Walmart: By Cormac Long

 Walmart is very fun, especially with keeners due to its abundance of resources. On the contrary walmart is also awful due to its abundance of unnecessary items. In addition, it is extremely hard to find certain items, for example instant coffee. On the contrary Dillon bought 10 hot wheels throughout the entire shopping stravaganza. Here is a short list of the items I decide to pick up on our Walmart shopping trip. I bought protein bars, snacks, and coffee.

The Instructors At Keeners: By Samuel Gravel

At keeners, they have a ton of really amazing instructors. The instructors teach you a lot of new tricks and are very 1 on 1 when they teach. They are very good at teaching you tricks, during the first 2 weeks I already got way better. These instructors are crazy good at kayaking and can do crazy tricks with ease that I didn’t know were possible. They are also very positive and make you feel like you belong there, even if you do the most basic trick on a wave they still scream “YEAAAAAAAAAA”. The head coach stephen really makes keeners exciting, sometimes after lunch he just make us do random stuff that the average paddler wouldn’t even think of doing. So in conclusion, the keener instructors are amazing paddlers and coaches. Those were the reasons why the keener instructors are amazing.

The Importance Of The Skills Learned at Keeners: By Joseph Lavigne

 The importance of the skills learned at keeners and why they make you do scary things. 

     At keeners, Stephen as well as the other coach, make you do some pretty scary things. These things may include swimming some huge rapids, swimming into body recirculating holes, and rescuing your friends from being body recirculated. These things may seem intimidating, but they wont kill you, and are key to growing as a paddler and being able to insure that you, and your friends are that much safer on the river. Being able to remain calm and make efforts to escape a sticky feature is very important if you are running creeky rivers or things that have steep holes with flat backwash. Being able to swim in whitewater effectively is also a skill that is extremely important. This skill in particular makes you more safe on the river and by doing that, your friends may not have to do risky things to get you out of a hard place. Being able to throw a rope to someone in a sticky situation or being able to live bait them out is another very important skill. If your friend is getting tumbled in an unpleasant hole and unable to get out on their own, you will need to implement one of these to prevent the situation from getting worse. But at keeners they have you practice these things in safe environments where you are unlikely to actually be stuck for too long. That is the magic of the Ottawa river.

Don't Take A Long Time Cooking Breakfast At Keeners: By Aidan Meadows

 Cooking breakfast is a very vital part of the day that you have to do in order to have enough energy. When you cook a bad breakfast, you don’t have enough energy and it’s not good. Very big breakfast you’ll be better off for the day, but it will take longer , that mistake I made. Every morning I’ve cooked something good for the cabin. Whether it be Nutella pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, crêpes, hashbrowns, or eggos. In the past few days, I’ve been expanding the food I cook. I’ve started to cook meals that take a lot longer, and I’ve also been cooking for the coaches which has been taking a lot of time. The food has been very good and I’ve been full all day, but every day it takes longer and longer to cook. Wednesday morning we had 100 push-ups because we were 15 minutes late. We got a bulk discount for the amount we had. Moral of the story, cook very filling breakfast, but don’t take too long because you waste all of your energy on push-ups.  

In Tinactin We Trust: By Evan Bate

 At keeners tinactin is a life saver and a life giver therefor tinactin is a way of life. From an outside perspective one would simply view the second half of keeners as a week and a half of a colt that worship a white chemical called tinactin. At this point you may be asking yourself what tinactin is, so I will explain. Tinactin is the brand name for Tolnaftate. It is an anti fungal cream, spray, and powder. The reason that keeners hold this in such a high regard is that while on the river you can often get Foot rot(Athletes Foot). It is extremely common while kayaking every day for 3 weeks. Tinactin is the best treatment for this debilitating disease that plagues many keeners feet. As I write this message I and almost every keener have tinactin of some form on their feet. You do not need to bring any tinactin but I don’t think it would hurt. All of this information will be told to you buy the keener staff within the first few days. This concludes my talk on Tinactin.

The Average Day at Keeners: By Samuel Gravel

 

1. The keener mom will wake you up and you will get to do a morning activity which is usually related to running.
2. You will make a delicious breakfast and clean your cabin, if it is not clean you will have to stay until it’s clean, every minute you’re late is 10 pushups.
3. You will have a keener meeting which usually contains what you will be doing during the day and some extra daily information.
4. You will get ready to hop onto the water and do some warm up exercises on water.
5. You get to go play and run the river and have loads of fun trying new stuff.
6. Eat a delicious warm lunch and continue to play.
7. You will hop off and get ready and head to dinner, you can do loads of stuff once you’re there.
8. Once you’re back you’ll do a few more activities and head to bed.

How Keener Weekends Work: By Pascal Fels

 There are lots of things to do during the weekend at or away from Keenerville. 

To start, for first time keeners, the first weekend you stay and to first aid for both days. If you are a second time keener you can hang out, go paddle (as long as two others go with you), or whatever you want really. And that’s how it is the second weekend for everyone. You can also travel somewhere else if your parents come pick you up. Such as, going to competitions, going to see family, etc. 

So, there are lots of things to do, and even more that aren’t listed here. Overall it is a great time.