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