On this episode of Sidequest, listen to Podcast hosts Hela Khalil and Tilly Jones talk about their experience kayaking at UCLA’s Marine Aquatic Center.

Tilly Jones: Welcome to Sidequest, a miniseries by Daily Bruin Podcasts, where we send Podcast contributors on adventures that are unique to Los Angeles. In each episode, the contributors come to the studio to tell us about their experiences, funny stories and reviews. This is Sidequest.

Hela Khalil: It’s been a long quarter, and sometimes all you need to do is reconnect with nature. But in a city like Los Angeles, doing that is not always the easiest – unless you happen to find yourself kayaking around Marina del Rey on a random Sunday morning, and that is exactly what we did. We decided to finally pay a visit to UCLA Marine Aquatic Center, aka the “MAC,” in Marina del Rey this past weekend, and let’s just say we had a blast.

TJ: So, we had been hearing about the MAC and its existence for a little bit the past year, so we knew it was something we’d be interested in doing. But it ended up being the perfect Hela-friendly activity right now because she is in a boot, so we knew that being seated in a kayak could be kind of an ideal injured activity.

HK: Yeah, we thought about doing the swan boats in Silver Lake. Thought that that wouldn’t, you know, be the best for my leg. The Hollywood sign hike, also not ideal. So we decided to go to the MAC, and I surprisingly had an incredible time.

TJ: It was beautiful. It was great.

HK: Obviously, we knew that we would be able to access the aquatic center, but I didn’t really know what the process was for renting or getting kayaks. So I did a brief Google search, and on the UCLA Rec website, they have a whole page dedicated to how undergrads can access free – yes, free – rentals for kayaks. And you essentially just have to make a kayak-specific rec account online, sign a waiver, watch a short, about five-minute orientation video, and you know, it’s that easy. And then once you have your account signed up and set up, you can go to the aquatic center and get your rental for free. It is first come, first serve, and they do kind of have pretty limited hours for rentals, so make sure to check the Rec website and their calendar before you go. But super easy, honestly.

TJ: Yeah, the fact that it is free is, like, actually incredibly underrated to me. I think it’s underused. We went on a Sunday, and it was not busy enough for it being such a cool resource for us, so.

HK: I know, I was lowkey like, “Tilly, should we go really early? Like, what if there are no kayaks?”

TJ: I know, I was scared.

HK: But no, they had plenty. So, guys, like, please flock, flock to the MAC.

TJ: So we left UCLA around 10 a.m. I went and picked Hela up on a lovely Sunday morning, and it was honestly a very chill drive. I think it took maybe 25 to 30 minutes, so it’s pretty close to get over there when there’s not much traffic, which luckily there was not. I can imagine that in peak LA traffic it could be really bad, but it was very easy. And then once we got to the marina, there was, like, clear signs we had to drive down a little bit of, like, a sus private dirt lane that I felt really alarmed by. And we were kind of, like, fully sharing the road with bikes. It wasn’t like a bike lane here and there. It was like half of this route was a bike lane, so that felt weird. But once we found it, we realized it was great.

HK: Everything at the MAC was very nicely and clearly laid out. So there was an office – the door was wide open, essentially a trailer – we walked in, we gave them our Bruin IDs. You know, we had set up the accounts online already, so it was a very quick, very easy process to get the kayaks rented out to us. We were also concerned and wondering if we should bring any of our personal belongings/phones, but they actually do provide you lockers to put your stuff in – including car keys, phones, whatnot – while you’re kayaking, so that was also great. But after we locked up our stuff, one of the employees at the MAC got us fitted for paddles and life jackets, so we were “safetymaxxing.”

TJ: We were safe.

HK: Yes, and we realized the MAC is so awesome because there are genuinely so many types of equipment you can rent from the center, including sit-on-top kayaks, paddle boards and, yes, even sailboats. I even had a friend that did a quarter-long sailing course and, like, took lessons at the MAC, which is so cool.

TJ: I’m jealous I didn’t know about that. That would be so cool to just go down there at like once a week.

HK: Yeah.

TJ: Yeah, everything’s really accessible. The paddle boards were there, the kayaks – you could put one or two people in – so you could kind of pick your route there.

HK: Obviously, we opted for the double kayak.

TJ: Yeah, there was no conversation.

HK: It was not even a question.

TJ: Honestly, the other thing I was thinking about is I genuinely don’t think I’d been in a life jacket for like a decade.

HK: Me neither. I did feel like a child.

TJ: We were reconnecting with our youth while reconnecting with nature.

TJ: After we got life jackets on and everything kind of set up, we walked down to the dock. And basically, it’s just a very limited-size floating dock with everything – there’s the sailboats, the kayaks, the paddle boards – and the people who work there went down and helped us. The girl who was working there, I think she was a sophomore at UCLA, and she was talking about how not many people know about the MAC. And we were telling her about our podcast and that we have this episode coming out, so we’re using this as free PR for the MAC as well. But she helped us pick up the kayak, put it in the water. She set us up with our paddles and everything, and then we were ready to go. We had 90 minutes. Luckily, because we didn’t have our phones, I was a little worried about our ability to know at all what time it was, but Hela had a watch.

HK: I always have my watch on me.

TJ: So, recommendation is if you’re gonna go to the MAC, bring a watch or bring someone who has a watch. And then we were off.

HK: We were off, and I mean, the marina is actually really big.

TJ: It’s massive.

HK: We were discussing, while kayaking, that it was probably, if not one of, the biggest marinas that either of us have been in.

TJ: I think, like, for me, definitely the biggest.

HK: Yeah. But we, you know, we set out and we were determined to do the whole thing and loop around it, and the girl that was working there recommended we go to kind of the side or the end of the marina closest to the city because sea lions were known to just chill out over there.

TJ: I think they just kind of hang on the docks.

HK: Yeah, so that was where we set out to go first, and we started kayaking, and I think my favorite activity while kayaking was looking at every single boat’s names and just criticizing all of them.

TJ: Every single one.

HK: Because they were not good.

TJ: They, I literally, I realized that no one is good at naming a boat. Like, half of them would be just like random words. A lot of names.

HK: A standout to me was “Cheese and Crackers,” and I looked at Tilly, and I was like, some parent just asked their five-year-old, “what should we name our boat?”

TJ: 1000%.

HK: And they were like, “Cheese and Crackers.”

TJ: And that kid is definitely gonna appreciate it, but we are allowed to judge it for sure.

HK: Yeah.

TJ: And some of them had themes. There was like a gold boat, and it was called “24k.”

HK: Oh yeah, that one was cool.

TJ: I appreciated the bit, but also just, like, tacky.

HK: Yeah. No, it was great, though. But I mean, we had an awesome time on the water, and we essentially did what we usually do and just talked about life and everything, but we were getting an arm pump in. Yes, and I, quite frankly, woke up the next morning really sore in the back.

TJ: I kind of was too. I’ve also been having upper back, neck problems since that day, and I actually have not connected it until right now.

HK: Yeah, it’s all making sense.

TJ: Well, the thing about the life jackets is they were, like, so bulky that you could really just, like, hunch in them and still be supported, so we were not killing it in the posture game.

HK: Yeah. But no, it’s okay. We did get, you know, our legs got quite wet, because I don’t know if we mentioned this, but we were riding a sit-on-top kayak, so you’re essentially closer to the surface of the water. But an employee informed us that it’s harder to capsize in these kinds of kayaks.

TJ: Which surprised me.

HK: It surprised me, but also made me a lot more confident because I have capsized in a kayak, and it’s not fun.

TJ: Not fun, yeah.

HK: Especially out in Marina del Rey, wouldn’t want that to be the place where that happens.

TJ: Yeah, so we were incredibly stable the whole time, going at different speeds. We took some slow moments to kind of watch over the boats that were going by. At moments, we went quick; we chose our path accordingly.

HK: And I would say being in the water for so long made us both very reflective.

TJ: Incredibly reflective.

HK: And we kind of just talked about – well, it was first more trivial conversation about TV shows and making fun of the boat names, and then we talked about travel plans, and then we reflected on the past four years of college, how we feel about graduating, how we just feel about life in general.

TJ: Yeah, it’s something about being on the open ocean like four weeks out from grad, I think. You just only have time to think.

HK: Exactly. We had quite a lot of time to think, but honestly, it was really peaceful and just very needed.

TJ: Yes.

HK: And I mean, we were talking about this when we were out there too. We kind of forgot that we were in the middle of LA. But then I’d look behind me, and I’d literally see the Getty sitting on its hill, and I just see, you know, the skyline of downtown LA and remember that, oh yeah, we are in the city.

TJ: The other thing, it was like, definitely a little bit – weather was gorgeous, but it was a little cloudy, so you could, like, the Getty was like a little bit clouded over, so I can imagine on a day when it’s entirely sunny out, it’s like very clear, and you can see everything.

HK: Super pretty. And speaking of the weather, temperature in general, the water was pretty warm.

TJ: So warm.

HK: I very well could have gone for a swim.

TJ: I wanted to. I was mad that we weren’t wearing swimsuits, to be honest, to just kind of hop in and hope that the kayak didn’t capsize. But I wonder if the weather, like the water, is so warm because there’s just, like, boats going through it all the time.

HK: Yeah, that’s kind of gross. I don’t know what the science is there, but yeah, we eventually looped back around from the part of the marina that was closer to the city, and there was actually this gigantic city cruiser.

TJ: What was its name? “Entertainer?”

HK: Yeah, I think just “Entertainer.” And it was kind of just like going back and forth between the marina and chasing us.

TJ: I have no idea what it was doing, literally chasing.

HK: It was huge.

TJ: It went by and then it, like, left the dock, and then it just kind of followed us around for the rest of the hour. I have, we haven’t even looked into what those do since. I have no idea what they do.

HK: Yeah, I don’t know where that goes or what its purpose is.

TJ: They looked like they were having a time, though.

HK: I agree.

TJ: One of them waved at you. I remember that.

HK: Yeah, I was trying to get as many hellos from all the sailboats passing by as I could, but not everyone, you know, was receptive.

TJ: People were stuck up on their boats, named like, what was it…”Far Seas II”? They didn’t respect us in our kayak.

HK: I thought we looked great. There was also some trash. We like, oh yeah, we were–

TJ: You were doing good work.

HK: Yeah, we were giving back to the water.

TJ: We passed, like, a tennis ball.

HK: I was like, “Tilly, grab it, grab it.”

TJ: It took us like 20 seconds to chase it down, which was kind of humiliating, but we got it.

HK: Yeah, and then there was, like, a wrapper from a plastic water bottle we picked up.

TJ: That was probably a little more humanitarian than the ball.

HK: Two pieces of plastic picked up, and we are heroes.

TJ: And there was, like, a bouquet of, like, flowers, also that we did not pick up, but we noticed it.

TJ: Yeah, we noticed.

HK: I mean, honestly, time flew, according to my watch. We were out there for over an hour, and I very well could have been there for the full 90 minutes. Don’t think it would’ve been a challenge.

TJ: Longer, even.

HK: Yeah, and I don’t know, that amount of time was perfect for us to leave feeling refreshed, feeling zen. Ready for the day.

TJ: We felt renewed. Compared to our drive there, we were feeling better and, like, ready to take on the world.

HK: Definitely. And we were also very ready for summer.

TJ: Yes, it was like a big reminder that summer is coming, which I think sometimes in LA it’s hard to, like, differentiate the seasons, but I think being out there was like a good reminder, and now we’re so ready.

HK: Okay, after about 70 minutes of kayaking, we got back to the small dock and we kind of just slapped the dock with our paddles, so we didn’t float away, essentially.

TJ: It was honestly kind of a seamless landing. It looked a little suspicious like five seconds before, but then we got there. It was beautiful, yeah.

HK: I was sat in front because I’m short and Tilly’s taller than me.

TJ: Minimally, but yes.

HK: And so she got out first, and then I got out, and we pulled the kayak out of the water. And then Tilly, like, tried to, like, flip it over to dump the water out because we were being respectful and kind to our new favorite place in the world, the MAC.

TJ: And we were also just, like, sitting in water. So it felt needed.

HK: I remember walking to the car and sitting down, and it was just like a puddle from my shorts. But yeah, we got our things, and–

TJ: Yeah, it was like, we got our things from the locker, we got our IDs back, it honestly was so easy.

HK: So insanely easy.

TJ: Very. Like, you just make your own code to the locker, you get in, you get out. It’s very perfect, and then we left, changed.

HK: Yeah, and my largest takeaway – greatest takeaway, I should say – is that A, why didn’t we come here sooner? Wish I had come here…

TJ: Anytime in the last four years.

HK: Exactly. B, if you have the opportunity, go, go, go, go, go to the MAC.

TJ: And you do have the opportunity, because you’re a UCLA student and it’s free.

HK: It’s free! It’s free for undergrads. You can also bring guests for, I think, only $5, which is, that’s probably the cheapest rental for kayaks you’ll find. It’s great. It’s not overly scary, because you’re within the marina, you don’t have to deal with crazy waves. Again, you won’t capsize with the sit-on-top kayaks.

TJ: If you know how to sail, you can go sailing, which I think is also free? Wait, actually, I don’t think I can speak on that.

HK: I don’t know about that one.

TJ: But you should, and you must go to the MAC, not sponsored.

HK: Yeah, go to the MAC. Beginner-friendly, accessible for students. It’s for UCLA students and their families, so everyone should take advantage. Great place.

TJ: This is Tilly…

HK: And Hela…

TJ: And it’s been an absolute pleasure to co-host Sidequest during our time in the Daily Bruin. Whether it was prancing around Erewhon, hiking up a road to Griffith Observatory or attending a Jimmy Kimmel show, we’ve had the time of our lives side-questing around LA. Plus, we got to do some pretty cool things. The show and the Daily Bruin will forever remain in our hearts as highlights of our experience here at UCLA.

HK: Thank you for listening to this episode of Sidequest. Signing off for the last time, it’s Hela.

TJ: And Tilly.

HK: Go Bruins! And congratulations to the Class of 2026.