Kayaking down the San Lorenzo River???

On Saturday I was driving Highway 9 down to Santa Cruz to hit up CostCo for some goodies.  And when I reached Felton and passed by Henry Cowell, I saw these guys pumping up white water rafts and putting on life jackets and helmets and such.     I was then passed by on the other side of the road by a guy with a surf kayak on top of his truck. 

I had no idea that people were actually yaking/rafting parts of the San Lorenzo.  Although with the rain we have had recently I thought it wasn't really a good idea to be doing that, but i'm not familiar with the stretch of water they were rafting, or how far they planned on going.  But I found these video's and thought I would share:

I think we ran into those guys on the river.     They had no idea what they were doing and we were concerned for their safety.  They, however, didn't seem to care or were just plain oblivious.  Experienced they were not.

-Allen

Sounds like a ticket to the Darwin Awards.

River yakkers are a crazy bunch. I bet people have kayaked down nearly every river/stream/crik in CA. The SLR seems like a dangerous one to run, especially since we were in drought mode for years and just recently got enough flow to flush out some of the debris. Not to mention all the feces... http://gis.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/PublicWaterQuality/

WOW!!!!
I just watched that first video. No PFDs, or experience, and wearing cotton hoodies. BUT they had a $400 GoPro.
Skip to 2:40 to see them wrap it around a boulder...and then 3:30-5:46 to get first-person view of what it's like to almost drown.
Wow.

I see a dozen or so folks go past my office each year in canoes, kayaks, or SUPs. I talked to a WW kayaker who had run the upper part from the Covered Bridge to one of the spots on the lower river, he was a nut.

I just could never risk getting that water in my mouth, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

WOW!!!!
I just watched that first video. No PFDs, or experience, and wearing cotton hoodies. BUT they had a $400 GoPro.
Skip to 2:40 to see them wrap it around a boulder...and then 3:30-5:46 to get first-person view of what it's like to almost drown.
Wow.

And the worst part is that they weren't even fishing...

tattooed-smoking white guys, scare me, EVERY TIME!    Yikkes!

WOW!!!!
I just watched that first video. No PFDs, or experience, and wearing cotton hoodies. BUT they had a $400 GoPro.
Skip to 2:40 to see them wrap it around a boulder...and then 3:30-5:46 to get first-person view of what it's like to almost drown.
Wow.

How did they NOT die!  Wow!!!  Scary!!!

WOW!!!!
I just watched that first video. No PFDs, or experience, and wearing cotton hoodies. BUT they had a $400 GoPro.
Skip to 2:40 to see them wrap it around a boulder...and then 3:30-5:46 to get first-person view of what it's like to almost drown.
Wow.

And the worst part is that they weren't even fishing...

+1      

I've talked to a couple guys that do it in their whitewater yaks, those guys are nuts. I've hiked back in the canyon a couple of times this year when it was around 200 CFS on the drop. It's sweeper city at the bottom of Rincon with some big snags in there. With the drought the past years it's gotta be bad, hopefully it's somewhat flushed out now that it hit almost 4K CFS.

And yeah, they are around, just gotta think like them to find the likely spots. I haven't been able to bring one to hand yet, the aforementioned snags makes it quite the challenge. Coastal estuaries south of SF are fishing too on the right tide and flow, take a wed and do it...

WOW!!!!
I just watched that first video. No PFDs, or experience, and wearing cotton hoodies. BUT they had a $400 GoPro.
Skip to 2:40 to see them wrap it around a boulder...and then 3:30-5:46 to get first-person view of what it's like to almost drown.
Wow.

And the worst part is that they weren't even fishing...

+1