The cost of tuition, books and cases of beer keeps going up for college students, but the cost of kayaking has just gone down.

Venture Outdoors and its spin-off group Kayak Pittsburgh will offer a student discount enabling college students to kayak near the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers during weekends in October for $5.

The student discount is part of Venture Outdoors' Pittsburgh Connections project, which encourages students to partake in more outdoors activities.

Pittsburgh Connections is funded through grants from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the American Eagle Foundation.

Kayak Pittsburgh's solo kayak rental is generally $15 per hour.

Kayak Pittsburgh's Downtown location (it also operates at North Park) is on the North Shore under the Roberto Clemente Bridge on Sixth Street. It's open 11 a.m. to dusk weeknights; the discount is available 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekends in October.

To get the $10 discount, students must:

• Print out the coupon at www.ventureoutdoors.org.

• Present the coupon, student ID and $5 at Kayak Pittsburgh's Downtown location. (Each student must present an individual coupon -- no group discounts.)

In its literature, Venture Outdoors describes Pittsburgh Connections as promoting "recreational activities designed to help students develop and maintain a physically active lifestyle, build leadership skills and increase their appreciation for the Western Pennsylvania region."

Read more about Kayak Pittsburgh at www.kayakpittsburgh.org.