If you think an amusement park rapid is fun wait until you
experience the real thing! Our Lickety-Split and Lickety-Blaster
are the two most popular and inexpensive Class
2-3 whitewater raft trips on
the Kern River. Both are full of enough excitement to challenge
just about everyone, from young tykes to grandma's.
When's the last time you had this much fun? Smiles all around as two rafts
on a Lickety-Blaster raft trip work
their way through the whitewater at Ewings rapid.
Kayaking is a lifelong sport that encompasses many different
types of water and paddling. It can be enjoyed by people of
all ages and abilities.
Over more than two decades, Sierra South has built a reputation
as one of the finest paddling schools in the West. We offer
quality instruction at all levels. Whether
you want to paddle scenic lakes and rivers or stompin' whitewater
we can help you to be a better paddler.
Whether it is a whitewater kayak, recreational kayak,
or great looking and functional paddling apparel, or the
latest accessories, the Sierra South River Store has the best in
high quality paddlesports equipment. Don't wait until the
water's gone! Take a look and you'll see it's the convenient
way to shop for paddlesports equipment, books and videos.
Your secure
online shopping source for whitewater kayaks, touring
kayaks, paddles, sprayskirts, PFDs, rescue gear, dry
tops, wetsuits, kayaking books, kayaking videos, sandals,
shorts and much more! All the gear you need on and off
the River -- 100% guaranteed*.
We
are proud of our status as the premier paddlesports school
in
Southern and Central California. We have been teaching
classes and offering tours in paddling, climbing, hiking,
and camping
to thousands of people since 1985. Operating under permit
with the Sequoia National Forest, trips are conducted on
the
Wild & Scenic Kern River, at Isabella Lake, and in
the majestic mountains of the Southern Sierra Nevada. We
are the oldest, largest, and most experienced paddling
school
in Southern California.
If you would like to receive E-mail notification of updates to our
WWW site, equipment sales, special promotions, and other paddlesports
related news and offers, please take a few moments to subscribe to
The Sierra South Rapid! Email List,
the fast-track to great deals on paddlesports gear.
What's the flow? That's a question we're always asking, and an important
one to a paddler. A river gage measures the flow at a particular point of the river. Like all instruments, gage measurements are subject to various kinds of error and can malfunction. The flow at other points of the river may be different than at the point, and time, measured by the gage. Dams, diversions, and tributaries can alter the flow. In addition, increases and decreases in the flow do not occur everywhere on the river at the same time. Higher flows at Limestone, for example, may take several hours to reach Kernville. Snowmelt or rainfall can dramatically increase the inflow from one or more tributary streams.
The near realtime Kern flow data
on our web site is provided by the Army
Corp. of Engineers, Sacramento District, (COE) web site and the Southern California Edison (SCE) Flow Phone. The COE
is responsible for the collection of data from the gage in Riverside
Park, and is the root source of flow data originating from this
gage. SCE operates the KR3, Borel and KR1 powerhouses on the Kern River.
Near realtime flows above and below Fairview Dam and below Democrat Dam can be obtained by calling the SCE Kern flow phone at 877-537-6356 or 760-376-8821. According to SCE, the
flow phone values reported for Above & Below Fairview, and
Below Democrat Dam are updated every 5-10 seconds. All other
flow phone data is manually updated twice a day (7am & 2pm)
when an operator is on duty.
The COE flow data can be accessed a number of ways from
our web site:
Most major pages (Rafting, Kayaking, Climbing, etc.) have a blue
fly-out Menu in the navigation area below the masthead image. If
you position your cursor over the blue Menu square, several options
will be displayed. Select "River Info," then "Kern Flow Info" and
then one of the flow options. (Requires Javascript to be enabled.)
From our HOME page, and several other
pages, select "Kern Flow & Weather" from the pull down page
list at the top of the page, and then Current
in the Kern River Flow Information
section.
Sometimes the COE flow data cannot be accessed and this can be frustrating
when you are used to having flow data literally at your fingertips.
Here are some options if the COE data is inaccessible:
Call the SCE Kern flow phone at 877-537-6356 or 760-376-8821. According to SCE, the
flow phone values reported for Above & Below Fairview, and
Below Democrat Dam are updated every 5-10 seconds. All other
flow phone data is manually updated twice a day (7am & 2pm)
when an operator is on duty.
Check for flow info in the News Scroller on the NEWS page. This is usually updated when River Notes is updated.
Check for a River Notes update. We update the Flow
Snapshot Table when River Notes is updated.
Check the Hourly and
Daily
Lake Isabella data in the Kern River
Flow Information section of LINKS page.
Note that INFLOW data is calculated from changes in storage and
isn't very useful. AVERAGE INFLOW is a better estimate of
the inflow.
