Central Coast Kayaks

CUSTOMER SERVICE REVIEW:
I was trying to get a kayak tour during the July 4^th weekend but unfortunately, we called too late and all the tours were booked up! This is a really popular spot so if you’re booking for peak time, book weeks ahead! I left my information for Chelsea to call me back if any tours opened up. She was understanding and patient and didn’t rush me at all. In fact, the interaction felt genuine and like she really wanted to help me find a tour! Sadly, I had to book a tour with another group because I didn’t want to miss out on another opportunity but I just wanted to note that Chelsea indeed called me back to offer me a spot on a new tour! Sucks that I can’t get a refund with the other group or I would’ve accepted! Anyways, AWESOME customer service from Chelsea! Will definitely call ahead and book something here next time I’m in the area!

My 15 year old daughter and I went on a cave tour. The conditions were somewhat favorable for a good and safe trip even though there was a swell coming in. We were clearly instructed on how to handle a emergency situation like tipping the boat .
We were taken out bye 2 guides. We had 3 total in the group. The return trip was a bit more difficult than the trip out.
The wind had come up and our return path wadi to the wind .
Our guides were professional and ready to help the tiered paddlers by towing the tiered in to shore .
We had a wonderful lifetime memory experience, experiencing the wildlife and the beautiful caves! Thank you Jorge and John! You guys were the best!

Great experience renting a few solo kayaks from here, they help you get onto the water and then get the kayaks back to shore. Chris gave some nice kayaking tips before getting in. The Pacific ocean is more tumultuous and fiery than a bay (e.g. Monterey bay), so the waters can be challenging on high tide days. Best to inquire before going in what kind of a day it’s gonna be, would recommend a wetsuit.

We recently went on a tour with Central Coast kayaks and they did a wonderful job. The price point is fantastic for the 2 – 3 hour trip and exploring the sea caves via kayak was a very memorable experience. I would highly recommend.

In April, my husband and I were going to try and go kayaking in Pismo with Central Coast Kayaks. We contacted Eric and he was soooo kind and informative. Eric kept in touch with us the whole week up until we were going to go, to let us know how it was looking weather-​wise. Since it was early in the season and they weren’t really renting out kayaks yet, he was still willing to accommodate us. We never ended up being able to go because of the high surf at the time, but we will definitely go thru them the next time we are up there, just because of Eric’s super customer service!

These guys are GREAT!
My buddy and I were traveling up the coast and thought we would do the cave tour to get some kayaking in our trip. The surf was way too high for the caves BUT we did do the tour out to the light house and it was awesome!
We saw seals, sea lions, otters, and got to experience a little open water kayaking.
It was a little chilly out, and were worried about the temperate… BUT they offered wet suits, and shoes so we stayed nice and dry! Also sunglass straps as well.
Our guide, John was an expert kayaking and was the US Surfing Kayak team coach too! So he knew how to help us kayak. AND he took some great pictures of us and provided a disc after the trip.
Highly recommend, and I hope to make it back for the cave tour because that sounds nothing short of amazing as well.

Our guide Nick was great. He communicated really well everything so we felt really comfortable and safe. The ocean got really choppy on our way back so we weren’t able to go in as many caves as I would have liked but that’s not their fault. It was a great adventure

I went ocean kayaking for the first time with my husband while we were on our honeymoon in Shell Beach with Central Coast Kayaks. We did the cave tour, and it was a blast! I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY with the beautiful views of the caves. Seeing them from a kayak is about 100 0000x better than what you can see from the shore, trust me. If you’ve never done kayaking through these caves you should definitely do it.
The gear we rented was good. They supplied us with everything that we needed, including our kayaks, wet suits, water, snacks, and an instructor. I liked that everything was included because for normal vacationers you won’t have any gear on you or know where you’re going. They even gave us dramamine before our kayaking expedition, which I highly recommend if you get even a little bit sea sick.
When we were out on the ocean, the views were fantastic! We even saw a whale from far away, an otter, and seals. It was definitely the best views of the beach by far.
Now, if you are a first-​time ocean kayaker (like me and my husband), then be aware that this is not easy. We were a little naïve and thought ocean kayaking would be the same as canoeing on a river (which is what we had done before). We went out there with our instructor, and they gave us a lot of instructions, but we still were having trouble steering through the caves. We were better on open water, but navigating through sharp turns, waves through the caves, and other things we could hit was pretty hard. I would definitely say that the cave tour is probably more for intermediates, or at least people that have been ocean kayaking before. We were toppled twice by waves, and once we even ran up on one of the rocks in the middle of the cave. Our instructor was very helpful and guided us through getting back in our boats, but the waves were large and to be honest it was a little scary. We didn’t get hurt badly, but my husband did get a scratch on his arm, and I got a kayak to the face and a few bruises. But, like I said, our instructor was very helpful, they kept us calm, and helped us back in our boat immediately. The picture below is of us with smiling faces after we got toppled by a huge wave trying to go through a cave, so we still had fun!
Central Coast Kayaks are great, and I would recommend them. They are totally worth the cost!

The service was outstanding.
You will be hard pressed to find better kayaking that off of Shell Beach on the Central California Coast. Incredible rocks, caves (yes, caves!), scenery, wildlife, and vistas.
Worth every penny.

Service was awesome! We will be back!
My bf and I got a tandem kayak to go explore. Also included in the rental were helmets and lift jackets. This was my first time so the gentleman at the beach was very helpful in teaching me how to paddle and even how to get back into the kayak if we were to flip.
The experience — it was wonderful, being able to paddle out into the ocean and next to the birds and seals. I was very frightened of flipping into the depths of the ocean but I survived! Yay! We got a little too close to the seals, being first timers we didn’t know the exact rules and etiquette. My bf got motion sick, so please don’t eat a hearty meal before heading out!
What to wear — this was so tricky to figure out. If we knew ahead of time, I would’ve worn something other than a t-​shirt and jean shorts. I recommend you wearing swimming trunks and a shirt you don’t mind getting wet for men. For women, swimming shorts or swim bottom with water wicking shorts. You will get wet so wear something that won’t hold water and make you feel uncomfortable. Don’t forget sunscreen! You can leave your shoes at the beach or wear water shoes. Basically wear what you don’t mind getting wet or even at most, swimming in just case you flip over!
Note– this is an electronic free kayak experience. You can leave your keys with the shop but everything else should be placed in your car and locked. You’ll be able to walk down to the beach and pick up your kayak on the beach.

Worth every single penny.
Kayak away and see sea otters, seals, pelicans, gross seagulls, and if you’re lucky, a WHALE.
(We got lucky)

Customers: you want to sea a feeding otter. You want to see seagulls fly by your head. You may even want to go for a swim and touch kelp. And who doesn’t want to kayak? This is safe, smartly lead, and most importantly, fun! Flexible all for YOU, based on what you want. And what you want is fun, right?
There’s a reason they get over 100 reviews and a solid 5 stars, they deserve it. They have the hardest working and nicest staff, it’s hard to find a place that has fun but also works just as hard :)
Also ask them for a signature on their hat… they have good life tips!
The shop: Dear Paul and Andrew, life is short, and you guys taught me how to paddle hard :) I would have paid 5 an hour for a GoPro, maybe next time I will be able to rent one!
If I am ever in SLO again, I will be open to take some PR photos, I’ll give you all a holler :)
Elliott

Came here over the Fourth of July weekend and knew we wanted to go kayaking. Like noobs, we didn’t call in advance and make reservations. Luckily, we went early that we were able to get 2 singles because the tandem was rented out for the rest of the day. We brought our GoPro, but didn’t have a strap or floater and they noticed so they brought us a strap to tie it to our life jacket. Something they didn’t have to do, but they went out of their way to help us.
They have a good system as well. We walked down to the beach, got our instructions and we were on our way. It was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend Central Coast Kayaks.

Absolutely awesome experience! A must do in Pismo Beach!
First of all, I love that the package includes absolutely everything: from suits to shoes to sunblock and even the photos. The prices are very affordable, we only paid $ 75ea. for a 3 hour tour even though it was a holiday (4^th of July) weekend.
Riley and Noemi were our guides, they were great. Fun, friendly, and attentive. I am a very poor swimmer but I felt extremely safe with them the entire time.
The view is fantastic and going through the caves was very cool! I highly recommend Central Coast Kayaks. I look forward to doing it again on my next trip to Pismo.

Everything went swimmingly! Bad pun? Maybe. Probably. But fear not! I didn’t take a spill once.
But in all seriousness everything was great from the service, guides, and the tour of course. Got to see some gorgeous sea life on a calm day, even an otter! So if you’re looking to have a great morning on the water it’d be a mistake to pass this place up.

Definitely worth waking up early and seeming like iffy weather. It was overcast and a tad misty when we got there this morning– originally signed up for the lighthouse tour but we got a call the day before saying there would only be one guide for our reservation and if waters were calm if we would be interested in doing the cave tour. Ending up it was awesome! Water was calm and saw lots of wild life– even got 20ish feet close to an otter that was just laying in the water on his back side! Most definitely the best part of our mini vaca trip to pismo this weekend.

Super friendly, convenient and well organized! Great location and price is very fair! They let us leave our valuables/​keys in a locker, which was helpful.
We took out 2 kayaks for a little over an hour and kayaked through the rocks and saw plenty of sea otters. Very cool! Highly recommend!

I surprised my husband this past summer for a day out! We had a blast on the Cave Expedition! They prepared us well and had all the right equipment! Great tour guide as well. I would definitely recommend this to friends and really anyone, it was FANTASTIC!

I finally had the courage to go Kayaking for the first time and decided to go with Central Coast Kayaks! It was a wonderful first time experience! There was a coupon for 15% off on Unilocal,so we paid about $ 59 a person for a 2.5−3 hour cave tour that included all our rentals (wet suit, shoes, kayak, paddle). They also have one of the instructors carrying around a water proof camera to capture some epic pictures as you’re paddling through Shell Beach. It’s so worth it!
John was our lead instructor and he was extremely kind. Him and his whole staff were really supportive of our group, especially to those who couldn’t swim and kept falling into the ocean. The tour itself was really scenic and the 3 hours went by really quick! Don’t be afraid if sea otters swim next to you, they’re really curious animals and are harmless!
I definitely recommend going on a day where the ocean current isn’t too strong. The day that we went, the current was so strong that we had to cut our cave tour a little early. We ended up only seeing 1 cave, which was still really fascinating. It was pretty stressful trying to get back to shore as we were swimming against the strong current and paddling our lives away in hopes that we don’t get washed away by the huge waves and rocks! Crazy but fun experience!
Note: If you get any kind of motion sickness or car sickness, I definitely recommend taking some medicine before heading to the ocean. I was feeling pretty nauseous during the first half of the tour…

My 13 yr old and I went sea kayaking for the first time on their cave tour. We tackled the waves as we launched from beach. In the ocean, we saw dolphins at a distance and sea lions up close. Paddling in to and out of the caves was definitely adventurous. Some were quite narrow and along with the rhythmic serges of waves, it was a challenge. But the guide was there to help us through it. In fact, they took care of everything necessary — sunscreen, hair tie, wetsuit, bootie, paddle jacket, helmet, drinking water, snack bar, and most importantly pics of the trip on CD. What a way to experience CA.