May 21, 2024
Who are you and what is your business?
Myself, Clay Kern, my wife, and my 2 adorable daughters own North Shore Adventures and we love being based out of the town of Rockport on Bearskin Neck. We were founded as North Shore Kayak in 1998, but we rebranded and purchased the business in 2021. During the peak summer months, we employ 8 mostly full-time staff to run and shop, lead our tours, and operate our rental business.
Please provide a brief description of your company.
Our company was founded on the water, and while kayak tours, kayak rentals, selling adventure gear and flip flops will always remain our core business we have also had great success in branching out into the shoulder seasons running educational survival and foraging courses for adults and children.
What inspired you to start your business and what keeps you going?
I have worked as an educator for most of my life as well as a scientist, a contractor, and an appliance installer. But there remains at the core of my desire the passion to excite people and educate people about how important and vital the natural world is to our survival. It’s vital to our mental survival and well-being, and of course our physical survival. I feel like so many people in our current society have completely separated themselves from the natural world and I believe that is the core cause of so many of the issues our world is currently facing. So getting the opportunity to expose people to the power of the ocean, the seals and fish swimming around us, and the chance to taste wild blueberries from Straitsmouth Island is absolutely life-changing!
What aspect of your business are you most passionate about?
The moment I love most during our tours is when I see the initial fear and anxiety of kayaking in the open ocean for the first time begin to melt and the joy of 50 seals swimming around, and the view of Thachers Islands’ twin lighthouses in the distance begins to take over. The smiles on people’s faces need no words. I am also extremely passionate about teaching our clients about the incredible history of the Rockport area as well as Cape Ann and the unique marine ecosystem that we are surrounded by
Is there something unique about your business that you’d like to share that most people wouldn’t know about?
Most people don’t realize that we carry more flip-flops and sandals in stock than any other retailer on the North Shore (About 3000 to be exact). We also do tours not just from our base in Rockport but we do tours all over Essex County, we also offer custom corporate retreats and outings.
What sets your business apart from other similar businesses?
Well for one, there are none anymore (at least on Cape Ann). But even if there were what sets us apart from others on the North Shore is that cater and customize each experience based on our clients. Most kayak outfitters have a cookie-cutter approach where they have their “spiel” and “talk” they give customers, and they have their set route. But we customize each and every tour based on what the clients’ interests are, what they want to see, and of course what the weather conditions are like for the day. Our guides also receive days of training not only for safety and skills but also for content and knowledge.
Do you have a goal you want the business to achieve in the next one, 5 or 10 years?
Our largest goal is to reach a sustainable level of growth, we think we can achieve this by partnering with other local businesses and offering kayaking to their clients and employees, working with most of our local summer camps to offer kayaking experiences, working with scout groups to go camping on Thacher island, and finding a new building to operate out of that isn’t so exposed to sea level rise.
Why do you love the Greater Cape Ann region and doing business locally?
We live in such a unique area. If you look at a map almost 50% of our county if publically available land. Almost nowhere else in the Northeast do you find the proximity to a large metro area like Boston, have public transit, and have such an incredible amount of public land and natural beauty. We have amazing locations for almost every type of outdoor recreation in Essex County, some of the best SCUBA diving in New England, great rock climbing, great hiking, great hunting and fishing, and obviously epic kayaking! We also have a vibrant, eclectic, artsy, fun, but also grounded, and conservative community, and that is what makes doing business here so special.
As someone doing business in this area, how has or how can the Chamber help your business?
Beyond the simple benefit of marketing and publicizing our business which is huge, the connections that they help facilitate between other local small businesses and the advice that those other local businesses share have been absolutely fundamental to our success as well. Our Chamber is made up of amazing, caring, and intelligent people who are great at facilitating genuine experiences to allow our business community to work together and help each other. The next thing I think the chamber should spend some time on is getting our own independent currency like the Berkshare’s https://berkshares.org/ . We should call ours “Cape Ann Clams” or CAC’s for short.
(Note from the Chamber: The Chamber does offer Greater Cape Ann Gift Checks that may be used in member businesses, at no charge to the business. See Greater Cape Ann Gift Checks for more information.)
Contact Info
North Shore Adventures
9 Tuna Wharf, Rockport MA
978-546-5050
northshorekayakcenter@gmail.com
www.northshoreadventure.co