Kayak tours connect people to history, nature
“Buffalo Bayou Kayak Tours posted on Facebook that they were looking for guides. They wanted someone who knows stuff about nature and history. And I was like, that’s kind of up my alley. I’ve been an information buff the majority of my life. And I love nature. I love history. So I applied.
“The only kayak experience I had was one time at a customer’s home. I have a pool business, and they had left a kayak floating. I paddled around for about 10 minutes, and it was a lot of fun.
“I’m now probably close to 400 miles paddled on the bayou. I give tours to a variety of people. Some are born and raised Houstonians who have never seen the bayou from the perspective of the city’s founding fathers. Others are from around the U.S. and the world. I’ve given tours to people from the UK, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and many other countries.
“Sometimes I’m the first representation of not just our city, but our entire state. That’s probably my favorite part, being able to give an idea to strangers of the kind of people they can expect to run into while they’re visiting, and to help them understand what the city is all about.
“Something I hadn’t picked up on until a few years ago is that talking is really a skill. Just the ability to be efficient and engaging with what you say. I can talk to anyone. It doesn’t really matter who they are or what their background is, I can find some kind of common ground with them. And I can kind of get them where they need to be by the time our conversation ends. I call it my superpower. It’s something that I’ve been trying to use for good, to be productive. It’s my favorite thing about me now.
“On the kayak tours, whenever I bring people down to Buffalo Bayou, it’s kind of hard to gloss over some of the big issues facing the city, like homelessness or the pollution and trash that’s visible as we paddle around.
“If we get flooded, like when Hurricane Beryl came through, the bayou is almost overfilled. So the trash is at the top of the water. Then, as the water slowly subsides through the weeks because of a lack of rain, a lot of that trash gets stuck in the trees along the bayou. Right now, things like paper and bags and tarps and other homeless litter is not just floating in the water, but literally all over the embankments.
“I felt it was important to do something, to try to make a difference. So I had this idea to create clean-up events. We send volunteers out on the bayou in kayaks with bags to collect whatever trash they can grab.
“In the process of starting it up, I met a nonprofit called District 1 Decontamination Unit. It’s a group of individuals who focus on cleaning up litter in their area of Houston. They’re a driving force behind our clean-up efforts.
“We schedule the events for the first Sunday of every month. We have groups join us, like Boy Scouts or university organizations, but it’s open to anyone.
“I’m 33 this year. I have two young kids. This is something that I can feel proud of, to show how much I care about the city. Instead of just sitting around mad that nothing is getting done, I’m helping out. That’s one of the things I feel most at peace with, something that makes me feel better and other people feel better.
“Anything I can do to keep that momentum going, not only for me but for others, for the city, that’s what I hope to do.”
— David Urias
