Making The River A Better Place

One of the greatest things you could ever take from Keeners I found so far is the ability to make someone smile. Making someone smile is one of the easiest but one of least thought of things to do while on the river. The reason why this is such an important thing to learn how to do is because it easily creates a positive environment and it can make someone's day even better!. Whether they just had a swim, a trashing, threw a trick, raced through a rapid, or even ran their first descent of a rapid if you can just simply do that it's the best thing ever.

I figured this out on Race Day Wednesday when I went with a group on the Main channel of the Ottawa River. One of the rapids we raced through was Death Slide and some of us were quite nervous. I heard a few people almost wanna not run it but after breaking it down with Stephen Wright we all decided to give it a shot. We raced everyone one at a time and as soon as someone dropped in everyone cheered them on. Soon all the cheering got pushed at the end of the rapid where people finished then it was my turn to try to run a fast lap. As I came around the final corner giving it my all I heard everyone cheering me on. Just by them doing that it brought an unreal feeling that just made my day making me smile. That’s what makes the Keeners program so great its the positive atmosphere that's created by fellow paddlers. So from that point on when I saw someone feeling discouraged or just did something awesome I had to make them smile or make them feel less frustrated.

So next time you see someone do something awesome no matter how good they are or what class rapid they just ran give cheer them on. Just a little sign of support can mean a lot even saying “Hey man good job back there” will mean more than you think! You can easily achieve this by a simple cheer, a fist bump, a high five, even a smile etc…. you name it just try it and you will make the river a better place to be because at the end of the day we all share the same passion.

Paddle On!
Frank Johnson