Transcription of Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley for the show Old Port Adventuring #155
Lisa: When I think about canoeing and kayaking in Maine, we often associate it with our lakes and our rivers and being a little more inland, but today we’re speaking with two individuals who are bringing kayaking and canoeing right to Portland waterfront and we’re so glad to have them. This is Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley who together run Portland Paddles.
Zach Anchors is a Maine native who lives on Munjoy Hill, he spent 14 years as a guide leading countless kayaking and canoeing trips off the coast of Maine, and in Mexico, British Columbia, Ontario and Alaska. He’s licensed as a master Maine guide and is certified as an instructor by both the American Canoe Association and Paddle Canada.
He’s a Wilderness first responder and he has received certifications in Wilderness, water safety, and Swift water rescue outside of his work as a Kayaking guide and instructor. Zack is a journalist, Writer, and teacher. Thanks for coming in today.
Zack: Thanks for having me Lisa.
Lisa: We also have with us Erin Quigley. Who grew up exploring New Hampshire’s water ways by canoe and kayak, back packing trips in the White Mountains inspired her lifelong love of the outdoors and has a Masters in Science and natural resources and has spent many years working for environmental conservation and outdoor recreation non-profits. Including the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and the Maine Trail Association, to New England long distance water trails, she’s certified Wilderness First responder, registered Maine guide, and American and Canoe Association certified kayaking instructor. Thank you for being here.
Erin: You’re welcome, thank you Lisa.
Lisa: You’ve, both of you impressive qualifications to do the work you do with Portland Paddle, but also have impressive qualifications academically? This is when I had a conversation with you in writing the Old Port magazine article that people who are listening to can read in September.
This is what I was most struck by, is that you have quite a varied academic background between the two of you. Zack tell me about your background?
Zack: Sure. I, for the last several years I’ve been teaching at community colleges before we started this business. I’ve got a Master’s degree in literature in Vancouver and I taught literature and writing at community colleges down in New Jersey and here at the SMCC is South Portland. Now I’m doing a PhD program in history, American history at University of New Hampshire.
So, I’m in the middle of that right now.
Lisa: Erin. You went on a slightly different group of direction, you went more the environmental study as a Master’s and Science kind of direction, tell me about your back ground?
Erin: My academic background is really, varied actually buried, back when I was an undergraduate I studied Sociology and Anthropology, I thought I was going to be an Archeologist at some point actually. Then I got a job working for the Forest Service then I realized that the outdoors was more where I wanted to focus. I have a masters from UBM in natural Resource management. I made it half way through a PHD program about the University of Maine or I’ll call the sustainability solutions initiative which is all about inter disciplinary solutions to environmental problems.
Somewhere in there I decided the academic track wasn’t really for me and that’s part of the genesis of Port Land Paddle.
Lisa: Tell about that Portland Paddle is a little bit more than a year old. You are based off of the East end and this came about through conversations that you had as roommates on Vesper Street on Munjoy Hill.
Zack: Part of it is that we thought that somebody needed to be doing this because the Eastern Beach and just Portland in general is just such a great spot for, to launch a sea kayaking trip. There’s really not a lot of access to the water front and there’s not a lot of access to kayaks. A lot of people in Portland don’t have storage for a kayak or a paddle board and they just don’t have a way to get it down to the water even if they do have storage for it. We just thought that somebody needed to be doing this and it’s just we were living right there and we wanted to do something. We wanted to find some way to combine our passions and really do something to work in the community that was really active. It all came together with the right timing to make this happen.
Erin: The work we do when we are not doing Portland Paddle is much more nontangible, writing and outreach and the things that aren’t necessarily a solid, a physical work. We had a lot of discussions about if we could have a real thing to give to the community like a tangible thing what would it be? Having a business seemed alike a really good way to do that. A business that was needed and relevant.
Lisa: Boats, boats are pretty tangible. There is something where you can actually do something with in a very immediate way.
Erin: We really dedicated the idea that when people have experiences on Casco Bay then they make better decisions at home. Consider it in the future and they take better care if it. That is a pretty, it’s nontangible in some ways but in other ways it seems like one of the most tangible important things.
Lisa: I know that you have kayaks and you have paddle boards and those are available to rent in the short term and in the longer term. You also do instruction and you also do guided tours. Talk to me a little about that.
Zack: Sure, yes. The instruction, the lessons that we offer are becoming a bigger and bigger part of what we do. Really it’s a, you start off talking about how kayaking in Maine often takes place on lakes and rivers. It’s a different thing out here on the Casco Bay and on Maine’s coastal waters because it’s just, there’s a lot more hazards out there, a lot more things to think about in terms of the currents and boat traffic and the very cold water and exposed coast. We really want people to have skills and knowledge before they go out there in preparation. We are pretty selective on who we rent kayaks to and where we let them go.
We really want to encourage everybody to actually take one of our lessons and develop some skills and so they can come back and rent on their own once they’ve developed some skills and more familiar with the environment. Then they can go out and explore and we really hope that, ideally what happens and this is actually happening with a lot of our clients. They come to us and take a beginner lesson and then they come back for an intermediate lesson and then they take a few lessons and then finally they come back and start renting on their own. It works that for us from a business perspective of having repeat customers.
It also just works out because we get to see them develop and they get to really gain a lot from it and got out paddling and feel really confident.
Lisa: Erin, I know that tours are an important part of what you do. Fort Gorges is very popular because it’s quite close by but it’s a surprising destination. Most people don’t have the chance even having lived in the Portland area all my life I’ve never gone out there and actually been on the grounds there.
Erin: Yeah. It’s surprising and really gratifying when people who, we’ve had people come down have lived on Munjoy Hill their entire lives and they have looked at the Fort out there that entire time. They’ve never set foot on it before. One our tours is the way that they finally get out there and they get to explore it on their own. Fort Gorges in definitely our most popular tour destination. There’s lots of other great tour destinations as well. Getting out into the island, places to lands and explore a little bit. Lots of places to see wildlife like seals and ospreys and the tours are definitely the simplest way for people to come experience what we have to offer.
We have a whole staff of experienced registered Maine guides that are really knowledgeable about the history and the ecology of the area. You can really learn a lot about the Bay but being on one of our tours. It’s a great option also, I think that tourists definitely gravitate towards the tours most but also locals are starting to realize that it’s a really great way to learn more about where they are which is great.
Lisa: You also have longer tours that take you out to places like Carl Island where I understand there’s some yurts that can be I guess inhabited for a short period of time.
Erin: That’s a thing that’s new this year. That we are really excited about a partnership with Ripple Effect which is the nonprofit that owns that island and does summer programs and school programs for kids. They do really great work and so we’ve had a variety of partnerships with them. Now we are trying to use these resources that they have to help people get out and spend the night on an island which is a really cool thing. The yurks are really cool so you don’t have to pack your tent and some of the other stuff you’d have to jam into your kayak. Otherwise it’s a really accessible way for people to try a kayak overnight.
Lisa: I understand also that Jewell Island is in the rotation?
Zack: Yeah. Jewell Island is a little further out. It’s another really amazing destination that a lot of people who live in Portland, even people who’ve lived here all their lives have never been there before and it’s just, it’s amazing. You go out there and you feel like you are on a really wild coast far from any city. We like to go to the Southern side of the island where there’s this really nice beach with a campsite on it, with cliffs facing the open ocean. We’ll be doing at least two trips out there this year, overnight trips. Another organization we work with and rely on is the Maine Island Trail Association and they just have all these great Islands throughout the Coast of Maine that they provide access to. That’s a really great resource because there’s just so many beautiful islands to explore by sea kayaking in Maine.
Lisa: It’s been important to both of you and all of your staff really to keep these Islands in good shape. You’ve done some clean up days with Maine Island Trail Association just to make sure that these natural resources are maintained.
Erin: Yap. We have done twice now on our opening day of our first season and opening day of our second season. We’ve participated in the Maine Island Trail Association Casco Bay cleanup. Primarily by heading out to Fort Gorges actually because we get a lot from Fort Gorges so we want to make sure we help keep it clean and help maintain it as much as we can. Those have been really fun and really successful partnership opportunities and we hope to keep that going in the future. We have worked with several organizations in that capacity where maybe they even just want kayaks to help people get out to a cleanup that’s happening somewhere or an even on an island.
For instance we are working with main Coast heritage Trust later on in the summer to help them do a guided paddle to Lee Island one of their new acquisitions. We really enjoy helping out with those things.
Lisa: Both of you grew up on the water. Zack you grew up on the Penobscot River I believe and Erin you grew up right near the White Mountains and some rivers and streams …
Erin: On Great Bay and New Hampshire.
Lisa: Great Bay and New Hampshire, and you were very young when this whole process started. Does it feel as you’ve could have lived your lives any other way?
Zack: It’s hard to imagine for sure yeah because … I’ve just spent so much time in the water my whole life as a kid just swimming in the river every day and then got into kayaking when I was 11 years old. It’s just pretty much been a part of my life ever since. That’s really what’s probably kept me coming back to Maine and the reason why I live here now is just because the oceans and the lakes and the rivers and all that outdoors here is just difficult to find that anywhere else that I’d want to live.
Erin: Yeah. I’m not sure I can live anywhere else at this point. Portland especially strikes such a great balance between being a vibrant city where there is lots of interesting things going on and lots of ways to get involved, but also having the ocean and the mountains, and the rivers and the whole thing so accessible at the same time. There are probably a very few other places like this. I enjoy the fact that all of these things are here and I am only really an hour from where I grew up along the coast and it’s just a really fulfilling place to be.
Lisa: One of your partnerships has been with local musicians and I remember Zack telling a story about being in a tandem kayak and wrapping up a guitar to sitting in front of the kayak so that you can bring it out and have the musician play out on an island. That sounds pretty fun.
Zack: Yeah. We have a concert series at Fort Gorges that we call Acoustic Paddle. We paddle out with a local musicians and have a little concert in the Fort which … The Fort is just really incredible setting for live music, because there’re just wonderful acoustics and it’s just really beautiful and it’s always really quiet inside. We’ll be doing that again this year. We’ve just started planning … we got Joe, a local musician, Joe Walsh is going to be one of the artist featured this summer though we’re hoping to do at least a couple of those again.
Lisa: We’ve talked about the fact that each of you have a very different but strong academic background. Yeah, you’ve done work towards the PhD. You’re not doing it right now, a little bit on the high eighties I suppose. Zack, you’re currently pursuing a PhD in American History. How do you balance all of these things? Erin, how have you balanced these previously? Zack, how are you balancing it all now?
Erin: Well. The seasonal nature of Portland Paddle actually is lifesaver in terms of giving us more of an ability to pursue these different things that are really important to us. I think and there’s still plenty to do for Portland Paddle in the winter and it’s always juggling act that is more challenging than we expected to be. It really lends this nice variety where in the summer; we’re just out every day on the ocean doing things, doing physical work.
Then by the time you get to the winter season, it feels like a blessing to be able to sit on the computer for a day. It creates that balance. By the end of the winter, you’re tired of it and you just can’t wait to get outside again. The rhythm of it actually seems to work out I think.
Zack: Yeah. It’s difficult to juggle so many things but I think for me like a lot of Mainers just comes naturally to juggle at the different gigs at once. I think it works out really well this particular mix that we’ve got because we’ve spent part of our time writing, behind a computer indoors. After a while, you get pretty tired of that and so then we’re good to go, sit in the kayak on the water, be outdoors and part of the work is solitude by ourselves and then part of it is just really working with people out in the community.
It really actually provides a balance that if I was just a fulltime academic, or fulltime writer I wouldn’t get.
Erin: I feel like in Portland’s especially this seems to happen a lot where everyone you meet has so many things that they want to do and so many ways they want to be contributing different opportunities they want to pursue that very few people we know are doing just one thing. It seems like lots of people are finding ways to balance all of these different interests and passions in a really cool way.
Lisa: Access for you both is very important and not just access to kayaks and paddle boards on the East End but also financial access. What you’re trying to do is create a very affordable way for our people to explore the coast here. With your new Portland Paddle of the Presumpscot, your new business in Westbrook, you really are … You’re trying to make it easy.
Zack: Yeah definitely. We just opened this location in Westbrook in the Presumpscot. Yeah, the rentals there are much less expensive and so we’re just opens up paddling to people who might not be able to afford to rent a sea kayak or who might not have the skills to go out in Casco Bay. We don’t want to be offering services that are just not accessible to a large portion of Maine’s population because they’re too expensive. We try to make opportunities to have discounts, or have special deals or just have more affordable rentals on the Presumpscot so that everybody can get out in the water.
Speaker 1: There was a time when the Apothecary was a place for you to get safe, reliable medicines, carefully prepared by experienced professionals, coupled with care and attention focused on you and your unique health concerns. Apothecary by design is built around the forgotten notion that you don’t just need your prescriptions filled. You need attention, advice and individual care. Visit their website apothecarybydesign.com or drop by the store at 84 Marginal Way in Portland and experience pharmacy care the way it was meant to be.
Experienced Chef and Owner Harding Lee Smith’s newest hit restaurant, Boone’s Fish house & Oyster Room, Maine seafood at its finest. Joining sister restaurants, the Front Room, the Grill Room and the Corner Room, this newly renovated, two-story restaurant at 86 Commercial Street on Custom House Wharf, overlook scenic Portland harbor. Watch lobstermen bring in the daily catch as you enjoy baked stuffed lobster, raw bar and wood fired flatbreads. For more information, visit wwwtheroomsportland.com.
Lisa: You also offer … I believe what you’ve called them Munjoy Hill discount and also punch cards that you can … There are ten punches, then rentals for certain amount of money on the punch card?
Erin: Yeah. The punch card is a great thing that we actually really would love people to take even more advantage although they already have. We have 10 kayak rentals on a card, 10 paddle rentals on a card or a combo of both. The idea is that if you wanted to go out after work 10 times over the course of the summer or something like, you could just walk down and our staff then keeps the record of who you are and what your boat preferences is. Hopefully, the punch card and holders can really feel like a part of our community and come out really regularly.
Lisa: You also on a pretty regular basis get people from out of State. You could just as easily have individuals who are coming in from New Jersey to travel out to as part of your acoustic paddle and listen to some tunes on Fort Gorges.
Zack: Yeah. Probably almost the majority of our customers are visitors or tourists which is really great because we just … We meet people from all over the world and it just makes our job really interesting. That’s pretty … To décor for other like kayak companies like us to have lots of tourists but we’ve really tried to focus on trying and local people to and so we have the next mix. We want to feel like we’re really like authentic paddling company that’s a neighborhood resource. It’s nice to have a little bit of both visitors and local people.
Erin: We found the outreach to each group is very different. Like for tourists are often looking for a snazzy website where it’s easy to make reservations and that kind of thing whereas locals seem to be looking for a lot more just word of mouth awareness and other connections in the community. It definitely takes some different strategies to reach out to both the groups.
Lisa: Opening this business yourself must have provided quite an education for you. Erin you’ve worked with various non-profits and Zack you have a background doing business journalism. Each of you have your own very unique take on businesses but to do something yourself as entrepreneurs, that must have taken some courage and some flexibility and wear with all I guess.
Erin: It’s definitely new. It was a new thing for both of us and the learning curve was really steep but we have a lot of great resources in the community. We worked with the small business development center, some resources for that and try to take advantage of entrepreneurs in Portland. The startup community in Portland is really big right now and it’s growing. We definitely took advantage of a lot the resources that are springing up around that which we appreciated very much. Is also nice to be able to start up small and locally focused and we grew incredibly first but our first idea for what we were going to do was just that it was going to be us with maybe one person helping us out sometimes.
It became apparent really quickly that we were going to have to take it up a notch I guess. We have been able to scale up. Starting from small to bigger and bigger, it provides a good platform from learning from.
Lisa: You’ve 10 people working with you now, is that right?
Erin: We do.
Lisa: working in your company?
Erin: Yep.
Lisa: In the course of a year, that’s pretty first growth.
Erin: It is, it is and we’re really excited about the community of staff and guys that we’ve created as well. They’re all just really interesting people who have diverse backgrounds and lives and they’ll just good people, and we feel thankful and lucky that we’ve managed to find them, because we couldn’t do it without them, what they do.
They work really hard and so we’re… that’s another thing that’s one of our favorite parts of this business is seeing our staff all work well together and be a part of this thing.
Lisa: I believe that both you had mentioned that it was your fathers that originally brought you out. I know that Zack, I definitely remember you saying that when you were 11 your dad brought you out, I could be wrong about this Erin, I don’t if it’s your dad or your mum or someone.
Erin: No. it was my dad actually.
Lisa: it’s your dad?
Erin: Canoeing.
Lisa: You’re also around the same age 11 or so?
Erin: Probably younger, it was very recreational; I mean we just busk out the canoe and float down the limp river, near where I lived in New Hampshire but it was a big part of his life.
Lisa: looking at what you’re doing now, how do they feel about this big adventure that you’re taking?
Zack: My dad actually works for us.
Erin: Which is great?
Zack: He teaches paddle boarding and kayaking for us, because he’s also been like a kayak guide for many years. He got into it after I did, he’s good as a guide, but he’s been a great resource for us, because he’s always happy to help out and so, every weekend he teaches our paddle boarding lessons.
Lisa: Has your dad come down to help too Erin?
Erin: My dad does not so excited about getting into sea kayak, he’s a pretty big guy and he likes his canoes and his open Craft so, I’m still working on him as far as getting him out on the ocean. He’s a forester by trade and he gravitates towards the lakes and rivers and being out in the woods, that’s his thing.
Lisa: Do you have any regrets about coming back to Maine, Zack and looking on the Portland paddle website, you’ve been all over the place, you’ve to Baja Mexico, and you’ve been to Alaska and, you’re an adventurer, you’re a man of the world. I assume there’s probably a similar thing that you’ve done Erin, just isn’t as quite as readily apparent on your website I guess, but you’re here you both here and you’ve chosen very much to live here.
Zack: Yeah. It seems like I meet a lot of people who have a similar experience to me, where they grew up in Maine, in a small town in Maine like me and they go out and kind of see the world and going to big cities and live in different regions. They realize Maine is pretty great it’s hard to beat, Maine so, that’s really what happened to me. I just I lived a lot of great beautiful places, exciting palaces but it’s just for me, especially Portland just right next to urban and we’re all access to outdoors and just great people and just really high quality of life and it’s affordable.
This is really where I want to be.
Erin: I guess I had a very similar experience; I did lots of other places for very short periods of time when I was younger and when I moved to Portland which is about 4 years ago now may a little more than that. I had a really distinct feeling of, I fit in here, I felt like I found a place in the city more quickly than in other places I’ve lived.
I think that was actually a sort of a revelation for me and personal life, friends. May be its time not to bounce around so much and maybe here is where I would like to be for a while, there’s start of this train of thought towards, how can I give back to this community that made me welcome from the beginning.
Lisa: I’m sure the people who’re listening whether they’re from away or whether they’re from Maine are going to be interested in exploring the coast with you, kayaking or paddle boarding, so how do people find out about Portland Paddle?
Erin: Well, they can visit our website portlandpaddle.net. You can always give us a call 207-370-9730 and we’ve our staff down there at the beach center really happy to talk about all our different offerings and places to paddle. You might get one of us on the line as well it depends what day it is or you can just stop by, plenty of people take their dogs down to East end beach, they go running and walking down there and we’ve our storage container and our boat rack and some signs that are pretty easy to see hopefully and just stop by and we both love to chat about what we do.
Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley who run Portland Paddle. I appreciate the work that you’re doing to introduce people to the coast of Maine and give them a chance to do kayaking and paddle boarding and go beyond the Portland waters and I appreciate you coming in and talking to me today.
Zack: It was really good to be here.
Erin: Thanks for the opportunity.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, show number 155, Old Port Adventuring. Our guests have included Kevin Thomas, Jen De Rose, Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley. Read our Portland Paddle article featuring Zack and Erin in the September issue of Old Port magazine. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit doctorlisa.org. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter, and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. Get Twitter updates by following me as @doctorlisa, and see my daily running photos as bountifulone on Instagram.
We’d love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Old Port adventuring show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors; Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of BOOTH Maine, Apothecary by Design, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Harding Lee Smith of The Rooms, and Bangor Savings Bank. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine.
Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in Maine Magazine. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Our executive producers are Kevin Thomas, Susan Grisanti, and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Our assistant producer is Leanne Ouimet. Audio production and original music by John C McCain. Our online producer is Kelly Clinton. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is available for download free on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.