Canada Cup by Max Culbreth

It was the morning of the Canada Cup and I woke up with excitement and anticipation for the afternoon. I couldn't wait to show off the new things I had learned in the prior weeks of Keeners and hopefully place well. It was my first freestyle kayaking competition and I had no idea what to expect or how I would handle the pressure. When we got to the event I was feeling confident and even more excited but I knew it was possible that I wouldn't do well so I also mentally prepared myself for a loss. I planned to throw a pan-am in the preliminary round, followed by blunts both ways. These were tricks that I was fairly confident in but garb was very flushy so none of the pan-ams were going. I kept throwing them and they would go big but immediately flush. This meant by the end of my four rides I had zero points. I knew that this was a very real possibility before the competition but I was still very disappointed knowing I could've done so many other tricks. I wasn't able to surf garb for the rest of the day but I still had lots of fun cheering and watching my friends make it to finals and do well. In the end it was a great learning experience and I am very glad I entered.

Pieces of Advice for the Next Keeners by Tilly Knight

Outfit your boat so that you can fit good water shoes while sitting in it. Bring not just a shorty, but also a drytop in case of unexpected cloudy or rainy weather. Bring a journal to record what you did each day at Keeners. Set an alarm for each morning at 7:45 in case your Keener mom arrives late or forgets to wake you up. Wear longer pants or shorts while kayaking to prevent your knees from running too much in the boat. Don’t forget to ask for veggies and fruits on your grocery order list. Make banana bread and cookies! If you forgot to bring insect repellant or insect itch relief cream, buy it at Safeway when you go. Do full body tick checks each night before going to bed in case some are hiding. When it gets hot take a cold shower before going to bed and/or wet a towel with cold water and lay it over yourself. Stretch before and after you go kayaking to stay less tight. After a full day of spending time in the Ottawa river scrub your feet with soap and water, dry them off, put Tinactin powder on them and then socks overtop to prevent nasty foot rot. Treat any wound, small or big, unless you want an infection. On the weekends take one day to fully rest (not kayak). But maybe go swimming instead. Do your laundry in the middle of the week instead of on the weekends, because that’s when everyone does theirs. Take advantage of all the flat water! Try to learn as much as you can from the coaches. Ask them questions! Sauce up your chicken. Remember to re-apply sunscreen! Have fun, because it goes by quick!

Keenerpult by Isaac Sinton-Remes

On the way back from the Gatineau, Stephen tasked me with the project of making the Keenerpult a catapult that could launch the average keener halfway to Corner wave. After careful consideration despite Keenerpult sounding much better than Keenerchet, a trebuchet is a much more effective design for launching keeners (and other object I guess). This blog is the initial calculator to determine the viability of such a device and weight of the counterweight needed. Using Google Earth I measured the distance from Keenerville to Corner wave at about 1400 feet. So, the Keenerpult needs to launch the average Keener, which I estimate as 150 pounds, 700 feet. For the purposes of making the math easier during operation of the Keenerpult the atmosphere will be removed so that air resistance can be ignored. The max distance that a trebuchet can launch something is 2 times the mass of the counterweight divided by the mass of the projectile times the height of the trebuchet. If we use a 12 foot tall trebuchet the mass of the counterweight needed is 4375 pounds. Unfortunately this seems to not be particularly viable as it would require seven full Rockstar Vs filled completely with water and the pivot would likely not be able to support that weight. In conclusion, the Keenerpult as currently imagined will likely never exist.

I'm too Cool for Holes on the River by Tyce Aldrich

As the keener three session comes to an end I have come to the very real and realistic conclusion I am simply too cool and good at kayaking to get stuck or recirced in a river hole. No matter how many times I went into Phils hole which is known to give people some solid beat downs it would chew me for a second then spit me out because it couldn't handle my awesomeness. Phil’s is located at McCoys which is a three to five minute paddle from Keenerville. From its right to left side it's about the size of a small school bus and yet it still wouldn't hold me. Next I tried to go to the Gatnau River in Canada to try my luck at the notorious Lucifers hole. That's where I found out even the devil fears how good at kayaking I am, I proceeded to try not once not twice but 4 times to get crunched but to no avail. My cherrie on top is when I was trying center slot and doing the ferry of destruction I totally bombed it and was heading right for center slot but, yup, you guessed it I skipped right out of it. That brings me to my conclusion that I'm simply too cool for the holes on the river. I guess my only choice left is Log Trap 🙂.

Tuesday by Will Rainey

Today I’m going to tell you about my Tuesday. I started the day with a good morning from Becca and then got dressed and headed outside to the field for the morning activity. We played a fun game where we paired up and one person put on a blindfold while there partner guided them to a tree. The blindfolded person had to feel the tree, get to know it, and then be led back to the starting point by a different route. Once the blindfold came off they had to try and find there tree again. After the activity we had breakfast. I ate four eggs, a kiwi, and two slices of toast. The eggs were sunny side up with crispy bottoms and perfectly runny yolks which made the meal delicious. After that we had a meeting in the Thunderdome to go over the plan for the day. Then we hit the water, did a warm up, and headed to McCoy’s Rapid where we ran the thread the needle line backwards which was a blast. After that we surfed for a while and the did some flatwater practice where I landed my first flatwater loop. Next we stopped for lunch and then worked on rescuing each other out of a hole. It was cold but fun. After that I went to surf Push Button where I learned how to do a space godzilla and an entry move. Then I we arrived at chopping block where I finally made the ferry of destiny. Below that I threw some macho moves which were super fun. Then it was on to Colosseum where I got a tomahawk that I was really happy about. We wrapped things up at Black’s where I threw some big loops. After an awesome day on the river we got back and made cookies. At first we thought they were a disaster. They looked like one giant blob, the edges were burnt, and we were not sure they would be edible. But they turned out great! They came out gooey and delicious. After baking we sat down to eat burritos which were also fantastic. Then we finished the night by trying the cookies which everyone ended up loving. And that brings me to right now where I’m writing this blog. Thanks!

The Canada Cup Catastrophe by Lucas Shutz

The Canada cup went TERRIBLE for me this year. I didn’t compete in it last year when I had the chance and regretted it so much. I was a little nervous for it until I was there. My practice rides were going great. For me at least. Getting consistent 100+ point rides with blunts and roundhouses. The nerves were gone. I was in the perfect position to make it to finals or maybe even place. I was first heat and ready to throw down. I didn’t throw down at all. First ride, they announce my name and my bib number 9. I took a deep breath and started paddling out. I missed the wave…. All of the keeners were joking about it and now I’m living that nightmare. No I’m not I thought it was just one ride. We get 4 total and they only count our best 2 rides. I could flush again and still be totally fine. Well, I did flush again. Some feelings were coming out that I wasn’t proud of. Some sadness and mostly embarrassment. I felt like everyone was looking down at me. They weren’t and no one was there to win they were just there to have fun and support each other. I was so embarrassed I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. Third ride I get the thumbs up from David silk and I pierce through the Eddie line like I was on a mission. I was. And that mission was flushing for a third time. AHHHHH. This is unbelievable I told my self and screamed out under water as I flipped on the Eddy line. Wow if there was one moment of that entire competition that I wouldn’t want to relive it was that. I scream at one of my friends “WHAT IS HAPPENING” they go “I don’t know man” great. This is just great. Okay whatever now I have to catch it this time or I get a BIG FAT ZERO. But as I would learn no one gives a crap about who scores what. This event isn’t designed to headbutt against each other, its designed to have fun. I was not having fun in that moment. But at the end of the day at least I showed up and at least I got points. Anyways back to my 4th and final ride. I wanted to catch this wave more then I’ve ever wanted in my life. I peel out and……. YESSS I’m on it. Now time to show everyone what I can really do. I go to cycle and can’t get up the pile. Whatever I have 45 seconds I’ll be fine. I got for a roundhouse and land it but I flush. NOOOO. This sucks. I flushed so many times to the point where everyone was cheering when I caught the wave. I wanted to roll and never come back up. My face turned red and I wanted to cry. This is the nightmare everyone was joking about. And I was living in it. But as I learned, no one cares how well I did. No one cares that I got 15 points and didn’t make it to semis. No one cares…

How the Canada Cup Competition Helped Me be a Better Paddler by Jackson Lillie

This past Sunday we had the Canada cup freestyle competition and it was humbling to say the least the competition consisted of The preliminary round and the final round in the preliminary round you only need around 25 points or more to pass, but unfortunately, we had two people get zero points. One person get 25 and another dropout Because of an injury I and in the preliminary rounds, you would have four rides and two of them count we were going to do a semifinal round, but to save time they decided to skip to the finals after the preliminary and we ended up doing a 10 person finals which is three rides and one counts my first ride. I flushed off the wave and that was the same for my next two and I ended up with zero points in the finals which isn’t bad because I went into the competition with not extremely high expectations for myself, even though I didn’t get any points in the finals. but I still had a ton of fun and I would totally do it again. It really shows that even though you can have 1 million great practice laps it won’t always translate into competition.