A Guide to Keener Weekends-By Luke Antonyshyn

                  Over the last few years of keeners, I believe that I've uncovered the formula for a typical keener weekend. While it may seem that a weekend is too complicated or variable to break into reoccurring components, this is not the case on the ottawa river. The staples of any keener weekend are as follows:

• Pizza: Any previous attendee of this kayaking camp knows that on every Friday, after a long day on the river, we are treated with a delicious dinner composed of about 10 boxes of varying flavours of pizza. While we are all starving, some are weary about finishing it all too quickly, hoping to stretch it out into lunches for the next two days.
• Sleep-ins: After a week of being woken up before eight and going to sleep before eleven, we're all happy to shift the schedule a bit. While some of us are too rooted in this routine already to wake up later, there are others who are very content to wake up and eat breakfast at the crack of noon.
• Paddling Sessions: This one almost goes without saying, seeing as it is a kayaking camp. Most of us will go out for at least a couple of hours a day for a surf session, despite our coaches urging us to rest in order to avoid exhausting ourselves. Some of the braver souls will even decide to run the river and hitch a ride back to the put-in with the rafters. 
• Bonfire: A universal occurrence in all of the sessions which I have attended, the bonfire is one of the more camp-esque activities we have at keeners. We all sit around the fire, listen to music, share stories and jokes,  make marshmallows, and have a great time.
• Downtime: Between all of these events, there is often a huge amount of time to relax and do whatever you want. This time can be used to read, go swimming, rest, or, as seems to be the new norm, watch Top Gun multiple times in a weekend.

                 As you can see, although there is often no instruction on the weekends, there is hardly ever a dull moment, and as I can say from experience, there is always something exciting happening.