Ours isn't quite as heavily patrolled and we were basically out on that section by ourselves. Water was so smooth (for a river)! But yeah, I'm kind of doing a *facepalm* because he was doing that and it makes me nervous to post that up. In OR, you can do that if you're under 5mph or if you have "adequate railing". (I hadn't read the specifics of the regulation until today, so I really didn't know about the legality, but kinda figured it wasn't really that smart). Somehow I don't think they would consider my railings "adequate". Doh!
As far as the depth, probably did get into some sections like that. I'm still waiting on a o-ring to finish the installation of my in hull transducer. But it's quite common for it to be 15 feet or less. I'm sure we'll probably go EEK when we get the depth gauge working and get a real idea of what we've been riding in!