Pete's first blog

Hello, blog-readers. My name is Pete Pritchard, and I'm from Chattanooga Tennessee. Today marks the first full week of the keener program session 1. All I've got to say is... it's been real. I've met some awesome people, and the Ottawa River is the bomb. These high-volume, monsterous rapids are very different than the shallow rivers in the South East. This camp is like no other, and I'm so glad that I'm a part of it. This week was awesome and I can't wait for the next two.

learning how to tie a water knot at
ropes and knots last thursday.

Today, I did not get to go free paddling until 7 because I had to finish my first aid class. I will say that it was very long and parts of it were boring, but I'm super glad that I have the new knowledge.  I know that I'll need it on the water someday.

The craziest thing happened on the river today! This morning the gauge said the water was at 12ft and at the end of the day it dropped to 8. I had never seen or heard of a river dropping that quickly, and especially not the Ottawa. I guess it is because of people playing with gates that make the dam- so who know what it will be tomorrow.

Well, this is all I have to say tonight. You'll read from me soon. Keep an eye out for us keeners. We always love meeting new boaters!

Gabriel, first keener blog

Screen shot of me running Little Trickle Rapid with
coach Tyler Curtis setting safety. 

Hi my name is Gabriel Gallo. This is my first week at Keeners. I am from Costa Rica where rivers are really shallow and technical. This is my first time kayaking big water river and it has been a great experience. The couches encouragement has been really helpful for developing my skills, and I know they will always help me in what I want to improve. I even got my first surf on a wave this week and am already trying spins!

Thanks to Juanito, TC, Devyn, and Joel for the coaching and Anna for her support.

Next week I am going push my self to the limit and try to do everything i didn't do this week. 

Alex's first blog

Hey!

Contemplating the line at Little Trickle 

My name is Alex I am 14 years old and am from Ottawa Ontario. I started this wonderful experience about a year ago on the Ottawa river.  As soon as I had my first day on the river I fell in love with kayaking. I'ts all I could talk about for months.  Although I didn't have much time last year for kayaking, this year I decided I was going to take advantage of the high levels and join the Keener program.  Since it was my first year in Keeners, I thought it would be really awkward but I was wrong, everyone here is so nice and is so helpful! Being a keener is by far the most fun I have had in a long time!  Between beat down day Thursday, race day Wednesday, and competition day Friday I think its safe to say I could stay here forever.  I'm really looking forward for the next 2 weeks and I hope its sunny and the water levels stay high.

Bye everyone!

Andrew's First Blog

My name is Andrew McLeod, I am fifteen years old and reside in the town of Cochrane, Alberta. I begin kayaking about a year and a half ago on a small creek behind my house. I bought a boat off Kijiji and figured out the hard way that I needed to learn to roll. Soon after this I enrolled myself in a University of Calgary roll clinic on the Kananaskis river. I had been kayaking on flat water for most of my life so it really wasn't that hard to make the transition to whitewater. I then found a group of friends to pursue my whitewater goals, we then created a paddle group called the Bomb Squad. My home river is the artificially enhanced Kananaskis River in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. This river offers exceptional hole play with few opportunities for big water waves. This is the reason I came to Keeners.

On Tuesday our Keener group was split into two groups, one ran the smaller, more mellow middle channel. While the rest of us ran the more intimidating main. The highlights of the day were surfing the infamous Bus Eater rapid, and river running the potentiality dangerous Colosseum rapid. We also played in some large whirlpools that could literally "swallow" your entire boat. It was the best day in kayaking I had ever had.

Heading in to the finish line for our short sprint
race down Initiation rapid on wednesday.

The next two days we had Keener race day, where we had races down rapids in the middle channel. I came first in the "A" class division race. On Thursday we ran the infamous Garvins Chute, a class 4+ slide down a steep rock face. This was my first real experience to steep creeking, and I loved it!

I would like to take the time to thank my parents for sending me out here, it is the greatest thing I have ever done!

Introduction to Stakeout!

Above: One of my airscrew attempts on the Ruins
Left: one of my surfs on Gladiator during the XL




Below: Nouria Newman and I both running Coliseum for the first time at such a high water level

               Hey, my name is Edward Muggridge, I have been kayaking since the summer of 2010 and I am 16 years old. During the fall of 2012 I felt as though I was in isolation from anything to do with kayaking. It was awful. Day after day of dreaming about mini bus and high water runs down the Ottawa. It came to a point where I realized that this dream was within my reach. I had already been talking about a possible weeklong trip over March break staying with my two Ottawa River local friends Quinton and Kalem Kennedy. Early in November I was informed that mini bus had magically appeared and after 2 days I decided to make a mad dash to the river to surf this massive wave! After spending a weekend at various levels of minibus I had officially fallen in love with the sport. I found myself a minimum wage job in my neighbourhood stocking shelves at the market. This was my way of funding a trip in the spring. After 5 long months of working 26 hours every week I finally managed to purchase all of my own gear including my drysuit, boat and camera equipment. The late spring was making it tough to wait for but before you know it I was given the unimaginable opportunity or taking part in the famous big water adventures on the Ottawa River. I was given the amazing opportunity to take part in these adventures by the Grady family who were kind enough to let me live with them for 2 weeks in April and 1 week in May for the Ottawa XL competition. This spring really changed the way I look at whitewater. I have never paddled in water with snow on the banks or chunks of ice the size of a house flowing down the river with you. It adds an entirely new aspect to the sport and causes you to be cautious, something that many of us can often forget about when we become so comfortable with paddling our home rivers. During this spring I was given the chance to do a lot of things. Kalob Grady and I believe we were the first to paddle the main channel in 2013 and also I was given the chance to be the first to surf mini bus in 2013 by Ben Marr, Pat Camblin, Joel Kowalski and Keegan Grady. It was so cool being able to hang out with all of these and be a part of stakeout. In those first two weeks in April I learned more than I thought I ever could have in such a small time frame. Three weeks passed and I was back on the bus to the valley to go kayaking for the Ottawa XL. That entire week I got to spend time at the ruins with Cooper Lemkay and Kalob Grady. The Ruins is one of the most amazing places I have ever been to not only because of the wave itself but because of the scenery around it. At the end of that week it was time for the Ottawa XL. The first part of the competition was the big wave freestyle event. The event was held on Gladiator in the middle of the Coliseum rapid on the Ottawa River. I had always seen this wave as something I would hopefully surf in my lifetime seeing as it is such a massive step up to anything I have ever dreamed of. A large group of us ran the river the day before the competition because we heard gladiator was in. most of us had never surfed it and none of us had ever surfed it at such a high level. It was so exciting yet so terrifying at the same time. That day I ferried out 5 times, I got too scared the first 3 times purposely missed the wave but then as I grew a little more courage I found it harder than I thought to actually get out to the proper spot. Sitting at the top of the eddy had to be quite possibly the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever experienced in my life. The longer you waited in line, (yes, there was a lineup for Gladiator) the more nervous you became. There were definitely times where Hunter Katich and I would argue over who should go first because neither of us were too keen on dropping in. During the day of the XL I managed to catch the wave for the first time after trying very hard to get out to it. I had a really long surf on my second ride and was way too scared to throw any tricks. Overall this spring was what I would consider to be the best spring of my life and I am sure there are many more to come. I am incredibly excited to be moving to the valley at the end of January so that I will be able to paddle every day next spring. Thanks for reading!

Ben's First Keener Blog Post

At ropes and knots

Hey everyone, this is Ben White from Carbondale, Colorado, here for my first year as a Keener. I'm 17 years old, and have been paddling for a little over a year. So far, I've been having the time of my life on the Ottawa with the Keener program. The Ottawa has been all I hoped for and more so far. The big water provides new challenges that I don't often find in narrow, low-volume Colorado rivers, like massive wave trains, holes, and whirlpools. Pretty much like what I paddle in Colorado on a much larger scale.

On Tuesday, we headed down the main channel, and luckily, mini-bus was still in and able to be surfed. I've always dreamed of surfing Mini-Bus ever since I began to playboat, and my dream finally came true, a terrifying and exciting dream indeed. It was so awesome to get a taste of one of the biggest waves in the world, the biggest wave I've ever surfed (Much bigger than the waves at local Colorado play parks).

Dropping into Elevator Shaft: One of the rapids on the Ottawa the most similar to Colorado.

On Race Wednesday, I ended up winning the B-Group finals, through Lower No Name. Overall I'm having an amazing time on the Ottawa, and I'm looking forward to the next 5 weeks on the river with the Keeners. Stooooked as ever!!!

Big Water Bacon Beat Down Thursday!!

Hey everyone!

Scouting Little Trickle Rapid on Tuesday

My name is Hannah and I'm 16 years old. I live in Ottawa, Canada, which is conveniently an hour from the river. I am lucky enough to be attending keeners for the second time, this time for six weeks. Keeners is an amazing program, and my paddling skills significantly improve each day.

Today was thursday, which mainly means one thing: Big-Water-Bacon-Beat-down day! Us Keeners started our day with an active and fun game on ultimate frisbee on the lawn, and plenty of bacon for breakfast- what a treat!

Big water beatdown Thursday is a day designed to push limits in kayaking and increase confidence on the water. We do things that we wouldn't normally do, as extra safety is set up on this day. Beat-downs can consist of running a line you never have, surfing something you never have, or intentionally getting trashed in a hole. This day is often a Keener favourite! Today we all ran the middle channel. Some of us ran Iron Ring, and some Elevator Shaft on Garvin's Rapid. It wasn't only a blast getting beat down, but watching the other Keeners push their limits as well. I opted for going down the last rapid, Lower No-Name, on an inflatable turtle. It's a fairly straightforward rapid which includes lots of gigantic waves. What a blast I had!

I'm not surprised that I'm loving Keeners this much after just a few days. I'm looking forward to spending several weeks with OKS, developing skills on and off the water.

Bye for now!
Hannah G

Robert, first day

Hi I'm Robert from Costa Rica, and this will be my second year as a keener. Today was my first day paddling, which felt incredible after not paddling for a while. Last year I did not not even know how to roll, but left knowing great things. I have only been here for a couple of days, but this year seems to be headed in the same direction as last year, getting to meet great people, and creating wild adventures. This year the river has completely changed, from what I remember, being from -2 feet to 14 feet. I am really looking forward to paddle this new rapids and waves, which based on what my fellow keeners have told me, are great.

I have only been here for a short while, but my expectations are really high, and I am completely sure that it will be as good or better than last year. The only word that I can find that will describe this   year is "pura vida"

Sean's First Blog Post

Learning Ropes and Knots

My name is Sean Rose, and this is my first year as a keener and this year has been great so far. I'm from Northampton Massachusetts so this big water is really cool compared to my shallow rivers.

 Styling Iron Ring

Today was big water beatdown bacon Thursday and we started with the bacon. And then later we ran Iron Ring and I had a great line down that. After that we ran Big Trickle which was a fun creeky run. But my favorite run of the day was through Elevator Shaft. I got to run that twice with two different lines. After running elevator shaft we surfed big smoothie which was a sweet wave and a great surf. But sadly today I did not get beatdown :(.

After dinner we started to learn some different knots to use in ropes and webbing as part of ropes and knots.

All in all today was wicked fun running some sweet lines.

Fredrik's first blog

Hi, my name is Fredrik Falck and this is my first year at keeners. I am from Stavanger, Norway. I am 16 years old and I like to kayak. I am very excited to meet new friends and progress my skills to the next level. I think the food here good. I really appreciate the instructors constructive criticism, it gives me a significant advantage over my peers from Norway. My favorite time of day is popcorn time :). I love the big, warm water of the Ottawa river. On Tuesday we surfed minibus and it was pretty sick!! my goals for the next two weeks are to get an air screw and and blunts

Running Big Trickle Rapid 

....

Sydney's First Blog

Today was race day Wednesday. We raced down initiation and did a slalom line down little trickle. After that we had races down lower no name. In my first heat I came first so I advanced to group A semi finals. In semi finals I came second and went to Class A finals where I came third. We've been going for runs and doing yoga to get started for the day. After that we eat and clean then do a flat water warm up then go run the river and do whatever actives the coaches have planned for the day. Loving it here so far, having so much fun!

Scouting at Elevator Shaft with my Yakistan Ladies. 

Matt Smith First Blog Post

My name is Matt Smith and this is my second year as a keener. I am from Asheville, North Carolina and I really came to keeners for the instruction and size of the rapids. I have not been disappointed. 

Today started out like any other with a run and an ab workout. We ate breakfast, cleaned up, put our gear on and did our routine warm ups. We then split up into two groups, one of which ran the middle channel while the other ran the main channel. I decided to run the main channel to get a chance to surf Buseater. In total I got 5 runs on Buseater, 3 of which I stayed in long enough to throw some tricks. We then floated down to Butcher’s Knife and played in the whirlpools. By playing in the whirlpools I mean paddling into them, spinning around a bit, and then if you’re lucky you completely disappear and pop back up downstream. We then went down to Coliseum, scouted it, and ran a sick route down the center.

 All in all, this was one of my best days on the river and I’m pumped up to do some more!

Sebastian, back again

Hey everyone, it’s Sebastian back at keeners again. This is my third time coming to keeners. This year there is only two returning keeners that I already know; this is great  I have made so many great connections and I get the oppritunity to make many more having a slew of new great paddlers to connect to. The past three days the water levels have been high and great this allowed some of the keeners including me to surf minibus, not at prime levels but it still made my day and still remains as the highlight of keeners so far.

Today was race day Wednesday, we had a boater cross race down Lower Noname on the middle channel the high water made the races great we had two pools A and B I made it to the finals in the A pool but did not come out of the race with a win. Overall the first three days have been amazing and I cant wait to see what’s to come next.

Sebastian surfing minibus for first time

Race Day Wednesday By Canon Shaw

Hi my name is Canon Shaw and I am 16 from Ithaca New York. This is my second year at Keeners and its only gotten better since last time. Ive been kayaking for about 3 years and have kayaked all around the South Eastern US, Colorado and here on the Ottawa river. Wednesday Race day was today and it is one of the days where we specifically focus on our down river racing skills and techniques, starting with our basic strokes and through out the day moving up to an actual race where we competed in heats of four to 6 people at a time. All in all it was a very fun and Adrenaline filled day on the water here at keeners.

Hi, Jarand writing!

This is my first post on this blog, but it will come some more later!

I am a 16 year old kayaker from Stavanger, Norway. I have been whitewater kayaking for about 4 years now. My background for kayaking is probobly my father, which have dragged me into seakayak and flatwater kayak since i could walk. At my sparetime at home, I usually (beside kayaking) hike in the mountains. The river here in Ottawa, Canada, is much larger that I am used to paddle at home in Norway. Norway have besides the few little larger, mostly shellow, tiny, rocky rivers (creeks), with few good playboat spots.

My goals for these 3 weeks is to learn some new tricks as airscrew and blunt. I also really want to learn more about safety, and teaching whitewater kayaking, which is super fun, but also dangerous sometimes. One of my goals is also to learn to speak and write English better, but that is also one of the hardest challenges.

Hear from me soon.
Jarand

Vincent- Week 1

Hey this is Vincent from CT. This is my first year at keeners and I am loving it!  On monday we went down the middle channel. It was great because the level was at 14 feet. Tuesday we went down the same channel and I had the opportutinty to run Little Trickle. It is a little technical rapid that is a lot of fun. We did some surfing on Angels Kiss, which is a smooth glassy wave. Over those 2 days I have been working on my blunt and trying to double pump my bow. I am making progress each day with the amazing coaching I am lucky to have. Today was Race Day Wednesday. Our race was on Lower No Name, which is the last rapid on the Middle. We all had a great time. I managed to get 5th in the B finals in the race and hoping to progress next week with racing. Lets see what rest of this week brings and have some intense beatdowns for big water beatdown thursday.

Big Water (no beatdowns)

DISCLAIMER: This blog was meant to be posted Monday, but there were some technical difficulties.

Hi my name is Greyson Cohen. I’m 16 years old from New York and this will be my second year at Keeners. Today was day 2 of the first session and things have started off well. The water level is at around 14 (to put that in perspective; last year during session 1, the level was at around -3) and Buseater is on its way out.

            Despite the dropping levels, many of us decided to have fun and surf it anyways. For me, (and I’m sure many others) it was the largest wave/hole I’ve ever surfed. We practiced dropping in from the eddy above to get comfortable dropping in on a large wave. I personally missed the first three tries but I kept trying and got two satisfying surfs afterwards.  Surfing mini-bus was the most fun I’ve had surfing a wave EVER!  It was definitely comforting to know that there was good safety set below and flipping in it would flush you out almost immediately.

            After that, we had a lot of fun playing in the whirlpools that form at Butcher’s Knife, which is the next rapid below The Lorne. Afterwards, we ran Lunch Stop Waves and Norman’s which both consisted of large wave trains, which were fun to launch off of. Next we stopped to scout Coliseum. Running it was very different than last year because of the high water but the line was really simple and big.

            Overall, paddling on the Ottawa for the past two days was a totally different experience than anything from last year due to the high water. The high water created an incredibly fun experience. If the past two days are an indicator of what is to come for the rest of the session, then things will be great.

Davids First Post

Hey guys its David!  I'm here for my second year of Keeners, and so far its been awesome.  Levels are really high, so minibus is in.  We got to go for a few surfs on it, and I even managed to hit a donkey flip. I've also started hitting my pistol flips, and even comboing blunts. We got to run Colesium, and I ran the center line through it, hitting all the giant crashing waves above Death Ledge.  I'm even close to a flatwater phonix monkey!  I'm looking forward to Bigwater Bacon Beatdown Thursday tomorrow.  Its gonna be great!