Jesse's First Post!

Hello hello!

It's been a wild ride for my first week at Keeners! Incredible to be here. Feels like I'm in the right place at the right time with the right people. I've never before gone a full week of being on the river every day, but I can certainly say that I'm stoked for another full week ahead. A number of us completed First Aid today, then a quick late-afternoon run of McCoy's for three of us, and finally a big Keener game of soccer after dinner and a quick, refreshing swim at dusk. As Ice Cube once said, ``Today was a good day.``

The best moment for me this fist week was Saturday, when Grady and I headed down to Garb in the late-afternoon on reports that the wave was big, foamy, and stickier. And it was - instead of catching Garb a few times out of all my attempts, I was catching it all but a on a few. A couple hours rolled by as we surfed through dinner and into the evening, first with some Kelloggs and a few others, then just with the small, freakishly talented tiny versions of Brody, and finally it was just us two. It`s been rare in my limited kayaking experience that I`ve paddled back to the top of the eddy after a long surf only to drop in again right away, and I`ve never once been on a wave like that! A good, quick spin is still not too easy for me, and bouncing around on Garb was a great place for practice. Apparently I got in a backstab and a few other unintentional tricks, all of which I was unaware of until being told about it in the eddy. I just continued to bounce around out of control in hopes that one of my near-wipeouts was something that could be named. And we got in some solid seconds of face-surfing, too. The evening out was capped off by a lift from WT back up to Keenerville with the least mini of the Kelloggs.

Here`s to two more weeks of paddling!

-Jesse