Stephen's Adventure by Will Schwarzschild

Steven’s amazing adventure was really hard and not amazing. We hiked through the woods with our kayaks on our backs. It was a very long hike and very hard. One of the things that made this hike hard was that we were bushwhacking and there was no trail so I got a lot of cuts. But after all of the pain and struggle it was very fun.

The Keener Time Capsule by Saul Glick

During my time playing cribbage with Becca, I sadly dropped one of the game pieces down under the thunder dome porch. This was very sad, but it got me thinking about just how much keener history there probably was under that one porch, kind of like a time capsule. So I decided that from that moment forward, every time somebody drops something under the thunder dome porch, it will be going to the keener time capsule, for future keeners to one day discover (and puppy whenever she wants to crawl under there). The keener time capsule should be opened every time something important is dropped under there. For example let’s say Ziggy (Becca’s cute old dog) got dropped under there, then the evening activity would become opening the keener time capsule!! To conclude, if you ever drop something under the thunder dome porch, know that it will stay in the keener time capsule for future keeners to one day open and discover.

Playing Basketball with a Canadian Guy After Dinner by Kam Weiss

Dinner is always an interesting time for the Keeners, especially when traveling down to WT. During the mealtime, the food ranges from two different things: a chicken kebab with a pita or BBQ chicken, and only those two meals. After eating, however, the time spent at WT gets much more interesting as we are allowed to play sports like basketball, hockey or volleyball. On this specific night, I decided to play basketball with a Canadian dude who was shooting around. Watching him play for around 30 seconds, I could see that he was making his shots, and his height was much greater than mine, and he was even taller than my partner, Will. After the guy, who I later learned was 15, asked us to run a 2v1 (which we agreed to), we got promptly destroyed at around 11-2 after he either hit a mid range shot or euro stepped both of us into an easy layup. At this point, we had been playing for only around 5 minutes, and I decided to step it up and try to actually win in a new game to 5, which we did. We easily ended up beating him after I did a spin move into a fadeaway and hit a couple jumpers. Even though I wrote this entire blog about basketball, I really want to talk about how interesting and fun it can be to do something with someone you have never met and can have a really fun time. And also Canadians are good at basketball.

Yakr by Max Goldberg

Tinder is an app for people to match with other people to go on dates. My idea for an app, Yakr, is similar to Tinder in the sense of matching with other people. But instead of for dates, it’s to find people to kayak with. The main reason I had this idea for an app is that back at home, the main reason I can’t kayak is because I don’t have anyone to go with, and I’m assuming other people might have that problem and this app would solve that. First step is to make an account. Instead of selecting gender like you would on Tinder (I’ve heard from a friend) you select what brand of kayak you use and what brand of kayak you’re interested in paddling with. Next you select your paddle length. Similar to how you could put your height, you have to put your paddle length because some people might only want to kayak with people whose paddles are 194 cm or longer. Then after you put in your location you can start swiping left or right, and after a match the two people will communicate and meet up to go and kayak. Similar to Tinder there will be very limited stuff you can do for free, it’s $39.99 a month for unlimited swipes. $49.99 a month to see who has swiped yes on you and $59.99 a month to have select customization such as choosing what tricks they can do or what boat size they are. In conclusion this app will help find people find others to kayak with and have more fun on the river.

The Mouse by Azalea Burnham

Yakistan is known to all to have animals of all shapes and sizes. One of the animals that is rarely seen but the worst is a mouse. Now it may seem like a mouse in your cabin is chill, or even cool, many people think that Yakistan can handle a small mouse because they have a chipmunk, but no. Last Sunday a mouse was spotted in the bathroom at around nine. I thought that this was our iconic chipmunk, Fien, but no this was way worse... This was a mouse, small, evil, creepy, and the keys to getting huantavirus or the plague. When I screamed the dreaded word, mouse, my cabinmate Sofia and I jumped up onto couches and we decided that we were not going to touch the ground for the rest of the night. We then decided we wanted to trap the mouse in a bucket to release it outside. We crept up into the bathroom and sat in the shower and on the counter. When Becca arrived we were still in our perches away from the mouse and she told us the best news ever, that we were going to get mouse traps. I learned that night that you should not panic about the smallest creatures because they are most likely or be scared of you and there is most likely always going to be something you can do about the problem.

Beatdown Thursday by Rowan Resch

My favorite part about keener so far has been beat down Thursday. So far I have only gone into left side fills with a paddle but this week I'm going to try right side. For those of you who don't know left side feels it's more flushy and is shaped more of a wave. Right side however is more sticky and can give you a better beat down. Although I think it will be scary I will be glad if I do it. Last time this gave me better resilience against big water so I could be less scared and learn more. For future keeners who might be reading this my advice is to try something that is out of your comfort zone.

Stephen's Magical Adventure by Holden Harrell

It was Tuesday afternoon, and Stephen decided that he should get a group together and hike instead of paddling to the big surf wave, Garborator. Looking at satellite images, it seemed much faster and more efficient to just walk compared to the almost one-mile paddle. So, with some other friends from Keeners, I decided to tag along for what seemed like a fun adventure. We started with about five of us and walked down the gravel road by White House and into the woods. The second I stepped off the gravel road, I knew this was going to be a long, hard walk. The forest was thick. We were hiking over fallen trees, around huge boulders, and through things that you definitely wouldn’t want to hike through. We finally reached an opening with water. Everyone was super excited and happy to be out there, and we all realized that we were actually having fun. Type 2 fun, as they say. We then all got into the water and paddled over to Garborator.