and standup paddle board (SUP) beginner instruction for those who have never paddled before or need a refresher, as well as intermediate and advanced classes. Tours will highlight the best of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor with weekend options for paddlers 13 years old and up, ranging from two to three hours in duration. Tours will take paddlers to Mr. Trash Wheel and the brand-new National Aquarium Floating Wetlands on the “Baltimore Blueway” tour, engage young ones on the water with a slower-moving instructional “Kids on the Harbor” tour, a monthly Baltimore by Baltimore Music and Makers Festival tour, sunset tours, full moon tours and more.
The Ultimate Watersports location supports the Baltimore Blueway, a proposed network of eight water trails and 20 access points for paddlers connecting cultural, historic and natural sites throughout Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and Middle Branch. It adds to other recreation opportunities at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, including Inner Harbor Kayak Tours offered by the Baltimore City Department of Recreation & Parks every Sunday through September for experienced paddlers, the Chessie Dragon Paddle Boats and Electric Pirate Ships operated by Living Classrooms Foundation daily through Labor Day in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and other Baltimore Blueway access points to be announced later this year.
To register and view the schedule and offerings at Ultimate Watersports’ Living Classrooms Marina location, visit ultimatewatersports.com. More information on the Baltimore Blueway and kayak rentals and tours available at Baltimore’s waterfront can be viewed online at baltimoreblueway.org.
The Healthy Harbor Initiative provides a roadmap for cleaning up Baltimore’s Harbor and the waterways leading to the Harbor. A clean Harbor and clean streams will provide opportunities for residents and area families to enjoy clean water in their neighborhoods. Greener and cleaner neighborhoods will make Baltimore City and Baltimore County more livable for all our citizens. For more information, visit healthyharbor.org.
Waterfront Partnership, in collaboration with our government, business, and community partners, creates a clean, green, safe, sustainable and thriving urban waterfront for all to enjoy. We’re lean, nimble and effective; the only organization that wakes up every day, rolls its sleeves up and gets to work on new ways we can make Baltimore’s Waterfront even more active, attractive and appealing. We’re the hosts who greet visitors, the creators of programs and promotions and managers of our beautiful parks. We encourage investment in Baltimore’s most celebrated asset so it can continue to grow, to serve as a place of pride and the place where Baltimoreans come together to recreate and to celebrate. For more information, visit waterfrontpartnership.org.
