For 13 years, White Rock Paddle Company rented kayaks and paddle boards at the lake. When they announced last year that the city’s vendor criteria were forcing them out of business, there were some long faces. So where’s the new vendor? That’s what I’ve wondered on recent rides around the lake. It’s April. This is prime paddling season in Dallas. Yet the boat launch on the northeast side of the lake, where White Rock Paddle once did its thing, has remained bereft of rental watercraft.
I tracked down the new vendor. Dallas Kayak Company beat out White Rock Paddle for the city contract to rent paddle watercraft on the lake. Assessing the two bids, the city scored White Rock Paddle at a 92.5, while Dallas Kayak got a 94.75. Close race.
Dallas Kayak Company will actually be doing business as Dallas Paddle. And Dallas Paddle, as it turns out, is actually the nearby rowing club called Dallas United Crew, the executive director of which is Austin “A.J.” Brooks, himself quite an accomplished rower.
I asked Brooks what the holdup is.
“Part of our delay in getting going is our shipment for kayaks has been delayed,” he said. “Obviously there are still supply chain issues going on, even today.” The other part of his delay is manpower. He says he’ll run Dallas Paddle from “an organizational standpoint” but that he’s “currently trying to hire someone to run the daily concession.”
I don’t want to be too hard on Brooks and Dallas Paddle. But to be perfectly clear, they don’t yet have boats or employees or a website. And it’s April.
“A lot of this is just pending on some shipments coming in, on getting things up and running,” Brooks said. “But we’re hustling at full speed, because you’re right. The weather is turning. It’s starting to get a little nicer.”
In fact, Brooks himself might be hustling this Saturday. He said they are looking at doing a soft opening with the stand-up paddle boards that they do have. And it might be Brooks who winds up having to rent them to you. He’s not sure. He asked me not to mention the soft opening. I promised him I’d warn people. So here’s the warning: it might not happen.
I asked him if he was exasperated by the process of trying to get the rental operation launched.
“I’m a rowing guy by background,” he said. “With all rowing races, they’re 2,000 meters. So that’s this contract, three years. We had a little bit of a bobbly start, but we’re going to settle in and get a good rhythm. We’re going to have a strong middle of the race and make sure we close out with a good sprint.”
Over the course of that three-year contract, by the way, Dallas Paddle has promised to pay the city $471,031 (scroll down). I asked him if his slow start could make that payment a problem.
“We’re going to see what the volume looks like here,” he said. “The goal is to get a lot of outbound marketing going that wasn’t previously done and really ramp up the facilitated, guided aspect of this. The last vendor was almost purely a walk-up business, right? Very little outbound. The goal is to ramp up our outbound marketing and partner with some other programs that Dallas already has and, through social media channels, really drive the content for the business. So I think there’s a lot of growth aspect in the marketing side of things.”
One last thing. I asked him how Dallas Paddle and Dallas United Crew are related.
“DUC is really the parent, but that’s a nonprofit,” he said. “Dallas Paddle is a for-profit that’s going to really be a circular, to go back and support the nonprofit. So profits from Dallas Paddle will go back to supporting our general mission statements with youth services in Dallas, through empowerment through rowing and dragon boating.”
So that’s where we stand. Dallas Paddle might launch this weekend on a limited basis. Or it might not. But if does, and if you show up, and if Brooks is doing the rentals, go easy on him. He sounds like a nice guy. And remember: he’s also running Dallas United Crew.
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