I kayak a lot in the ocean waves around San Francisco, have a fairly reliable roll in my good ol Necky Jive, and would love to take it to some rivers.
I was thinking the south fork of the American River? I’ve done it in rafts (I call them slave galleys) a few times and an IK once, but would of course love some instruction when doing it for my first time on a yak.
Any advice for where to go to find folks or hire someone for not too much $$ to do this with?
And is this just the completely wrong time of year? I’m pretty used to rolling in 48 degree ocean water if that’s a factor.
Or maybe there’s another river I should consider that’s not too insanely far from SF?
Or maybe I should just wait for another season?
north or east
Head north or east. The shops around Lotus come to mind - the River Store or California Canoe and Kayak. North would be Liquid Fusion.
If you want local to SF area instructor, you could use Golden Gate Kayaking (run by Andy Walkters - http://www.ggkayak.com/) or Eskape Kayaking (run by Roger Schuman - http://eskapekayak.com/). Roger has just started doing some basic skills (peel outs, eddy turns, etc.) at the flow restrictors in Redwood City, so that might be a way to get some more local experience before making the long drive to the rivers.
This all said - it might not be a good year to learn white water. Let’s hope for rain, so we actually have water in the rivers.
WW Lessons
California Canoe & Kayak has a good White Water lesson program, taught on the South Fork of the American River, near Placerville. You can check out the website at calkayak.com for schedules.
Disclosure - I work for CCK, although not in that program.
Like Peter said
http://www.calkayak.com/class_ww.cfm
http://currentadventures.com/category/river-kayaking/
I have had several days instruction through both places, money well spent.