Whirlpools and (Intentional) Swims

Hey guys!

I’m Jordan, back on the Ottawa River for my fifth summer. So good to see all of the familiar faces and features up here (Corner wave just came in ahhh, and Stevo arrived soon afterwards). This time around is a little bit different for me. I’ve been lucky enough to get to help out with Keeners this year, both on and off the water. I’ll be staying the whole summer, getting raft guide training and hopefully doing some kayak school as well, when not firing up the river with Keeners! Can’t wait.

For this first blog, I want to talk about two moments from last week. One from the infamous Big Water Bacon Beatdown Thursday. And the other from late Friday afternoon.

Thursday. I am peeling into the top right Butcher’s Knife eddy. Calmly drifting towards my fellow boaters hugged against the rock wall. Then I suddenly lurch backwards, glimpse the sun, and crash onto my head. I am sucked violently downwards where the water remains cold and black. The water claws at me, my ears ring. I am held for what feels like ages, knowing that if I swim, it will only be worse. Finally, I pop up far downstream, fully exhausted by the whirlpools.

Now I am drifting on my back next to Tom, listening to a waterproof speaker in the middle of this massive river. The music plays from his pocket underwater, traveling to my submerged ears. I just finished running, and the cool, slow moving river has never felt so soothing. 

Each year, I think I come to appreciate the Ottawa for all that it offers more and more. Despite not believing it was possible, I’ve already gotten a new personal best Beatdown. Then the very next day, I enjoyed maybe the chillest swim ever.

Cheers 

Hampsta`s First Blog

After a couple of interesting plain rides, an Italian feast and skeptical customs officers myself Jeremy Norbury and Max Rayner touched down in the international Ottawa Airport. I was relived to finally be finished with constant airplanes and airports and felt a sense of definitive joy. My journey could not have been accomplished if it weren`t for invaluable Max Rayner who guided us through multiple difficult circumstances including flight redirection and lost bags. Although the journey from New Zealand, my home, to the distant lands of America and Canada was overly tedious there were still many banterous and unforgettable memories especially at 30,000 feet in the air.

Hampsta at Venice (California)

 One memory that stands out distinctly from many others was the walk down Venice beach in Los Angeles. Arriving at the Venice Beach was like being transported to another world. It was a very strange, exotic atmosphere. One aspect that stood out along the Venice was the overpowering smells which could either entice you or disregard your nostrils. The people seemed so different. A highlight from Venice was watching amazingly skilled freestyle bikers who did tricks on flat ground that i didn`t know were possible. Unfortunatley the low light of the Venice beach walk was I felt like the people there had no regard for one another and it makes me feel lucky that I live in New Zealand where people have more respect for one another over a general population.

Not to end on a bad note, I am truly enjoying my time at keeners but you will have to wait till next week to get the rundown on my first week at the Ottawa Kayak School.

Yours truly Hampsta

Amazing beatdowns

Hey, my name is Alexander Szostalo. I am 15 years old and this is my 2^nd session at keeners. I'm from Ottawa, Ontario pretty close by the Ottawa kayak school. I'm going to talk about my day on Thursday, big water bacon beatdown day. This may sound scary but the point of this day is not to kill yourself but to challenge yourself in ways you haven't before. Like running lines you haven't done before, I DEFINITELY did that, or surfing places you haven't surfed before.


SO I woke up in the morning, put on my running shoes and went for a run. Earlier this week our keener mom, Anna, told all the keeners that she had been seeing bears around Keenerville. I only ran 2 kilometers but it was the scariest run I have ever done. ANYWAYS later that morning we had our morning keener activity and went to get breakfast. I had a huge breakfast, egg, bacon, steak and cheese sandwich. After that we got straight into the water. That day, since it was big water beat down day, we had a very long warm-up led by Joel Kowalski, Devyn Scott and Juanito De Ugarte from Peru. Since we have a pretty strong group, our head coach, Joel, decided that everyone was going to run the main channel. Before we paddled downstream, we went up to McCoy's chute. This rapid is usually pretty easy to run, class 3, but there are two big features on it; Phil's and Satler's . These are two holes that you can get caught in for quite a while. So of course, that is exactly what all the keeners go into.


After getting beatdown a little bit in Phil's we decided to head downstream toward the second rapid, the Lorne. There are two parts to this rapid, a top 'safe' part, and a bottom 'not so safe' part. The easiest line for this rapid is to go straight on the tongue for the top part and gently cruise to the far right side all the way down avoiding buseater, or mini bus, two massive holes. The line some keeners and I decided to run was straight threw mini bus. Now don't get me wrong, we aren't plunging into are deaths using this line, there is a small tongue you can punch to get threw safely. BUT if you miss the line and go REALLY far left into mini bus then you are in for some fun. Can anyone guess what I did? It was one of the biggest beat downs I have had in a while. As I was paddling down I saw Devyn desperately telling me to paddle right, didn't really work out for me. I was surfing mini bus uncontrollably for about 20 seconds before I pulled. After looking at the video I've been beating myself over it since I swam right as I got flushed out o the hole.



After that intense beatdown and lunch, we paddled down to my favorite rapid, Butcher's Knife. It is called this because there are sharp rocks on the right side of the rapid. There are also some amazing whirlpools in an eddie close to the top of this rapid. I got sucked in one pretty good, my boat was completely under water. After that wonderful day we got back to Kennerville, and I had a pretty good and relaxing evening. Thanks for reading! 

Keeners round 4 with Max Rayner

Good morning ladies and gentlemen (or evening depending where you are). I'm Max Rayner, 17 years old and from the great country of New Zealand. This is my fourth (and last) time attending Keeners on the Ottawa river and there has been some major changes since my first time here five years ago.
The first change is that i'm not experiencing this as a 12 year old anymore, i'm a lot less scared of the river than I was five years ago (except for Phils hole) and I've definitely improved as a kayaker (with help from keeners). I have gone from being the most looked after and vulnerable kayaker to be looking out for the younger kids who struggle occasionally. At the end of this year I will be finishing High School and my childhood will soon to come to an end so I think that that coming back as a keener is a good way to finish it and end it on a high note.

Jeremy running a 'boof line' at Phils Hole.

A pleasant surprise for me was that my room mate, Mauricio from 2009 would be bunking with me in "the Love Shack". I guess it's a full circle and the beginning really is the end! This is also Mauricio's fourth time attending keeners and also his last time. It's also been great to see friends from ex-keener friends working at W.T, such as: Quinton Kennedy, Kalem Kennedy, Hannah Gaudet, Peter "Cat-scratch" Semehen, Jessica Drujiko and James "Nighthawk" Metcalfe.

A big change this year compared to other years is the water level. On my fist day here the water level was 10 1/4 that's around 10 feet higher than its ever been for me. This means I get to enjoy the bigger waves and rapids that definitely aren't there at 0 and 1 feet. The most noticeable difference is the Coliseum rapid that was at least three times bigger than I have ever been in it. The largest wave, Big Kahuna was around three meters tall and made for some very exciting and bouncy surfs. Right now the river has dropped hugely and it's now sitting at 4 3/4. This means that Corner Wave is in, most known for it's short lines and awesome spins. In my humble New Zealand opinion it think it's the best wave that's in at the moment. I`m looking forwards to next week because the Garberater wave is due to come in.

Until next time, cheers!

Max

The River is Changing - Sarah Sandeman

Hi! My name is Sarah Sandeman, I'm 17 years old and I live in Ottawa. This is my second year at Keeners but last year I was in sessions 2 and 3. This session has been very different than my sessions last year. Firstly because I have improved a lot in my kayaking and secondly because the river is very different. When I was here last year the water was at a steady level of about minus 2. When I arrived here last Sunday, the river was at 10 and 3/4! That is so much higher than last year! This means that the first day we ran the middle channel, a channel I had only run once, at minus 2. The level stayed at 10 and 3/4 on Tuesday and Wednesday but then it started dropping fast. Over night it dropped about a foot to 9 and 3/4. Thursday was the first time I ran the main channel this year and boy was it different than what I remembered, probably because the water was so much higher. Friday was our competition day and we saw the river change so much that day. When we got on the water the level was 9 and 1/4 so we headed over to McCoy's to play in 7/8 hole. The hole was getting progressively stickier and stickier and downstream a wave started to form. This was because the water was dropping quickly. When we started paddling downstream we found out that the level was at 6 and 1/4. The water had dropped about 3 feet in 4 hours! This meant that the rapids on the main channel had changed quite a bit, especially the waves on Coliseum. They had massive foam piles that would flip you and surf you for a few seconds, even though you could have punched through them just fine the day before. Yesterday and today I really saw how much the water had dropped because I was safety boating on the middle channel, which I hadn't run since Wednesday. I noticed that rocks that were underwater last time I had been there were about 2 feet out of the water now! Personally, I hope the water keeps dropping to about minus 1 or minus 2 because then Garb, Pushbutton, Baby Face and Cornerwave will be in and we will have some more awesome play spots!

From Birmingham to Big Water Beatdowns: Shallow Creeks to the Mighty Ottawa River

Ana really does not like it when we write an "Our Day/ Week On the River" post, but there is really no other way for me to explain the last five days. I did not know what to expect when coming to the Ottawa river because apparently there were not many rocks in the river. Where I come from (the Southeast of the USA) I cannot think of a river without a billion rocks. I knew there was big water and I knew there were going to be beat downs... but not quite like this. There have been five days and more than five beatdowns. For the sake of your mind I will limit myself to the two most terrifying/ awesome/ slash exhilarating/ all around exhausting carnage I have experienced. Ironically they both happened on the same feature in the same rapid at slightly different water levels. As it turns out Big Kahuna, a wave on Coliseum, and I have a real connection.

 My second day, and first day on the main at nine and three- fourths feet was to be concluded with Coliseum, a big water class four with Big Kahuna spearheading a large wave train. It was my second day on the water, I had never seen this size water in my life. The wave was huge, there was some chance that a swim would result in a bumpy ride in a nasty section of water, I had no  idea what I was going to do once I got on the wave, and I had never seen the rest of the rapid from the water. So did I try to surf it? I think the answer is obvious, ABSOLUTELY! The result was just what you might think. I surfed for about five seconds then got blown off....and right into second wave, which as it turned out was crashing at that moment. The first drop blew my knees out of the gunnels, the second blew my skirt, and the third blew me. Sooo my fist view of Coliseum from the water was very personal. My fellow Keeners and coaches were very helpful in getting me and my boat back in the eddy where I attempted to explain to Joel in unintelligibly English how awesomely terrifying that was.

 The second beat down took place two days later. Before running the rapid, I found a feather of some sort in the eddy above Coliseum. I stuck in my helmet for good luck. :)  By this time I was obviously a pro. I had run the rapid once and had swam, and now I had my "lucky" feather. What did I do? HA, precisely the same thing except with a different consequence, kind of. I dropped into the eddy perfectly (of course). Once it was my turn I paddled up and had made it about half way to the wave riding the curler. Suddenly, there was a loud crunch and to my shock I had two paddles... only they were canoe paddles. I was not entirely sure what to do with a broken paddle, but I was not given much time to learn. I was over in an instant. Despite my best attempts I managed to catch the second wave. I hand surfed the wave for a moment before being forced to hand roll (#professional). I looked downstream and then it dawned on me that I was not going to be able to hand paddle to the eddy and avoid dropping over The Ledge. The Ledge is a place that I really did not want to go to say the least. It is one of the few spots that is shallow and generally unpleasant. Thankfully half of my paddle was floating just downstream which I grabbed. This reunion raised an enthusiastic YES! from a relived Juanito apparently was also contemplating my fate. I paddled my kayak now C1 into the eddy and again attempted to explain to Joel how incredibly insane that was. Just because I had not had enough excitement for one day, Jeremy, my roommate and I decided to run the boof line at Dog Leg rapid. The thing about the boof line is that the slot that you must hit really can only fit one boat comfortably. If you miss your line you are in trouble. Neither that right and the left are very nice. I lead and Jeremy was following me. Unfortunately, I got caught in a boil and Jeremy caught up within the last moments before the crux maneuver. I began to be pulled over the right side and down into a sticky mess. Jeremy in an attempt to avoid me, was barley able to skirt the disastrous left ledge hole. After some frantic paddling and some nervous yelling, we both boofed the ledge at the same time. The best part is that the feather survived all.

All in all my first week had been absolutely amazing. I love it hear and have learned a priceless amount. I cannot wait for next week! If you look closely at the first picture you can see me brandishing one side of my paddle. In the second picture you can see my helmet just off the right side of Jeremy's boat!

Life is GOOD!

Almost a full life of kayaking are my 25 years in this sport. I've been traveling all over the world kayaking some of the hardest rivers on the planet, now I'm getting to enjoy the Ottawa River and its world-class play waves. If there is something I like, it's teaching people that really want to learn. There is no better pay than seeing these kids improving so much and we're still just in the first week! I'm very exited to start the second week soon!  So happy to be part of the Keener program!        Juanito De Ugarte
PERU
#JUANITOPERU

Keener Jonny racing at initiation rapid during the race day!

Beat downs and big water by Jeremy Wood

Watching Mauricio run the race line on Initiation. 

My name is Jeremy Wood, and the biggest rapids I have run back at home were at most, class 3. Here on the Ottawa river however, we have run high volume class 4 rapids with 15-20 foot tall waves and sticky holes, which are perfect for beat downs. For me, this meant I had to push myself beyond what i was used to, which ended pretty well, most of the time. I had my biggest beat down in a hole called Odyssey, in a rapid called Initiation. It was on race day, and it was finally my turn for a timed run down the rapid. I had done two practice runs before hand, and I thought that it would go pretty well. I started paddling down, and headed left towards the eddy, but i messed up my line, and wound up in Odyssey. Almost immediately I was flipped over, and proceeded to roll up as i usually would. As soon as i came up, I flipped right back over. I felt myself being violently pulled by the water, but i managed to roll up again. When i flipped over and was violently pulled by the water again, I knew that i had gotten stuck in Odyssey. It was pretty nerve-racking but I calmed myself down, and kept rolling back up each time that i was flipped, until I finally made it out. The beat down probably only lasted about 15 seconds, and i had sufficient air the whole time, but since it was my first beat down, I was pretty shocked and exhausted by the end of it. While I was terrified while it was happening, it was probably good that I got beat down, because it helped me get over my fear of running bigger water than I was used to. 

Whirlpools of Death

"Whirlpools of Death"

Imagine never having seen waves taller than three feet or holes more than six feet wide. This perspective makes the Ottawa river pretty scary your first time. I've seen whirlpools before and even played in some, but none have compared to what I saw today. At the top of Butcher's Knife are the whirlpools of death. The rule was "no swimming, wait it out", and "only one Keener per whirlpool at a time." With the water level reaching 9 1/4 ft, these whirlpools easily sucked down entire kayaks. Watching the instructors get pulled under, I knew my next move: get away as fast as possible.

Coach Juanito drops into a whirlpool of death

Devyn Watches While Juanito Disappears

Connor's perspective on BWBDT

Listening to Joel describe Phils Hole

My name is Connor and I am from Toronto, Canada. This is my first time at Keeners and so far the experience has been amazing. Although I have only been at Keeners for two days due to exams, I have learned so much and made so many new friends. After having only been whitewater kayaking for a week after doing the WT Teen Camp last summer, Big Water Beatdown Day was definitely an intimidating challenge for me. Even though I was nervous about every rapid today I had the most incredible time. After being upside down in basically every rapid today, surfing left side Phil's  and running Coliseum were definitely two huge highlights of my day. Having so many friendly, supportive and knowledgeable faces, not just with the instructors but with the other Keeners as well, made the day so much easier and so much more fun for me. All in all, a fantastic beatdown day for everyone.

Jeremy Norbury's First Blog

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Jeremy Norbury, I am 16 years old and I am from New Zealand. This is my first time at Keeners and I am loving it so far. Today we had big water beat down thursday which was........ interesting i would say. We started off at Phil's hole with a mixture of running left side and right side Phil's with some crazy beat downs as well as swimming it which was fun. We then moved down to the Lorne rapid where a few of us run the tongue line between mini bus and big bus. This resulted in lots of carnage with one swimmer which was quite funny. We had lunch then surfed the Waikiki wave and went down to the whirlpools at Butchers Knife. These are really big and can completely submerge you which I found out as I went so deep I could see the bottom of the river! Next up was Coliseum which was also interesting because on the river left there is a big eddy that forms massive boils and whirlpools where I flipped over and went into them upside down, then got run over by a kayak and finally got out. A guy called Matt got insane air on Big Kahuna whilst Jim snapped his paddle. A bit further down from Coliseum the boof line was once again interesting as me and Jim were way to close together and pretty much landed on top of each other. So far I am really enjoying the experience at Keeners as I am learning lots of new things, meeting new people and overall having a great time.

Warming Up

Coming back to keeners after two years of absence.

Returning to Phils Hole After Two Years 

Hello, I am Mauricio Martinez Laresgoiti from Mexico City. This would be my fourth years at keeners. My first years was in 2009 and I also came for the next two years. I did not come to keeners for the past two years and during those summers I felt that something was missing. I decided to return to keeners since its going to be the last year I will be able to come since I will be turning 19. It feels like I never left, everything is the same, there are keeners from my first year and the kayaking is still amazing. I have missed this place a lot and I am glad to be back. I have had very good experiences in this place and have met many very good friends. I am very glad I decided to come back to keeners and I am very excited to be back kayaking with this amazing group of people. 

Brook's Relationship with Little Trickle

Flipping over on the reactionary at Little Trickle

Over the last three days I have run the Little Trickle Rapid three times. The first time that I ran the rapid was less than awesome. Even though it isn't the biggest rapid, It was my first whitewater in over a year and I was a little rusty. I flipped and swam on the very first wave. It wasn't exactly the best way to start Keeners. The next day, we ran the same line.yI improved a little, and made it down to a hole at the bottom. I flipped, but stayed in my boat.  Today, I finally made it down the entire rapid. I was pretty proud of myself. I hope that during the next week I can keep on improving and have another success story for next week.

What Really Happened to Jack at Initition

Paddling on the Ottawa River

Once upon a time in a town called Keenerville lived a man called Jack. He had travelled from a far distant land called "Ireland" where white water is a distant memory. He traveled trough many lands and time zones to get to brave the wild river Ottawa. The first two days went well, but yet on the third day the so called "Race Wednesday" it did not go so well. The day was going well he had finished his runs flawlessly but then on his very last run it all went wrong . He started with power and force he bust through the first stopper and powered through but then a wave through him straight into Odyssey bam my skirt implodes knees pop out, he sees the light noooo..... the safety came to his rescue and they all lived happily ever after.

My Journey to Keeners by Gabriel Gallo

Hello i'm Gabriel Gallo,  I

Back on the Middle with Coach Devyn

am from Costa Rica. My journey to Keeners started last year when I finished my first session because when it ended I really wanted to come back. So I came home and told my parents how awesome keeners is and asked them if they could send me again next year. They told me I could go if I passed my first trimester at school which I almost failed because of math. So to make a long story short,  the day before going to Keeners I had my cousin's graduation party, which was awesome. After that, I went to sleep for maybe 3 hours before having to leave for the airport. I was late to the airport and I forgot all my chargers for my electronics so i had to buy chargers at the airport! Then I got on the plane to NY, then arrived in NY where I had to put my bag back on the plane for the next flight to Canada. I almost missed the plane to Canada because my bag took a long time showing up, but I made it. I  finally arrived in Canada,  but my bag got lost in NY,  so i was super upset. They told me Iitwas coming the next day at 10:00 in the morning, just in time for my first day on the water. So thats my story about getting to Keeners. It was an epic, but I am happy to be back.

Jonny's First Day Back on the Ottawa River

My name is Jonny I am 17 and this is my second summer of Keeners. I come from a small town about an hour south of Keeners called Pakenham in Ontario. I have been on the Ottawa River before when the water was lower, and was surprised at how different the river features were with the higher levels. The rapids were just not really the same, and the river had a completely different look to it; it was almost like rediscovering the river.

 My favorite moment today on the river was playing at Butterfly. Butterfly is usually a chute with a small wave you crash through at the bottom. At the current levels it was bigger and had two fun surf waves to play on. All in all it was a great day of many to come.

Holding up my profile- written in code- for a Keener Introduction

Bienvenidos a Keenerville

Welcome Back to Keenerville!

We are ready to start the 2014 season, and excited to welcome 17 Keeners into the first session.

This session, we have Keeners joining us from Costa Rica, New Zealand, Mexico, Ireland, The US and Canada, showing that the Keener community is truly an international family.

Anna and Devyn are back as the Keener Co-ordinaters, and Coaches for week one will be Joel Kowalski, Devyn Scott and Juanito De Ugarte.

The River is at 10 and 3/4, which should make for some fun and interesting lines down Coliseum and Lower Name.

Be sure to check back in for updates over the course of the summer!