C-Forum

Hey there all you awesome paddlers. Im 17 and I am going to school outside San Francsico for univeristy this year but the only problem is no one paddles there. When i went to school up north ihad buddies to paddle with but now i dont know anyone. If you guys know any clubs or paddlin groups or are willin to paddle with a young stranger then reply back PLEASE!!! Anywho, Im lookin forward to meeting some new people and hopefully paddling a whole new set of rivers this year.
Thanx a lot

Oh Ya - I paddle abright yellow little Ocoee open boat but i can roll both sides so it wont be too much of a hassle to recue me (my old kayak friends always made fun of me for open boating but anyways ) thanx again

Bryce;
I posted the following at your Space Canoe post below. I don’t know much about NorCal but there’s gotta be somethin’ at one of these sites, and the American is running all the time. Plus, I tease a lot, but I’ve never turned down the back end of a Kayak that was offered to me during a swim! There should be some ‘yakers orgs up there as well;
See ya
RT

Well, welcome to the West Coast! What school are you going to?
First off, it's KALIN, and he's a CANADIAN, don't believe anything he says! These guys run around sticking their heads in snowdrifts all winter and portageing their boats over ice floes, etc.. I am neither a cool guy nor a great paddler, but it was nice of him to lie like that, I have to admit! (TEEHEE!)
As to San Francisco and thereabouts, I lived in that area for quite a while, but didn't start paddling until I moved to Los Angeles, how crazy is that?
What springs to mind, in between the two rivers you talk about, are the Kings River around Fresno CA., and the Sacramento and American rivers which are around Sacramento CA. The lower Kings is quite tame but has some massive differentials and waves on it if you choose to take advantage of them. The upper Kings is pretty tough for an open boat or C-1 and isn't dam release, so it needs to be given a lot of respect. The Russian River, just north of San Francisco, is a nice float and there's one section at the very top which I think is quite difficult.

http://www.sonic.net/~chinglin/links.html

http://gravitydex.com/Paddling/Clubs/


Will help you in general, and hopefully I will be able to get back on the water some time this season (bad elbow) but it won't be on anything big, unfortunately. Get in touch again when you're settled in and we'll take it from there.
Hope this helps;
Ric