Meet Buoy Water Club, a new kind of outfitter

Join us as we get to know Buoy Water Club, a Self-service paddle share, geared toward making being on the water a daily practice.

Q: What is your story?

Well, I suppose being brothers makes the story start quite a while back, though Buoy Water Club started to grow roots in 2020. It’s funny to think what led to Buoy. I think surfing, being entrepreneurial, and having a deep sense of gratitude for the environment slowly began to weave together, and present ideas. We’ve always been throwing ideas around, about what we could create together. I (Bubby) am the one who has a ton of ideas. I throw them at the wall and see which stick over time. Scout, the older of the two of us, is more methodical. He sits with ideas for longer. In 2017, we began to take steps toward creating what we imagined to be a ‘gear share’ program. We loved what bike share offered in regard to accessibility, and were inspired by a business model based on sharing rather than personal ownership. But the timing wasn’t quite right to give it the attention it needed. Scout was working for Outdoor Voices as their sustainability lead, and I was still in school studying industrial design at Pratt in Brooklyn. After I graduated, Scout and I planned to bike from California to Colombia over 3 months. Friends thought we were crazy. Then Covid hit, and we were living at home in Santa Barbara together, hiking, surfing, planting gardens and reading a lot. Colombia was postponed, so naturally, the idea of the ‘gear share’ program resurfaced and we really dove in. We came to identify what we are passionate about is promoting a healthy relationship to earth's waters, the sharing economy/collaborative consumption and designing beautiful spaces and experiences. Now, over two years later, we have designed and developed self-service paddle share lockers for paddleboards, surfboards and kayaks. It’s like bike share but for water sports. All you have to do is download the Buoy Water Club app, grab a RED paddleboard and paddle, then return it to the same location after paddling.

Q: Do you host any events/activities involving the paddlesports community?

Although our model is self-service, we are all about cultivating community. Being a new project, we see this taking time but are very excited to help develop strong local paddle scenes at each location. We see our lockers becoming local hubs, where water people can gather. This coming spring, we’ll be hosting weekly group paddles led by our local paddle teammates, and SUP polo tournaments a few times throughout the summer.