28 February 2025
By James Mullan
One of the North Shore’s most beloved businesses, Sydney by Kayak, has finally found a permanent home on Blues Point Road in McMahons Point. After years of operating out of homes, a tiny studio office, and a van near Lavender Bay, owner and founder Laura Stone has secured a space to expand.
Sydney by Kayak will be moving into 208 Blues Point Road, the former site of Blues Corner Convenience store, which had served the community for decades. One day, while driving past, Stone saw a “for lease” sign and recognized it as the perfect opportunity to expand their already thriving business.
We caught up with Stone for an exclusive interview to get the story behind Sydney By Kayak and what to expect from the new storefront.
Established in 2013, Sydney by Kayak started as a small operation focused mainly on exercise. However, as the business grew, a diverse group of kayakers started to join their morning trips, exchanging Gatorade bottles for coffee cups.
“People started sitting and enjoying coffee, and they stopped doing fitness!” Stone told the Sun. “And so, I realised very quickly that there was a market for people who just wanted to watch the sunrise and enjoy coffee.”
The evolution didn’t just stop at coffee cups, as tour groups started to pick up rubbish they found in the harbour.
“I was finding that we were all picking up rubbish in the mornings. And so, I asked our kayak manufacturer to include a coffee cup holder on the front and a bucket holder on the back for the rubbish. So, when we were out in the mornings, we could enjoy a nice leisurely paddle, have our coffee, watch the sunrise, and pick up trash.”
In total, they have cleaned up an astonishing 38,000 kilos of rubbish.
This was the start of Sydney by Kayak entering into the environmental and sustainability space. For Laura, after moving to Australia, she embraced the great outdoors and nature, becoming an easy convert to conservationism and caring for the natural environment.
Now, the business helps the cause not just through thousands of dollars in financial contributions but also by providing leadership for several conservation projects, including sponsoring a Sea bin in Darling Harbour, a mangrove nursery in Berry’s Bay, and a living seawall in Lavender Bay, just to name a few.
It is a full-on operation, with several staff helping to run tours, education workshops, sustainability projects, and special events.
Currently, they have no centre for operations. Stone explained, “Everything that we do for our tours, whether it’s baking scones, prepping champagne tours, prepping coffees, or everything that we do, we do it at home. And then we transport it down to the vans at four in the morning and then we run our tours. So, it’s been tricky with young kids around.”
Their administration team, from bookings to marketing, all work from home or in a tiny studio apartment in McMahons Point. So, the need for more space was a decision of when, not if.
“Deep down, I’ve been looking for something. We’ve sort of dabbled in the idea of having a home or an office space for our team,” Stone revealed.
Let’s check out the storefront! There are plenty of new ideas and operations that will be happening in the new shop, starting in the front of house where we will find a workshop and visitor center primarily focused on education. The space will accommodate groups who have returned from paddling to do workshops on everything from plastic recycling to composting and other sustainable practices. Stone also intends to allow local businesses and sustainability organizations to use the space.
Moving into the second street-facing room, there will be a small store which sells recycled plastic products that were created from items they’ve picked up from around the harbor. This will be in collaboration with Reshaping Waste. They also intend on having a demonstration-scale plastic repurposing processor.
Stone hopes the shopfront can also provide a platform for local sustainable businesses to sell their products, with several inquiries already coming in.
Heading into the back rooms, there will be an office space where the Sydney by Kayak team can work out of.
The backyard will be a community space where they hope people can collaborate, meet up, or just sit down and enjoy a coffee. She also has sights on hosting small-scale events in the beautiful backyard.
“I would love to run networking afternoons or evenings, partnering with people like the lovely team from the Better Business Partnership. They do regular sustainability networking events,” Stone said, her ideal use for the backyard.
They also intend to redesign the space to incorporate a living seawall for aesthetic and demonstration purposes, as well as simple sustainability projects like a composting station. The new store is set to open around April this year.
The North Sydney Sun will keep readers updated on the shop’s progress, and for more information on Sydney by Kayak, head to their website: https://sydneybykayak.com.au/