Baby Blog by Keener Baby

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River Trip by Otto Koerber

Becca came in to wake us up in the morning. It was so early that I found myself stumbling to the bus. The bus took us to breakfast at WT which was really good and definitely the biggest breakfast I’ve had in years. It is a shame that we don’t get breakfast at WT normally. After breakfast we got back on the bus for about 1 minute as we quickly split into two mini vans that we used to drive on the hilly gravel roads with the trailer full of kayaks. We drove for well over 2 hours which was dreadful as my phone died 15 minutes in. The vans were also hot as the engine heat radiated into the cabin area. After the long drive, we jumped out of the mini vans, and started unloading the kayaks. As we unloaded the final few, we realized that our journey to the river was far from over. As the depressing ran started to pick up, we slowly moved ourselves to the put in. The misquotes swarmed us despite us putting on bug spray. Every step was more painful than the last. Once our eyes saw the appearance of what looked like the put in, the irritating hike quickly faded away.

How to Get to Keeners from Alexandra, New Zealand by Will Gillespie

Step 1. Drive 1 hrs and 10 mins from Alexandra to Queenstown Airport. Step 2. Get on a plane and fly 2hrs to Auckland Airport. Step 3. Wait in Auckland Airport for 2hr and 10mins. Step 4. Get on a plane and fly for 13 hrs and 50 min to Vancouver Airport. Step 5. Wait in Vancouver Airport for 11 hrs and 40 mins Step 6. Fly 15 hrs and 19 mins to Ottawa Airport. Step 7. Drive 1 hrs and 30 mins to Wilderness Tours. Step 8. Get on a bus at Wilderness Tours and drive 15 mins to Keenervile. Step 9. Have a great time at Keeners

How to Clean your Water Bottle by Evan Cassidy

This weekend I found something I grabbed my reusable water bottle that had been sitting in my room for a while, opened it up, and saw little spots of mold inside. It was pretty gross, and I knew I wasn’t drinking out of it until it was completely clean. First, I dumped out the old water and rinsed the bottle with hot water. Then I filled it with warm water and dish soap and used a sponge and a butter knife to scrub the inside. I made sure to get all the way to the bottom and around the sides where the mold was. After scrubbing, with warm water for about 10 minutes to help kill any leftover mold. When it was done soaking, I rinsed everything really well with hot water and let all the pieces air dry before putting the bottle back in my boat . The whole process didn’t take very long, but it reminded me that it’s important to wash reusable water bottles regularly instead of letting them sit. But at least now I have a clean bottle that’s safe to use again.

How to Get More Comfortable During Beatdowns by Kyan Vigoda

Last session and at the beginning of this session I was really afraid of beatdowns and running big rapids like coliseum with no easy sneak lines, but eventually I learned to have fun and forget about my fear using the following tricks I learned. 1: Downtime. On one of the days when returning keeners were not doing srt, David and Aaron took us to brain doosh at the bottom of butchers knife to practice getting downtime. Jumping into the pour over knowing we would go underwater for a long time helped me stay comfortable when running out of breath or having no control of when you come out of the water. This really helped me with beatdowns. 2: Nose plugs. This does not have to be specifically nose plugs, it can be anything that helps you feel more secure and safe. For example, when I play rugby I bite my mouth guard really hard as it helps me feel safer and gives me more power. When I kayak, I squeeze my nose plugs really tight and am constantly adjusting them before entering rapids. All the videos of myself you can always see me holding and fidgeting with my nose plugs. This might not make sense but they help me feel stronger and safer. You could use anything like sunglasses for example. 3: Smile. When underwater in Phil’s, I try to smile. This has many purposes; it’s really helpful. First, it helps me remember to have fun and enjoy myself, which really helps me stay calm. Second, it reminds me that there are plenty of safety kayakers below and that the Ottawa is a really fun and safe river and Stevo and the other coaches would not let us in if it was dangerous. Third, I remember to hold my paddle in the auto roll position Stevo taught us and how to control my boat. This works because when I smile it reduces my fear and lets me concentrate on kayaking. All these are my ways of staying calm and always being stoked on the river. I hope they help you as well.

Adaptation of a WaveHopper for Subsurface Use by Holden Constantino

One major problem with kayaks is that they float. It is very difficult to go deep underwater in a kayak. Fortunately, however, it is fairly easy to adapt a kayak to underwater use. We will use a WaveHopper, because they are large, look cool, and are especially hydrodynamic. For those sadly unfamiliar, WaveHoppers are the greatest boats ever. They are long, with a keel and two wings behind the cockpit. Because of this, they are very fast. The first step in our adaptation is to place two large bladders in the extreme fore and aft. These will be ballast tanks, and can fill with water. We will also place two bladders in the wings, for stability control. Having done this, we place batteries in the stern, and air tanks in the bow. The bow air tanks provide oxygen for the pilot, and also expel water from the ballast tanks. The bow and stern sections are also sealed off from the water. A respirator and hose is placed in the cockpit for the pilot. The cockpit is not enclosed. Also found in the cockpit are the controls. Finally, two vectored, ducted propellers are placed at the stern for propulsion, and eight smaller thrusters are mounted at the fore and aft for attitude control. These improvements will make it far easier to explore the bottom of the Ottawa, and indeed, will make submarining even more fun.

Gavin's by Nora Crabb

“Elevator shaft” is the far river right line down the big scary rapid “Garvins”. My first day here at keeners, we walked around garvins and looked at both “elevator shaft” and “dragons tongue”. The first day, I looked at the rapid and my first thought was that there was no way ever I was going to run that rapid. I kept that mindset for the whole next week, until we were given the choice to run dragons tongue. Right off the bat I knew there was no way I was going to run it and I was 100% set on that. As people went, I watched everyone and saw how they and started to think I would maybe run it. After everyone had gone, Becca talked me into it and told me I would be okay. I decided to run it and I had such a clean and perfect line, and it was amazing. The way I felt after was such an amazing feeling of relief and joy. Elevator shaft, was a little bit of a different experience. I was less nervous going into it and watched everyone else go before me with pretty clean lines and casually flipping at the bottom. When it came time for my turn, I went down the top part almost flipping, but not, thankfully. And rode down the rest fine until the end where everyone else flipped. I flipped as well landing right onto a rock shelf and scraping up my shoulder while upside down. I missed a roll up and Eli hand of God rescued me at the bottom. Even though I bloodied up my shoulder, I still had that sense of relief and excitement that I’d run the rapid, even if I didn’t do it extremely cleanly.