River Runner Outdoor Center

I dealt with Jesse at River Runner and had a great experience. I’m really glad I dropped by the store instead of purchasing online. Jesse was a wealth of knowledge and experience and was very helpful in all of my shopping decisions. If you’re interested in getting on the river, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not dropping by. I see an older review that says they focus on kayaks and only kayaks but from my experience, they’ve expanded to cover the outdoors as a whole with a focus on the water. That said, River Runner will be a first stop for my future kayaking needs.

So, while I was in town for a work training thingie, some of us wanted to get away from the classroom for a bit. On our afternoon off, we found this place which offered us a few hours of kayaking down a local river for a decent price. We manage to drum up a good sized group & headed out for some water fun.
One of the employees picked us up from our facility & took us to the storefront first. There, we picked up our gear & our guide, Austin, and started for the river. Everything was unloaded & we were given our life vests & we started moving the kayaks to the riverbank. One by one, we loaded ourselves in our respective boats & tried to get our bearings. That was pure entertainment since some of the group had never kayaked before. A few folks even managed to get stuck on some rocks at the beginning. Let the hilarity ensue…
We had a blast & Austin did a good job guiding the tour. He had a lot of information about the surrounding areas & the history behind the river & towns. Our main complaint is that we wished they’d have given us a longer route so we could have had more time on the water. We could have stood another hour or so on the rivew, but a few of us still jumped in for a swim at the end, though. Once we were done & dried off, the boats were loaded up & the guys dropped us off, safe & sound.
I’m definitely a fan of this place &, should I find myself back in town, I’ll be trying them out again. This time I’m going for a longer trip, though!

Rented a canoe from here a few weeks back. Stereotypical river-​hippie helped us out… very friendly and gave us a cool waterproof map for our journey.
A canoe with all paraphernalia is $ 54. It’s about the average for around here. Seems high to me… I guess I just need to buy my own boat. If you are a USC student, make sure you check with USC’s outdoor rec office. They rent a boat w/​stuff for more like $ 30… the only thing is, their hours suck so you need to plan ahead a little.
All in all though, a cool place. Recommended.

This is a store in downtown Columbia which specializes in all things kayaking and only kayaking. They have a vast selection of yaks and yak accessories. They also offer rentals, instruction, and guided tours along SC’s many lakes, rivers and swamps. Great customer service and a cool location in the Vista.