KAYAKERS FIND RAGING RIVERS USING THE WEB.

Byline: Paul McHugh San Francisco Chronicle 

Droughts may dominate other regions, but the virtual landscape of the Internet fairly oozes moisture.

In fact, rivers run through it. Outfitters and whitewater hackers are rapidly colonizing the Web with sites that range from profiles of current river flows to personal pages lit up by local lore and colorful anecdotes.

The result not only provides crucial, real-time information for campers, fishermen and whitewater buffs, it helps remedy some cutbacks in government services that once were an easy source of data.

One guide to the new virtual rivers is Grass Valley paddler Tony Loro. ``There was no place for any Class V (whitewater runs with difficult rapids) info. It was fun to play with different technologies to create a site,'' say Loro, 44, who does tech support for Scitex Digital Video.

Self-taught as both a computer buff and a kayaker, Loro is enthused about the easy Net access to both home sites like Joe's River Page (with its massive array of ``h-ref'' link-ups to other pages) and commercial sites provided by whitewater outfitters.

``Most people either don't know who to call, or they're overwhelmed by the ton of information out there. On the Web, you can browse and click your way to the boating and river information that you want.''

The usual method of cruising the Internet on a general topic is to employ a Web-browsing service like YAHOO. Such a search yields 144 entries on the subject of ``whitewater,'' and 187 entries on ``rafting,'' for example.

But rooting through long lists for something good (such as, say, the great site for the Whitewater Voyages rafting company, at http://wwvoyages.com), can still be arduous and time-consuming. A more efficient way is to dive straight into the cyber-pool of the river subculture's denizens.

Once you start, you'll speedily find sites made by river lovers for other enthusiasts, especially by using lists with highlighted links to other sites. This is net-working at turbo speed. Some fine examples here are the ``K-flow'' pages put up by Donna McMasters. A former software developer, McMasters, 45, moved to her home near the South Fork American River to start her own Web publishing business - and to run more rivers.``I wanted to build a Web page, and here's the South Fork all around me, waiting to be put up,'' McMasters says.

K-flow brings enhancement to all former functions of the river flow-phone system. This system, once run by California's Department of Water Resources, was silenced last year by budget considerations.

Here's an insider's list of URLs (Web-site addresses) to use to inundate yourself with California river information:

http://www.coloma.com/kflow/ - The K-flow site described just above. http://www.classV.com - The Class V site by Tony Loro. Has stories, river rodeo results, river run descriptions.

http://www.aceprogrammer.com - Holds ``Joe's River Page,'' with feature of ``Cool Button'' that simplifies given river queries about state's real-time data base.

http://infovillage.com/FriendsOfTheRiver - Holds pages on river conservation issues in California, membership and volunteer information.

http://www.ar.com/ger/rec.boats.paddle.html - Holds the ``Green Eggs Report,'' a list of 60 to 70 hot URLs for recreational boating.

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2223/ - Access to the California Floaters Society, a Bay Area-based community of river runners that creates cooperative trips and classes.

http://pubweb.ucdavis.edu/Documents/OA/watersites.html - A huge catalog of h-ref lists that links topics ranging from a calendar of whitewater events to paddling clubs. Also hooks up to other directories.

http://siolibrary.ucsd.edu/preston/kayak/ - A great personal page with a large branching structure. It boasts a paddlers' photo gallery and trip stories from around the world.

http://cyclone.water.ca.gov/ - This Department of Water Resources site gives raw data on water storage and movement. Under ``Rec Flows,'' anglers, skiers and lake boaters can find reservoir levels.

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Photo

Photo: (Color) Outfitters and kayakers can check on river c onditions on Preston's Kayak home page.

Associated Press