Liberty Station near downtown San Diego is one of our favorite places to visit. What was once a Naval Training Center has now turned into a thriving neighborhood go-to with tons of history, culture, and tons of amazing food. Besides all that, it’s also a local spot for San Diegan to bring their kayaks, paddleboards, and other paddle crafts. The water channel that runs between Liberty Station and the San Diego Airport is mostly calm and quite beautiful. And if you love watching airplanes, you could see airplanes taking off from the airport as you paddle along. It was a very novel experience to kayak at Liberty Station.
Stats
To Launch Your Kayak
Liberty Station Boat Ramp
2877 Historic Decatur Rd, San Diego, CA 92106
32.740166, -117.209214
To Rent Your Kayak
West Coast Paddle Board Rentals
2592 Laning Rd, San Diego, CA 92106
https://sandiegosuprentals.com/
Parking
There are many various sizes parking lots near the launch ramp.
Restroom
There are restrooms near the launch ramp. If you go out to the harbor, there are restrooms at the Spanish Landing Park Beach.
Fee
Free to launch, if you want to rent, please check with the company that you prefer to rent with.
Distance
The route that we usually take is around 4.5 miles round trip.
Level
Beginner to moderate
Time:
3-4 hours
Pet-friendly
You can bring your pups but for their safety and yours, please put a life jacket on them.
Ideal Time
You can kayak at Liberty Station year-round. The wind tends to be calmer in the morning, so if you don’t want to deal with headwinds, go early. Going early will help with finding parking too. It can get busy at Liberty Station, especially on the weekends.
Weather
Video
Where Can I Launch or Rent My Kayak?
To Launch Your Own Kayak at Liberty Station
To launch your kayak or paddleboard at Liberty Station, we usually use the public boat ramp across from the Liberty Public Market. There are many parking spaces near there. However, unless you come early or on a weekday, this place can fill up pretty fast. If you visit later, you might have to park further, therefore, need to transport your kayak to the launch ramp. The launch ramp is concrete. Usually, there are a bunch of mats lining the ramp to help keep your paddle crafts from being scratched and also with traction. It can get slippery once you go past the water line so be careful. If you have water shoes, they might help you with traction.
To Rent
If you need to rent your kayaks or paddleboards, you can do so a bit further down at the West Coast Paddle Board Rentals. This place is located on the waterfront of the Courtyard of Marriott Hotel, almost toward the end of the water channel before the North Harbor Drive bridge.
What Should I Bring?
You won’t need much to have a fun and safe kayaking adventure at Liberty Station. We listed some of our favorite gear below though, just in case.
- Dry bags – whether you’re renting or bringing your own kayaks, we recommend bringing dry bags. They help keep your belongings dry
- Waterproof phone pouch with lanyard- to keep your phone dry. This way, you can keep your phone out to take photos and checking on your map, to make sure that you find your way back.
- Hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen – it’s mostly sunny out there. These items will keep you safe from the sun and protect your eyes against glare from the water. For sunscreens, we use eco-friendly, reef-safe sunscreen, Stream2Sea SPF 30. and tinted, organic All Good Organic Sunscreen Butter.
- Swimsuits or easy-to-dry clothing – You will get somewhat wet, especially the lower half, from getting on and off of the kayak and from water splashing.
- A light jacket – It can be brisk on the water. We love the packable Patagonia Women’s Houdini® Jacket and Patagonia Men’s Houdini® Jacket
- Towel and change of clothes – for changing after the adventure
- Life jacket – it is required to have one on board per person. If you’re under 18, you’ll need to wear it. If you rent, they should provide you with one.
- Water and snacks – to keep you hydrating and keep your energy up for that paddle back.
- Waterproof Speaker (optional) – we like a good kayak tune so we usually brought our little waterproof speaker.
- Watershoes (Optional) – to get on the boat because the ramp is very slippery.
The Adventure
Launching The Kayak at Liberty Station
For our first time launching our kayaks at Liberty Station, our friends, Adam, Suzanne and my sister Vivienne joined us on the adventure. Because we were bringing our kayak trailer, we had to park a bit further away. Fortunately, it wasn’t that difficult to transport the kayaks. After launching our kayaks, we followed the curve to the right to enter the big water channel.
The water channel is mostly calm. We could see the airplanes taking off from the San Diego airport from the left. On the right-hand side, we have the shoreline of Liberty Station. There are walking trails, parks, and hotels lining the shoreline. We also saw a bunch of fish, jumping up from the water. We also pass by the Courtyard of Marriott where the kayak rental place is.
The North Harbor Drive Bridge
After a while, we reached the double bridges of North Harbor Drive. These two bridges here are my favorite part of the adventure. Once we passed under these bridges, we came to a wider channel. We could see the harbor with tons of parked boats on the other side of the channel. The wind picked up at this point. Along with the busy boat traffic, it was a bit challenging to cross over this wide channel. From here, we were content with staying to explore Harbor Island. If you’re a strong kayaker, you could go straight to head over Shelter Island or to Seaport Village. These destinations are quite far though. You’ll also be in open water with more boat traffic.
The harbor at Harbor Island was plenty of fun for us. We explored some of the narrow channels between the boats before going all the way down to the dead-end, which is the waterfront of the Sheraton Hotel. If you go this way, make sure to keep an eye out for boats and rental jetskis. They might not see you or know how to stop in time.
The Way Back
Once we got to the dead-end, we crossed back over to the nature side of the channel. With the wind picking up significantly, it was quite a challenge paddling back. We had to fight the headwind all the way to the two bridges. Next time, I think we’ll go a lot earlier. It seems like the wind got a lot stronger later in the day. Luckily, there is a decent size beach, the Spanish Playground, about ⅔ of the way back. It was the perfect spot for a break after that vigorous workout. There are restrooms here as well. By the way, be careful when you beach your kayak, there are a lot of barnacle-covered rocks that could scratch up your vessel.
After we finished shaking out our arms and had some snacks, we headed toward the double bridges to go back to where we launched the kayaks. This whole route we did was about 4.5 miles. It was a lot longer than we thought but it was a lot of fun. And the best part is, after we were done, the Liberty Public Market was right there. With how hungry we were, the wide range of food options made us very happy! If you love kayaking, another cool spot to kayak in San Diego is Mission Bay. If you like kayaking through narrow channels and bridges, Huntington Harbor is a unique place to do so. Newport Back Bay is also another one of our favorite kayaking spots with two distinctly different routes that you could choose from.
These are the gear that we personally use and find them helpful for this particular adventure. Don’t forget to check out our Recommended Gear section as well.
camera gear
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