The Rental Center: More Than Just Gear
The Rental Center not only provides gear, but also offers training to help clients feel prepared to take on their own adventure
Just beyond the lap pool, tucked into a corner of the Student Rec Center, is a hidden gem. Kayaks are stacked high, paddleboards line the walls, and tents and life jackets fill the large garage space. Inside the Outdoor Adventures office, students can find even more gear inside a room stocked with equipment for backpacking, rock climbing, water sports, and tailgating.
“Our Rental Center allows you to make your own adventures,” Trips and Program Supervisor Jackson Bendele said. “We have everything you would need from in terms of camping gear. We have water sports as well. A lot of people are surprised when they come into the rental center. They expect to see a couple kayaks and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know you had surfboards.’”
Yet for all its equipment, Outdoor Adventures are more than just gear. From transportation to set-up, student staff are trained to guide patrons into their next adventure.
“We pride ourselves on having really well trained staff and we’re trained to fit a canoe or a kayak on top of almost any vehicle,” Bendele said. “But that being said, if you’re a big group and you aren’t able to take eight canoes or kayaks, we are able to provide a service where we take out the boats, we’ll drop them off and we’ll pick them up again. We try to do everything we can to make sure that not only you have the equipment you need but we’re able to get to the site that you’re at as well.”
From kayaking with friends to student organization trips and hands-on learning experiences, patrons use the Rental Center in all kinds of ways. For architecture professor Bruce Dvorak, it’s part of the classroom. The professor incorporates rental gear during field trips, giving students the chance to apply what they learn in a real, practical setting.
Student paddling down a small cascade on her pink kayak
“Our landscape architecture students are going into a field where they are designing outdoor recreation facilities, such as boat access [and] river trails,” Dvorak said. “Outdoor Adventures has been fantastic for setting up learning environments for our students. We’ve been on river trips, training sessions going out into the field and our students always love it.”
From smaller trips to Penberthy Pond to larger excavations at Lake Bryan, students in LAND 620 have had the opportunity to train and explore with Professor Dvorak and student staff from Outdoor Adventures.
“What I appreciate most is their training and safety capacity and also helping on field trips,” Dvorak said. “I can’t take on that liability myself as professor, so to have experts there that have done this kind of thing before, and it’s someone other than me that the students can connect with and learn about kayaking. They teach students how to help, how to load the boat, unload the boat, get the equipment on [and] secure everything in place. So, I didn’t have to do anything; I just made the arrangement. We met out on the site and they took care of everything.”
With spring break trips to the Ozarks and the Rio Grande River coming up, students can test out rental gear before heading out on their own adventures. To learn more about the Rental Center, visit the website or stop by the Outdoor Adventures office to talk with staff about trip ideas, gear recommendations, and everything you’ll need to get started.
“My favorite place to go during the spring is Guadalupe Mountains National Park!” Graduate Assistant Jacob Rendulic said. “With the tallest peak in the state, plenty of enjoyable trails, and camping options that offer complete dark sky, this has been one of my favorite spaces in the state
