After four one week sessions of teen camp (also a very great program the OKS offers and I would highly recommend for beginners), spread out over three summers my teen camp coaches finally pushed me enough to pull the trigger on Keeners. Luckily throughout those four sessions of teen camp I progressed faster than the average paddler, running the main channel (is considered the high adventure channel compared to the middle channel/family trip by rafting companies) in my first week of teen camp. During the fourth session of teen camp, although I was enjoying myself and was feeling challenged by my instructors, I was feeling held back by the other teen campers considering most of them were beginners and have never kayaked before. This definitely played apart in pushing towards Keeners.
My issue with feeling challenged and being held back was surely took care of when on the first day I ran the main channel. Unluckily the first rapid after lunch has the infamous name "Butchers Knife", there is one spot on this whole rapid that needs to be avoided, ya you guessed it I hit that one spot, after getting pinned on a/the rock I shredded my forearm and tweaked my shoulder, forcing me to take a day off. Even though I took a day off I spent the day on the river taking photos of the Keeners running rapids and surfing waves.
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Crystal like structure in the rock give the rock a sand paper type grip.
Over the first week I have had the chance to paddle with five different world class coaches. These five include: Clay Wright, Stephen Wright, Claire O'hara, Devyn Scott, and Nick Troutman. All five of them are worth a google, all except for Devyn (founder of Airborn Athletics was held back by shoulder injuries) have been world champions at least once or multiple times.
See ya next week, Aidan Uens
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