For Rent: A day of play in Hampton Roads

Scrap the long face and toss the ennui aside. Summer’s here, and with it comes a million and one ways to have fun in South Hampton Roads – with someone else’s equipment. With that mind, we’ve compiled a brief list of Oceanfront rentals to help you get out and enjoy the area’s amenities.

Paddle with the dolphins

You are almost guaranteed to see dolphins frolicking in the Atlantic during the 2.5-hour kayak tours offered by Chesapean Outdoors. The tours leave from the Wyndham Virginia Beach Oceanfront hotel on 57th Street and Atlantic Avenue at 9 a.m. each day through August.

“We try to educate people about the dolphins,” said Katie Redford, who owns Chesapean with her husband, Matt. “My husband’s done a lot of research on that over the years, and he tries to give out good information on them and the area.”

The company also offers a First Landing tour that starts at The Narrows on 64th Street and can last up to three hours.

“We talk about the park, we try to teach people about the oysters and the reefs,” Redford said. People also get to see a lot of the Chesapeake Bay’s wildlife, she said.

The company also rents equipment at the Wyndham, and you don’t have to be a guest to partake. Rentals include kayaks, a stand-up paddle board, cornhole boards and boogie boards. If surfboards are available, the company rents those as well.

Details Reservations are required for kayak tours. Email info@chesapean.com or call (757) 961-0447.

Cost Tours, $55; single kayak, $25 half a day, $40 full day; double kayak, $35 half a day, $50 full day

Try some waterboarding

At the other end of the beach, Surf and Adventure Co. in Sandbridge tries to “get everyone out on the water,” said manager Chris Stellato. The company offers surf lessons and camps, stand-up paddle board instruction, and dolphin-watch kayak tours.

If you’re more inclined to explore Sandbridge on your own, Surf and Adventure rents all types of gear, from beach chairs and umbrellas to performance surfboards and paddle boards.

Details Call (800) 695-4212 or visit www.surfandadventure.com or www.oceanrentalsltd.com

Cost Surf lessons, $45 for two hours; kayak tours, $45 for adults

Ride a wave

Great White Water Sports behind the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel and Conference Center off Shore Drive offers dolphin tours via wave-riding vehicles. The tours, with a trained lifeguard, last 45 minutes.

Details Call (757) 450-4096 or visit www.greatwhitewatersports.com

Cost $150 for up to three people

Up and away

If you like a little power in your water sports or you want to see the whole Oceanfront, then Rudee Inlet Jet Ski and Adventure Parasail is the way to go.

Rudee Inlet Jet Ski rents Jet Skis, banana boats and sport boats. The banana boat is a banana-shaped raft that is towed behind a motorboat. The sport boat is meant to let renters cruise around the Oceanfront like James Bond.

Details Visit www.beach parasail.com or www.waverunner sportfishing.com/index.htm

Cost Sport boat, $250 an hour; Jet Ski, $90 for a half hour or $130 for an hour; kayak or paddle board, $16 an hour for a single or $21 for a double. The $50-an-hour paddle board rental comes with a lesson so you don’t spend most of your time in the drink. Parasailing, $75 or $85, depending on how high you want to fly, between 800 and 1,200 feet.

Fishing and pirating

For those who are into fishing but don’t have a boat, or would rather entrust the sea to an experienced captain and first mate, then charter-boat fishing may be up your alley.

AquaMan Sportfishing Charters in Virginia Beach offers cruises for novices or pros. Travel along the coast at the Oceanfront in search of smaller fish, or trek out up to 65 miles in the Atlantic for bigger game fish. Cruises start from Rudee Inlet.

Details Call (757) 200-0200 or visit www.fishaquaman.com

Cost Half-day or full-day trips, $500 to $1,800. Most boats allow up to six people. AquaMan supplies all the fishing gear, and people bring their own food and drink, “as long it’s reasonable and legal,” said owner Nolan Agner.

Agner and his father, Jack, also purchased a pirate ship this year and offer Oceanfront tours aboard it. Captain Jack’s Pirate Ship Adventures offers water cannons for the kids to shoot, and food and beverages for the whole gang.

Details www.virginiabeach pirateship.com

Cost 90-minute cruise, $28 adults, $24 children 3 to 16, free for children 2 and under. For the 21-and-over crowd, Captain Jack’s will set sail at 9:15 each night for an adult-only cruise.

Take a dive

Want to travel the depths in search of exotic fish or shipwrecks?

Then take a dip with Dive Quarters off Laskin Road. The company offers weekend shipwreck dives, says certified diver Dave Weichsler. “There are over 400 known shipwrecks off the coast of Virginia,” he says, “and we hit some of the hot ones.”

Details www.divequarters.com

Cost One boat can take up to six divers, another 24. The excursion can range from $80 a day to $400 and travels up to 75 miles off the coast.

More The company also rents tanks, wet suits, regulators and diver’s vests. Cost is $15 a day for a tank and $20 for a wet suit, regulator or vest. You have to be certified to rent or dive.

For landlubbers

Renting a beach cruiser or surrey can give you a nice vantage point to observe Mother Nature’s amenities. Cherie’s Bike and Blade Rental, at 11 locations from 2nd Street to 35th Street at the Oceanfront, rents beach cruisers, mountain bikes, two-person surries and four-person surries. Bike rentals come with a helmet, protective gear and a lock. The business is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day.

Details (757) 437-8888

Cost Rentals are by the hour: beach cruisers $7, mountain bikes $9, small surries $14.27 plus tax, large surries $18.95 plus tax

All beached out?

Head over to Sluggers Indoor Batting Cages off Constance Road in Suffolk.

The business offers three baseball machines, slow, medium or fast, and slow or fast softball-pitching machines. Two manual-feed machines in separate cages can be rented by the half hour or hour.

Sluggers is open 1 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

Details www.suffolksluggers.com

Cost Manual-feed machines, $15 for a half hour, $25 for an hour; tokens, three for $5, 10 for $17, 17 for $20, on up. One token throws 15 pitches.

Photos are Virginian-Pilot file photos and courtesy photos