Differences Between Keeners and Paddling at Home

    My name is Grady Kellogg and I come from a family of fourteen. Five girls and seven boys including me. I live in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, U.S.A. This is my first time at Keeners and my first time out of the United States. From the first week of Keeners I have found many differences between paddling here on the Ottawa and paddling back at home.
    The main difference is the Ottawa River is big water and has mostly natural wave features. Back at home it is all low water artificial hole features. I have been kayaking for about three years and became very accustomed to these very consistent, mellow, and shallow hole features and almost had never surfed a wave. Hole surfing is a lot different than wave surfing. In most holes you can flip over and stay up-side-down for a little bit before rolling back up and still retain the feature. Also most man made hole features are calm and don't throw you around when waves are bouncy and can trash you a lot easier. On that note, it was a bit difficult to come out here to Keeners used to something completely different than what's here.
    Also, back at home I know everyone, especially my family. Here at Keeners everyone was new to me. I had fun learning everyone's name and making new friends. Some of them had been to Keeners before so they helped me out by showing me how Keeners worked. A lot of the time, at home, I am showing others about the rivers and features even my own family. Coming from that, everyone at Keeners was showing me where to go on the river, so everything was new to me.
    To wrap it up, there a many differences between Keeners and paddling at home. Including the difference in the flows and features, and this is my first time at Keeners so everything is new. I'm having a lot of fun here at Keeners and never want to leave.

What I'm used to.