The lazy days of summer have arrived in earnest at English Bay.
The Vancouver Park Board unveiled a new pilot-program last week that offers beachgoers access to rental beach chairs and umbrellas.
The items are offered by the hour, for full days or evenings. Umbrella rentals start at $3 per hour, while the chairs start at $5 an hour.
Chairs and umbrellas can be rented from a mobile tent and delivered and set up by the vendor at specific locations requested by customers.
Vancouver Park Board chair Sarah Kirby-Yung told the Courier Monday that while user stats aren’t yet available, anecdotal evidence suggests the program’s received a warm welcome.
“The reaction has been really positive,” she said. “From what I understand, chairs had been rented throughout the weekend.”
A press release notes the program is intended to “make beaches and parks more inviting and enhance visitor experiences by providing a valued service, enhancing convenience and delivering sun protection options.”
The Vancouver Park Board awarded a contract for a two-year pilot program to Blue Hole Investments, also known as the Vancouver Shade Company, to operate the rental service at English Bay Beach.
Kirby-Yung said the program may be offered at other beaches in the future, depending on its success.
“We’ll look at a number of metrics, but obviously the first one is demand,” she said. “We will have to examine viability and responses from everyone on the beach — we’ll have to see that everyone is co-existing happily on the beach in this shared space, because our parks have lots of different visitors and users and we want to make sure they’re great for everybody.”
