I'm a failure- Max Haworth

I am a champion. I am a winner. I have won. But I have also failed. And failure is key. Without failure we cannot win. So yeah,  I failed and I am happy that I did. I may fall on my face 100 times before I get a bowstall. But that 100 times of failure are the times that I am winning and having a great time. So yes. I have won because I had fun, but not just any type of fun. I had real fun. The type of fun that you remember for the rest of your life. So I am a winner. I have accomplished more than I could ever have hoped. So if I didn't have the best ride, and I didn't get all my moves, I will have fun from all the failure and keep my head high so I can look forward to the next time I try. I am a champion. I am a winner. And I have won the big water beat-down bacon Thursday!

Sydney: Keener Reflections

This is my third year here and I have found that the first couple days at Keenerville are always a little bit awkward. On our first night here Anna looked around the the Thunderdome and laughed because we were all spread out. Not sitting to close and hardly talking, just letting her fill the silence. Anna said "don't worry you'll all be trying to fit as many of you on the couches as you can by the end of this" and everyone looked at her like she was absolutely insane.

 With only 4 of us being returning keeners this session, not many people knew how close knit this group gets. After a couple days everyone starts being more open with each other and realizes that this isn't a normal group of teenagers. Everyone here shares a common love of kayaking and drive to learn. This eliminates any normal high school things such as drama and people not getting along. After a few speeches from our keener mom who truly becomes like a mom to us, everyone feels more prepared for what they've gotten themselves into. After roughly a week everyone is pretty good friends, some closer than others, and everyone knows each other. By this week everyone really has been trying to fit as many people as possible onto the couches under any circumstance weather it's for a quick 5 minute coaches meeting or a long movie.

This is my favourite thing about Keeners because every year is the exact same. There is always a few awkward first days and people looking at Anna like she's crazy when she promises we'll all be bestfriends. Looking back at the end of the session it's hard to believe I've only known these people for 3 weeks. It seems like such a short time to get to know people as well as we all know each other and have people be such vital pieces to our lives. Stevo said in a speech the other day how all they do is "take away a fast internet connection and force us to interact with each other face to face." That's what makes this place so memorable to all of us in my opinion. If we had a good internet connection and other things to do and distract ourselves with, we wouldn't be half as close as we are. But because we are pushed out of our comfort zones and forced to interact and do things with each other, we build a solid friendship.

Friends For Life

Some of my best friendships have come from this program and I couldn't be any happier about that. On a different note, this session at Keeners I’ve learned numerous tricks that I didn’t think I’d be able to do this year. I feel happy with how I’ve progressed and am looking forward to learning even more with World Class. I’ve never even been in a creek boat before and the only ‘creek run’ I’ve ever done was the 7 sisters on the Rouge River. I’m definitely more comfortable in my playboat however I’m really looking forwards to this next adventure. I feel it will give me an entirely new skill set and open up so many more opportunities and I am beyond stoked to see what’s in store for me. I hope that my freestyle background can bring something different to the school and also hoping kayaking that much will help me to improve my freestyle paddling. I’m nervous and excited all at the same time and it still hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m even going.. Cheers, Sydney.

Beatdowns By Jack Carroll

          Hey readers it's Jack blogging to you from Keenerville. Unfortunately this is my last blog of this year, but hopefully it will not be my last keener blog. Since Keeners is coming to a close I would like to share one of my favourite part of Keeners which is Bigwater Beatdown Bacon Thursday (BWBBT). As many of you may already know from reading previous keener blogs BWBBT is a day where all of the keeners push there comfort levels. This can be in the form of running new lines, or one of my favourite, getting BEATDOWN!

          Getting beatdown is one of the things most kayakers avoid like the plague. For those of you who are not familiar with the term it means going into a spot on the river, loosing control and getting tumbled around. Here at keeners beatdowns are one of the best parts of the week, which is why I would like to share with you my technique for getting the best beatdown in Rightside Phills (a hole on the Ottawa River).

          To do this technique you must:

Step 1- Make sure you have friends willing to set safety for you in the case of a swim.

Step 2- Leave your paddle with your safety buddies, as you will not be needing it.

Step 3- Walk up to the top of the rapid and get in your boat.

Step 4- Catch Rightside Phills, this is best done by paddling into the centre of it. This method immediately sets you up in an out of control position.

Step 5- Tumble, this is usually done with little effort.

Step 6- Wait to regain control. If this doesn't happen right away try to roll. If this doesn't work hold in for as long as you can before deciding to swim. (If you have chosen to swim skip to step 10)

Step 7- Side surf to your left and then spin left. Keep your eyes upstream and dive over your left shoulder back into the foam.

Step 8- Repeat steps 5 through 7 until you have had your fill. You can then surf out to either the left or the right. This usually requires some speed.

Step 9- Once you reach the edge you can try to flip over and grab as much water exiting downstream. Looking downstream and digging you downstream edge in can also help if you do not wish to flip over.

Step 10- Once you are out claim it and paddle or swim to the appropriate eddy.

          This technique has been thoroughly tested and has been successful at giving out the best beatdowns. including the one I was gifted today. Unfortunately this is my last BWBBT and blog of the year, which is why I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone. I'd like to thank my Parents, my Grandma, Kem, my Aunts and Uncles, as well as Anna, Stephen, Clay, Claire, Juan, Devyn, Nick, Joel, Kalob, James, Joe, the Keeners, and everyone else who's name I didn't mention for making this amazing program possible. Thankyou!

          Enjoy the water, until next time,
                                                            Jack Carroll

Curtain call by Rose Menominee

          So this is my last keener blog post, and it's more than a little bitter-sweet. The entire routine seems so natural right now that I can hardly believe I'm going home in two days.  I've gotten so used to waking up and having the Ottawa river in my backyard, I'm certainly going to miss paddling everyday. It's going to be weird to be out in the real world again, because even though I still have the Internet and my cell phone, everything just feels so distant. That the only thing in the world is this river and these people. 

          Anyways, I should move on, today was also my last big water beat down Thursday, and I was so determined to make the most of it. The very first thing I did was paddle through Phil's hole with no paddle, it was actually a very nice line, I didn't even get tumbled. The next thing I did was try and surf right side Phil's and miss it completely, I was so disappointed! I was done with right side though, I really wanted to surf it, so on my last line I gave it my all and somehow stuck the wave. I was in control for all of two seconds before my edge caught and I was tumbling. At first it wasn't so bad and I was able to roll up long enough to surf for another two seconds then it was back to being beat down. Even though I eventually swam out of that ride I still managed to have a fantastic day! 

Keeners has been one of the best kayaking experiences I have ever had, I've improved so much in the past weeks, and I can't wait to be able to share what I learned with my paddling club back home!

the final chapter - Daniel Whiteley

There is no doubt that this 3 weeks has been the best kayaking experience of my life. I have accomplished all the goals i set out to do and there's no way I could be happier. I only had 3 main goals before i got here and they were to loop in a hole, loop on flatwater and because the river is a very safe place to do anything, my final goal was to get a big beatdown which i did today, 2 days before i leave and had my first swim. My beatdown was on right side phils (a hole in the middle of McCoys rapid) which was very bouncy and hard to control but being upside was very confusing and not nearly as scary as i imagined.

About to drop into Right Side

Getting my flatwater loop today possibly my biggest achievement because it was extremely difficult and has taken months of practice. Thanks to help of other keeners and the great coaches that are here, it made it much easier for me. It was certainly harder than on a wave because there's nothing to help even slightly so it is all on you. Overall it has been a fantastic experience and the best time of my life.

surfing at habitat 67 with connor

Habitat 67 is the name of a standing wave in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Informally named for the adjacent Habitat 67 housing complex, it has become a popular destination for whitewater kayaking and river surfing. Habitat 67 is such a cool wave that is really fun and safe the only problem with this wave is that if you are to swim it can be supper hard to get back to the eddy. Once you surf you have to get out your boat and walk back up the bank to the get into the top eddy to then get back on to the wave. The wave is really retentive and is good for tricks like blunts back stabs and flat spins you can get some long rides on the wave which is sick. If you are ever in Montreal and want to have funs surfing go check out habitat 67. I went to this wave with the Keeners for are our road trip. We were there for about 4 hours and each person got about five or six rides in as there was around 17 of us keeners. We also had to take turns with the surfers which kind of sucked but oh well. Some of my rides were so good! Flat spins are so fun on this wave and blunts are easy to stick. It was such a good trip I would love to go back! Habitat 67 is the place to go.

Farewell - Keegan Parker

Hello again. This is my third and final blog. Sadly enough, the time to say farewell to Keenerville and the entire Keener family has just about arrived. With only 2 short days left it seems like this 3 week excursion has flown by. I will never forget my time on the Ottawa for it is a river like none I have ever been on with a group of people that are as unique as the river. We, as a group of aspiring kayak youth, have grown to be more then just a random array of kids with a passion for kayaking. We have become small community that reaches across several contries and even continents. So, with my farewell out of the way, let's go get beat down for my last big water beat down/bacon Thursday in right side phills hole in none other then the dynamic duo!!! This should be interesting...

Habitat 67- Emma Crane

Hey its Emma again. This is my last week of keeners and i am so sad to be saying that because i have had the time of my life. So, our roadtrip today was a long haul, but habitat 67 was so cool. The drive was four hours long, but for me it didnt really feel like it because i was so new the place and i slept most of the ride there. I was so excited when i was there. The water was bright blue and warmer than colorado which is always a plus in my book. We walked to the eddy where we put in and the line to wait for this was so long that it took about 30 minutes to even get on the wave. Our keener plan was to surf two people at the same time. I was for sure i was gonna go out of control in the wave and knock my buddy off that i was surfing with, but in reality the wave was so big that i barely even noticed that they were there. The line was so long that we got 4 awesomne and amazing surfs for 3 whole hours... but it was only 4. The first time i got on the wave i was so ready for the huge push forward and it was amazing. My adrenaline was pumping like none other. My first surf was probably my best surf because i was really just enjoying the wave and that was the only time i got to surf on the left side which was bigger and a lot more fun. The wave was so easy to do tricks in. I was doing shuvits and spins like it was nothing. The wave was super fast and just easy to stay in a front surf and enjoy the ride. We had to hurry up and our gear on the bus so we dint catch the traffic. I slept pretty much the whole way back. It was so nice to go back to WT and have putin for dinner. YUMMY!! This whole three weeks has definatley been a life changing experiance for me. I want it to be my new lifestyle and i don't want to go back home. This is my little paradise where all my problems have just melted away and all i have to worry about is kayaking....which is an awesome thing to worry about.

last week by Dominik Lettovsky

This is my last week at keeners. i have learned so much and have had so much fun. Every day i have progressed in trying to learn how to do better tricks. Even though I came here without ever having surfed, I have now learned how to do spins and shuvits. In the future if i come again a some tricks that i want to learn to do would be a round house and a blunt. I will probably try these tricks when i get home too! I will take what I have learned to the waves where i live, and I may even try competing in the future. One more thing i would like to complete before i leave keeners would be my double pump. i have gotten close to getting it but i need to get a bigger back stroke to get vertical.it is hard to believe we only have three more days. Tomorrow we are going on a road trip to Montreal. It is going to be a full day road trip starting at 6:30 AM and getting home after 9:30! We are going to one of two waves, we have not decided yet, but we are hoping to go to Habitat 67, which is where I want to go, but we may go to Lachine instead. Either way, both waves look really fun. I hope to come here again next year and learn even more than i already have. Thanks for reading! Dominik

C-Dub Sessions- By David Silk

Out of all the waves on the Ottawa River, c-dub, also known as Corner Wave, has to be one of my favorites. Its a smaller wave in the middle of McKoys rapid, right above the big horseshoe hole and Babyface wave. Its super fast and green, and really hard to stick anything... and its one of the the most awesome waves. Even just surfing and spins are incredible on it, just because of how fast and smooth it is, but everything goes. Pan ams, airscrews, and helixes, and spins and roundhouses.. every single wave trick is just so fun to throw. Its a great spot to practice, because it forces you to land tricks perfectly, otherwise you'll flush right off, and then have to paddle hard to catch the small eddy and not flush down the rest of the rapid. And the best part is.. it's just a short paddle away from Keenerville. Me and my friends go all the time after dinner, or on weekends, to paddle there and theres rarely a big line.. its just surf after surf, and trick after trick. Its the wave I learned how to do a good hull to hull airscrew on, and have the most fun ever just carving.. Corner Wave is just amazing, and if you are ever on the Ottawa, you have to give it a try!

Matt's Last Blog- How to Kayak Joust

          Hey guys, Matt here. Unfortunately Keeners is coming to an end this week, so this will be my final blog. I've had a terrific time here, and learned at ton. One of the many things I have learned here is kayak jousting. Kayak jousting involves at least two kayakers standing up in their boats, and using their paddles to push their opponents boat over. Today I'm going to share some tips I've learned to make it easier.
          To even try kayaking jousting, you have to first stand up in your boat. To do this I like to grab the cockpit rim near my hips, slide my feet out of the front of my boat, and slowly shift my weight forward. My favorite stance is with my left foot forward, directly in front and to the left of the seat, with my shin touching the cockpit rim about 6 inches from the center. My left foot swings below my butt, with the ball of my foot on the seat, and my right knee-cap touches the cockpit rim at about the same spot where my hips normally are. I then have the ability to stand up and crouch back down without changing my stance.
         When actually jousting, I crouch down to a medium level, not all the way down or up, and try to face the side of my opponents boat. IMPORTANT: You cannot push someone's body. You have to push their boat only. The trick to flipping someone is to press down on their cockpit rim with your paddle blade, making them edge over to one side, and fall over. Try not to put your blade in their cockpit because it likely won't tip them and it may hit their leg. Some important things not to do include, playing in shallow water, swinging your paddle at someone, throwing your paddle, etc.
          Just remember to be safe while jousting, and have fun! It's one of my favorite things to do at the end of the river and I hope you get the chance to try it too.
-Matt

Blind inspiration- Max Haworth

When I was fourteen I went to the ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships. When I went I was just getting into kayaking, so when I saw the kayakers I was inspired to do so much more with kayaking. I began training so that I, too could be able to compete. It's been a year and I have grown so much and still am by finding people to help me get a lot better and a lot smarter on the water. I have met a lot of  people from kayaking. But when I came to keeners, I found a whole new form of inspiration. One day on the Ottawa I met two men who were blind. Those men were learning to kayak and went every day. They were learning to roll, paddle, and even surf.  It was incredible. One of them had a head set that allowed him to talk to his coach while going down the rapids. One day, we (the keeners) were surfing garb when one of the men came down and surfed with us on garb. Garb is one of the biggest rapids there is on the river. It was awe inspiring that they would come to the Ottawa to learn to kayak. I would be overjoyed to paddle with them again

Max Haworth

early morning session- Andrew Oxley

We all have this one feeling when we flush from a wave with a long line of people. This feeling, the one when you just hope one day you'll have the wave all for you so you can practice every move you want and surf how long you want. Well this feeling is not very hard to get, you just have to be the first or the last. Being the fist one on the river requires only one small thing, an alarm clock and the time varies with the river you want to go, for example on the Ottawa river to be first you'll have to be on the river at around 7am. Being the last requires patients because you'll have to wait all day and go at around 5 or 7 pm depending the river.

How to do a Competition Ride- Zack Michaels

The important things to remember when entering a competition are that the small points make the difference. If you can lay down a spin or two that you know you can get every time, you will have ten or twenty extra points. If some other competitor decides to throw one huge air blunt or airscrew, and then flush off of the feature, they have a lot of points, but nothing that is impossible to achieve with smaller point amounts. If  you can get two spins down and then both roundhouses, and other easy tricks that you get 100% you can easily surpass people who just throw one big trick. Basically what it comes down to is that you should start off your ride with the highest point amount that you nail 100% and then move towards your bigger tricks that you don't get every time and end with your "hail mary" moves that you probably won't get but have big point amounts attached.

Another Great Week on the Ottawa

Hey readers, back again at the end of my second week at Keeners.

        After another week has past I continue to improve my paddling skills and building relationships with my fellow Keeners. With my shoulder back to 100% and getting lots of time to rest on the weekend I was reading to tackle week 2. The highlights began on race day when we had a relay race through the Mcoys rapids. But the exchange between our second and third racer went bad and all hope of winning the race had been diminished. Further down river at the Lauren we had yet another race yet this time the race was timed one after another my team and I ran the pipeline touching a coaches boat on the right shore then ferrying across to the moby dick rock and touching another coaches boat. Story of my life out of 5 teams my team and I came last yet again with a time of 4mins 22secs. As the winning team achieved a time of 3mins 53secs.

         Big water bacon beatdown Thursday sucked for me missing both of my lines and simply floating downstream with no resistance both times!! Things picked up for me again on Friday with competition day after about 15 surfs in morning practice I was beginning to get get tired of the same thing over and over. So my coach Steve-o and I devised the plan that I would hand surf into pushbutton and while on the wave I would throw Steve-o a throw rope while he sits in an eddy up stream. After three failures in succession i decided to give up on the idea, especially after Steve-o said "you have not yet developed the level of tom foolery needed". After the episode of failure was over I still decided to spend the rest of the morning session hand surfing achieving more and more failure. This wrapped up the week and perpared me for antother weekend of rest.

Till next time, Aidan

            

Competition Day!!! -Ben Sandeman

Hey guys its Ben here. Yesterday was competition day since it was Friday. We had 2 choices of where we would like to do our 2 competition rides which only one of them would be counted, Garberator and push button. Most people went to garb because they would be able to get more air on tricks, its bigger and the water is moving much faster than push button. A select few decided to go to pushbutton because it is more of a hole/wave type thing instead of a giant wave, therefore its better to do hole tricks on such as loop, space godzillas etc.. I decided that I could probably get more points on pushbutton than on garb so I practiced and competed on push button. Most people had awesome practice runs that would have scored lots of points in a competition and then completely flopped on their competition rides. For example yesterday before the 2 rides that counted for the competition I landed my first roundhouse and then did it again next ride, and doing a few spins and shuvits beforehand, then on my rides that counted I only got 4 points for catching the wave and doing a 180 and on my second ride I only got 1 point for catching the wave. This shows that most people will not have as good competition rides as practice rides. The reason we do competitions at keeners is to learn how to compete to get the most amount of points, to do this we learn how to deal with the pressure of competing. This will help us later in our kayaking lives by already having a decent amount of experience in a competition environment while this may be new to many people and they will most likely not do their best during the competition because the pressure will put them off. So overall not only is competition day alot of fun but we also learn alot of important skills from it without even knowing.

at push button!

Race Wednesday - Leeland Gentry

Hallo everybody, its Leeland again with another blog post, A few days ago was race Wednesday witch is a day for Keeners to experience a different way of kayak, by making the river even more challenging, and getting us use to races, if we decide to attend a race in the future. The races at keeners are spread out throughout the day, up to three in one day. This Wednesday was a four-legged relay race at McCoy’s raped; starting at the top of Sattlers raped, ferrying across to an eddy below Phills whole, to the next person, who ferries to the other side of the river and back touching a rock on either side, then goes to the next person in football eddy, where I was waiting. At this point of the race my team is in second place, with Andrew charging out of the current above horseshoe raped toward me, once he passes the baton I race into an upstream ferry trying as hard as I can to get into the middle of the current to catch the tongue of the horseshoe raped, but at this point Conner, the third leg of the opposing team has a head start on me, but out of the corner of my eye I see him flip in horseshoe raped and his baton stuck in the whole, and as soon as I passed him, I charged into the eddy right of baby face wave to pass the baton. The forth led of the race was Emma, She ended up taking first place along with the rest of our team, and winning the race, and taking the first victory of the day.           

Anticipation by Rose Menominee

With the river's roar in my ears and the cold sting of rain on my face,  I watch the smooth water bubble and boil on the eddy  line. My grip on my paddle tightens and  I feel a familiar twisting in my stomach; that kind of nervous excitement that has your heart racing and your blood pumping. I paddle right to the edge of the eddy and lift my paddle high in the air and wait. Someone in a green boat down stream does the same and all at once  I  loose my nerve. Suddenly the river is huge and my boat is so small, the roar of the river is deafening and the current is so strong. For a moment I freeze, watching the green water, so smooth it's like a sheet of glass, shatter into a foaming maze of whitewater. Someone  in the eddy shouts, I don't hear what they say, but at least I remember how to paddle. One stroke at a time I make my way left of the marker wave. It's not hard to miss, it's the tallest wave before Phil's hole. I clip the left edge of marker wave and for a moment all I can see is Phil's hole, two towers of thrashing whitewater on either side of a green tongue. I start to slide down the slope and I can feel the smile on my face. 

Running The Right Side Sneak at Phils

So yesterday was another beat down Thursday, it was cold, it was raining, and I swam right off the bat. If I had been anywhere else I would have been utterly miserable, but I was at Keeners and almost everyone had a smile on their face. Despite the weather, everything was "Rosie". 

A New Change by Jack Carroll

          Hey readers it's Jack Carroll, blogging to you from Keenerville. Today I am here to tell you about one of the most eye opening experiences of my keener session. This amazing experience was the experience of demoing one of the new 2014 Jackson Rockstar smalls.

          For the past four years I have been paddling a 2010 Jackson Star, this has been by far by best boat. It has taken me down every river I have paddled. Throughout the beginning of this season I have begun to realize that I might be pushing the Star's weight limit. I have given the 2013 Jackson Star a test run on some small waves. I found this boat to be better than my current boat but mostly due to its larger size, and its ability to go bigger with loops, and blunts. however, I found no new amazing abilities of this new boat and I have been looking for a boat that is better and faster, but I have had no luck, until today...

Jack Carroll throwing a huge Air Blunt on Garb.

          Today as we were getting back on the water Claire O'hara suggested I try her boat for the second half of the day. I decided to give it a try and outfitted this 2014 Jackson Rockstar small to fit some what. Once on the water and after a few surfs I found it to be speedy, edgy, and very short in the bow. I also found it to spin like a top. This was the boat I was looking for. It had all of the new improvements a new playboat should have, and I would recommend anyone who hasn't demoed it to try it out.

          Thank you for reading, and I hope this can help you with your next playboat decision. Enjoy the water, until next time,

                                 Jack Carroll

Icing on the cake - Daniel Whiteley

Today we had big water beatdown Thursday, which isn't about getting worked in a big wave or hole for everyone. The idea of today is to get used to paddling huge water with almost no dangerous consequences at the bottom. I had a great start to the day on the McCoys rapid by completing the "hero ferry". This ferry starts above phils hole in an eddie called hero eddie. You go from here and ferry across to past left side phils without falling into it which is very challenging especially in a play boat.

Today i was very inspired by seeing a blind man in a kayak with coaches running the McCoys rapid. It was great to know that i'm part of a sport where everyone is accepting of everyone else and always willing to help people who want to give kayaking a go.

I came to the keener program with two main goals, the first was to be more confident on bigger water and become an all round better kayaker from it. The other goal of mine was to complete a front loop on a wave which finally happened today. The front loop is a full forward rotation of your boat while at one point having your boat completely out of the water. This was certainly my biggest challenge for my time at keeners. I can safely say that styling this move and landing back on the wave to continue my surf was the most incredible feeling ever.

After completing this and having no other real big goals, everything else is just icing on the cake.

How to loop with Connor

It's Connor back and I'm taking you through the loop I find its such a fun trick so these are some instructions on how to do the loop.

Front Loop  

In a loop, the boater does a complete flip, landing in the same direction that the move was initiated. Loops are unlike most other moves in that the bow is initiated flat to the water, with no edge. The move is begun like a popup, with the paddler driving straight and flat into the most powerful part of the current on a feature. The boater leans forward, and the bow is swept down and the stern up. Once vertical, the paddler quickly leans backward to pop up out of the water, then powerfully drives forward to intentionally cause the boat to become over-vertical. If done properly, the stern should catch in the current and the boat will return to its starting position.

Aerial Loop

Back Loop

A back loop is identical to a front loop, but is performed backwards, both starting and ending in a back surf.

Flat Loop

A flat loop is a loop done on flatwater. To accomplish this, the paddler stops in a front stall, before bouncing on end and "plugging" the hull deep in the water, and using the pop to throw the boat clear of the water and subsequently loop.

Race day! - Keegan Parker

Surfing at Garb! Not a Race, but still Awesome

Hello everyone! It's me again with another blog post. Specifically, a blog post about the fun and exciting race day! So what is race day? Race day is the one day of each week where the day is focused around racing in all sorts of ways in, through, and around rapids all along the river. Yesterday we had 3 different races but unlike last week we were put into teams for 2 of the 3 races. The first race was a 4 leg relay race through McCoy's rapid. The first person started with a small portion of a pool noodle and had to ferry across the river at the top of McCoys landing in the the eddie above sattlers and touch a boat that was stationed on the side and then make it to the bottom of the next eddie to hand the pool noodle off the second racer. The second racer would then take the noodle and ferry into either the safety eddie or the corner wave eddie on river right and then ferry back to river left and hand the noodle to the person stationed at the  bottom of the football eddie. The third racer would then go from the football eddie to river right at the bottom of McCoys, missing the meat of horseshoe and handing the noodle off to the fourth and final racer. The fourth racer would then have to ferry across the the other side of the river, touch the boat that was stationed there, and then race to the finish line at the point of swimmers island. I would love to tell you guys about the other two races but now it's time for fix the heater in the house and get ready to boat!

Dealing with logs- Emma Crane

Its emma agian!!!! Having a blast. Monday was our first day of swift water rescue. Down at death canyon, which scared me at first because of the name, we did some awewsome and fun scenerios. They taight us how to deal with swimming and kayaking over logs if you have to, but best to just avoid them at all costs. The three drills for swimming consists of just getting stuck on the log, then trying to climb over the log, then putting your feet on the log and walking over to the side. of course i was nervous to get my self thrown into a log on purpose because my whole life i was told to stay away from this stuff. It ended up being super fun. Getting my feet up on the log was the hardest. It was all safe so if you did mess up, then everything would be fine. With the kayaks was a different story, because the slot was a little bigger than your paddle. We needed to boof over the log. At first it was ok and all you had to do was lift your bow up. The second time they made it alittle harder by raising the log up. I was in my fluid boat which was a little too big. The stern was pretty long. The second time i went i got my bow up and over and then my stern got caugght in the current and i flipped over. Rolled back up at the bottom, and everything was ok. It was super fun just knowing everything will be ok. Eventually, the log raised higher and higher and no one could get over it. So funny to watch.

Overcoming Challenges by Sydney Nixon

Hello again!

     Sydney here with another blog for this week! This week I have chosen to write about and share a short (ok maybe not so short) story about the last 6 weeks of my life. As much as I wish I could say that I've been doing really cool things and training in freestyle, I sadly can not.

     The Monday of the Canada Day long weekend I found myself playing in this little feature called Fluffy Bunny. No one in the group I was with knew what the level was really so we were all playing in Fluffy Bunny and having fun. All of a sudden it was my turn again and I decided to throw a McNasty. This is a 180 degree rotation (half of a spin) into a loop (essentially a front somersault.) As I was doing the loop part of the trick, I thought to myself  "YES THIS ONE'S GONNA GO!!" and then all of a sudden there was this ridiculous pain all across my face. I had hit a rock, I looked around and realized I was still surfing the wave. I went to paddle out, windowshaded (flipped) and rolled up behind the wave. Immediately I knew something had gone wrong when I saw the blood pouring from my nose and mouth and knew I needed help. I wasn't really able to process words or think straight so I just screamed until someone came to help, which was very quickly thankfully. From there I paddled to Keenerville still bleeding and not fully aware of anything and Ryan Whetung helped me out of my boat and up the hill while my step dad got my boat. We used Ryan's phone to call my mom who wasn't on the river at the time and she took me to the Pembroke hospital. After a CT Scan the results were I had many many many fractures in my face all over and there was nothing they could do besides give me pills and send me on my way with ice. After this we drove home which was 6 hours away and got the rest of the medication that was prescription. They said it would take 6-8 weeks until it was fully healed.

     The following 3 weeks included laying in bed. I would wake up at noon, get some food my mom had gotten ready for me before work and watch a tiny bit of tv sometimes. After this I would be exhausted again and sleep until I was woken up for dinner, then I would sit with my parents for a bit then go back to sleep until noon the next day. It was a very tiring healing process, even just going for a car ride was enough to make me sleep for a few hours after. I was very good- with reminders from my mom- about remembering to take all my pills and pretty much always have ice on my face so it wasn't too painful. Mostly it was the headaches and pounding head that bothered me. I'm generally a very hyper, energetic person and especially after literally just having gotten home from 6 weeks outside in Colorado around tons of people, it was different. I got lonely and felt trapped because I had no energy to leave my room let alone house.

During the fourth and fifth week I started going into my moms store for half days and doing stained glass and mosaics as well as working the till. It was a good, easy way to get out of the house and my mom could still watch me and see how I was doing.

     The sixth week was my first week here at Keeners. I was WAY more nervous than I had realized I would be about getting on the water. There was more than a few situations and still some are coming up, where my friends encourage me to do something that I'm nervous about. The coaches and myself noticed I didn't have nearly as much energy as I normally do and had to take it very easy and be conscious of how I was feeling. Usually pushing your limits is good however in my case, it was and is not in this particular situation. With a very close watch from Claire and Anna especially as well as my safety buddy on the river Conner (he makes sure I roll up or saves me if I have to swim- appointed by Claire), I paddled every day all day. This was exhausting to say the least especially since I was always dead by lunch, but I always sat out a little longer after lunch or did what I had to do so I could stay on the river. This was important to me because it made me feel like I was finally getting better and progressing. Even it was only by staying on the water all day, it made me slightly more confident.

     Over the last week I started to slowly return to myself. I took the weekend easy with a short play session at Babyface on Saturday and only 4 surfs at Babyface on Sunday. Monday when I returned to the water I was VERY stoked to say the least, all day long. I still had energy when I got off the river!! That was something that was almost new to me after feeling dead for 6 weeks straight. I've taken a couple shots at surfing and playing on Garb. This was probably one of the biggest challenges I've had to face while here. To catch Garb you drop in from above and have to get really close to Moby Dick rock. This was terrifying for me because there's so much water pushing on top of Moby Dick I was so nervous about getting close. The last thing I wanted was to get dragged over the rock and that's all I could think about. After dropping in a few times, I realized it was good to go and mentally something clicked, and I felt confident while dropping in. I was hesitant and nervous at first about tricks because I was scared to take a paddle to the face or hit the water hard and there were so many things going through my head that could go wrong. This held me back for a bit but finally I started to get over it and try tricks. Since Monday I've been working on clean spins, blunts and backstabs mostly. Today Stevo said something that made me feel good about myself and realize I'm getting back to myself. He told me he's "impressed at how well I've been doing especially since I just took over a month off." It was a simple thing that took almost nothing for him to say but it made me realize how far I've come from that first day back and how terrified I was. Looking back, I realize yeah it was a bad thing that happened but everyone takes their blows and you can either let it stop you or you can come back stronger. My wave boating has never been as good as it has been lately and I'm doing things I never thought I'd be able to get down.

So stoked to be back on Garb! 

     Well, if you're still reading, thankyou. I appreciate it, these past few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotion and they haven't been easy BUT they can only get better from here.

Cheers,

     Sydney

Dominik-swift water rescue training

Hi there this is Dominik. Today we had swift water resque traning. We started the day off with learning how to use our throw bags. i thought throwing the ropes would be easy until I tried it; I kept missing my partner.I later learned that you also need a backup person to hold you down and very good foot placement so you don't fall in when your swimmer grabs the rope. We then went to the death slot  to practice getting over a strainer.

Practicing Boofing over strainer

To get over a strainer in the river such as a fallen tree then you want to slow your self down a little bit and then put your arms in front of you , push up onto the log and simply climb over. We then practiced a rescue for if someone was stuck on a log. The way we did this was we had a total of five people helping. There was one person strapped onto a rope being lowered down the river. two people were holding onto the rope. One person was yelling commands and one helped the person get out of the water onto shore. The person on the rope grabbed the person stuck on the rope and brought him towards shore and then the one person on shore helped them get out. then we practiced foot entrapments and equipment entrapments. Those were much harder to do. We practiced this by being tied onto a rope on a peace of equipment and take it off. this took me many tries to do. the foot entrapment drill we did was you were tied by your foot in the water and you had to find a way to take the pressure off your foot. You do this by swimming to the bottom pushing off the rocks. This one i got first try.

See you next week! Dominik

Matt- How to Keep Your Drytop Healthy

          Hey guys, Matt here. Today I'm going to teach you how to replenish the bead on your drytop.
          When you first buy a drytop, the durable water repellent coating, also known as DWR, works great at keeping you dry. All the water beads up on the outside of the drytop,and all the perspiration inside your drytop is wicked away, leaving you entirely dry on the inside. The only issue is that this DWR coating eventually gets worn down and stops working. This happens especially in areas with lots of abrasion. Not to worry! You can easily restore the DWR coating on your drytop. My two methods of replenishing the DWR are heat, and after-market products. Sometimes I use both if my drytop is really soaking up water.

Garb can't get me wet! 

          The first thing I like to do when my drytops stop working is heat them up. Many companies that use Gore-Tex or similar materials recommend putting it in the dryer. I don't like that method because I have found that the gaskets around the neck and wrists don't handle the heat well and will eventually tear. My recommendation is to use an iron with a thin cotton sheet on top of the drytop. Some things to avoid are ironing the gaskets, and using too much heat. I recommend using a lower setting and ironing for longer, rather than super hot for a short amount of time. It's worth it for the control, and you don't risk ruining your drytop.
          If using heat doesn't work, you can always purchase after-market products to replenish the DWR. Companies like Gore, Nikiwax, and McNett all sell products to help your drytops, whether by wash-in or spray-on methods. The spray-on method is more precise but a lot more work to coat the entire drytop.The wash-in method works well because it coats the entire dryop, but it also has its drawbacks because it coats the inside of the drytop, reducing its wicking qualities. Whatever you use, just know that your drytop will never be quite as dry as it was when you bought it.

Best of luck with your drytops and until next time,
Matt

Big Water Beat Downs and Chemical Burns by Rose Menominee

Hey readers! Rose here, I'm sixteen, this is my first time at keeners and oh boy am I sore. I had my first Big Water Beat down Thursday last week and I was more than a little bit scared. My mum always told me: "Don't go down Phil's hole or you will die." (I suggest you read that in a stern mom voice so you can get the full experience.) So naturally I was more than a little bit scared when the coaches told us we were running McCoys on Thursday. despite my immense fear I was able to convince myself that running that section of river would make me a better paddler as well as give me more confidence when paddling big water. I only did two lines, both times trying to catch Phil's tongue, unfortunately I missed both times. The first time I was way to far left and got beat down in left side Phil's, the second time however things were going pretty good but I then realized I was too far right.  I ended up surfing right side Phil's, which was super cool, although for most of my surf I was more than a little confused, I hadn't expect to surf anything at all let alone right side Phil's. My mother would have killed me.

I had first aid over the weekend which was pretty good, I thought I learned a lot. However right after first aid ended I went back to my cabin only to spill toilet bowl cleaner on my self, I then read the package and found the scary skeletal hand symbol that meant the product can corrode or burn you. I completely forgot everything I was told and jumped into the shower. Luckily that was the correct thing to do and I was spared a nasty chemical burn.

Until next time,

Rose

Practicing throw ropes in SRT yesterday

My first keeners- Max Haworth

Hello my name is Max. This is my first keeners. I am looking forward to all the things that we are going to be doing this month. Like SRT and first aid training. In the picture below I am swimming at SRT training but it's ok because it's super safe and controlled. In this drill I have to get over the log by swimming head first and garbing the log and pushing with my hands to get my body over the log. We are practicing swimming over the log so we don't get pinned, or stuck on or under the log, or drown. When I first saw it, I thought it would be easier than it was. When I hit the log, the pressure of the water was immediate. Whenever I tried to pull over the log, it would slip and turn. The water hit me directly on my back, and forced my legs underneath the log downstream. The hardest part was getting my lower body back upstream to get it over the log. I could breathe the whole time, and managed to keep my head up for the majority of the time, until I  was forced to let go and flush under the log. One thing I will take away from this exercise is to try and avoid logs at all cost, because there is a really good chance you will be forced under them, and sometimes you may not come out. I think this was a super important part of SRT training because it is a real danger on the river, and is something that can happen commonly if you aren't careful. 
It was hard to say the least, but in the end it was a really fun session and I learned a lot about the power of the river and how to stay safe. 

Failing at Log Swims during SRT

                                                    
Max Haworth  

Garb Comes In- By David Silk

All summer, everyone in the Ottawa Valley has been wait for one thing.. water levels to get low enough for Garb to come in. Garb is an incredible wave, made by two curlers that form a big foampile with an amazing green runway in the middle. It also happens to be the site of the 2015 world championships for freestyle! With huge bounces and a retentive feature, tricks go huge and rides are long. All the wave tricks are awesome here, from pan ams and airscrews, to clean spins. Lines can get long, but garb is always worth it. And a few days ago, it finally came in. I've been working on some combos on it, such as bread and butter ( a blunt to back blunt) and kay ys (a pan am to pistol flip). With its massive eddy, deep water, and such an amazing feature.. its definitely one of the best features in the world.

Learning

Sabina here, once again.The week has just flown by, I feel like I have learned so much already! Just this week I haev already learned how to shuvit, felix and spin... three things I would not have learned without keeners. my next goal is to learn another trick by the end this week and to be able to more consistently spin and felix on a wave. Update on SRT training: today was awesome, first, we paddled to garburator and practiced throwing our throw ropes, then, we paddled to a place called death slot wich is just above garburator, on the left. It's basically a narrow but deep passageway through the rock where the water rushes through. We got to practice pinnings and rescues on a log, we learned how to boof over a log and swim over pinned objects. I am really looking forwards to learning more new things this week at keeners.

Why Thursday is fun- Andrew Oxley

   

hello my name his Andrew from Montreal, Quebec and it is my first year at keeners.
a lot of people think that big water beatdown Thursday its not very appropriate for keeners and i am here to reassure you the complete opposite because Thursday are fun.  first of all,  it is incredibly fun because you get to paddle big water and get beatdown with absolutely no consequences. why is getting beatdown is fun you may ask? because it is refreshing, exhilarating, fun to watch, fun to be watched,  funny, scary and you get to push your comfort zone. my experiences of right side phills that is a pretty big hole in the Ottawa river and was awesome because i went in with out a paddle and i got beatdown for at lease 20 sec. so it wasn't  that bad only fun :) .

happy endings by Maddie Boys

It is now halfway through my last week of keeners, and I can't believe how quickly this session has gone by. Yesterday I arrived in the Ottawa airport, today I'm preparing to leave. And although this makes me sad whenever I think about it, I have so much to be happy about that I can't stay sad long. this evening all the keeners arrived starving and tired at WT after having just run the upper Petawawa River; a day that started out shakily but became increasingly amazing as soon as we got on the water. Actually I lied, it became amazing after a breakfast of pancakes, coffee, and chocolate milkshakes, but none of those things compared to the river. Even though the hike in was an hour of wet boats being carried, dragged, and otherwise hauled to the put in by equally wet people, it was completely worth it. The day's highlights consisted of me getting a (short) bow stall for the first time ever, playing with foam, and jumping off train bridges, along with some of the most fun whitewater I've paddled in a while.

jumping off train bridge

It was great to get experience running rivers apart from the Ottawa, and I think everyone learned something new today. I love the ottawa, but running new and less forgiving rivers is an important skill to have, especially for us unfortunate individuals who don't call the Ottawa River home.

The day had been so great that I thought it couldnt get any better, but little did I know the best was yet to come. Five minutes before lights out we were back in our cabans, and I received an email from an amazing person at River Run informing me he had found the Werner double diamond paddle i had lost the week before while surfing Kahuna. I was so excited I couldnt even talk to tell Anna the news. So even though this session is almost over and we are all saddened by the thought of leaving, we can look forward to all the amazing things that are going to happen in the next couple of days and give this session of keeners a very happy ending.

How to tie your own harness

Tying your own personal harness can be very important for many things in the sport of kayaking and in many other ways as well. Tying your own harness can be important for rappelling, taking photo/video, or even for scouting a drop where you want to lean over a cliff edge safely. Tying your own harness is very simple and safe when done right.

The first step of tying a harness is to make an overhand knot in your piece of webbing.

Next take the rope and make an overhand knot on a bite. The key to do this is to make it big enough to slide on your leg but not too large that it is loose.

Tie another overhand knot on a bite the same size as the first one about a fist length away.

Now slide the harness onto your legs and do the rest standing up to prevent the harness from being too tight.

Take the long end of the webbing and wrap it around your waist once. make sure it wrapped above your hips because otherwise the harness will fall off.

Next wrap the end through the piece of webbing connecting the two leg loops and around your waist again.

Repeat at least three or four times. The key to this is making them relatively tight so you are secure.

Take the two ends of rope and connect them together using a water knot. Again it is important to make them tight but not uncomfortable. If need be you can always get someone else to help you.

Now you have a fully functional harness. When attaching to the harness make sure to clip through both loops to ensure safety.