5 Reasons why Mathieu is a Baller : Rachel Buys

Mathieu is one of our newer keener coaches  but he fit right in. I had noticed that other coaches had blogs on them so I wanted to give some insight into how cool Mathieu is.

#1 He is patient! I have not only been asking lots of questions about paddling, i have also been filling our rides back to keenerville with questions on French pronunciations. Aside from me learning the difference between a back deck roll and a regular roll I have also learned the difference between saying Doo and Dou.

#2 Mathieu enjoys laughing at mistakes and being happy about it weather or not he made a mistake or someone else did. Although most people think that laughing at mistakes is a bad thing Mathieu thinks differently. He encourages mistakes because now you know something you didn't before. Laughing at a mistake makes it okay and seem human. He has showed me that even world champions make tons of mistakes and are always learning.


#3 Teamwork!! One thing Mathieu has had too do over the past 2 weeks is translate for a fellow keener from Spain. Mathieu has had to explain all of the scouting and safety talks we have done. I found myself confused multiple times I can't even imagine what it must be like for him. Mathieu has showed me that we don't need google translate we just need teamwork.


#4 Mathieu has hobbies! In the time I have spent with Mathieu I had not really asked much about his personal life. Later once I started to get to know him I learned that he is also a wedding photographer. I was most surprised to see that he was not embarrassed at all to let people know. Most of the other boaters here live and breathe the river but nope not Mathieu he is an aspiring wedding photographer. He does one of the most extreme sports on the earth and yet in his free time he wants to take photos of weddings. I learned that it doesn't matter if you get weird looks. That you should just do what you love.


#5 Mathieu is one of the best kayakers I am ever going to get to meet and yet he has not even talked about his victories or bragged at all but he has the respect of every keener here weather they know about his record or not. He has showed me and many others that to be cool you don't have to be the best or the most talented. It's all about how kind and generous you are. It's about how you make the people around you feel. Mathieu doesn't just hang out with the kids who can loop and airscrew he hangs out with the kids who are working hard and are good people.