My First Decent - By Fergal McConvey

Coming from Ireland, where there isn't much water on the rivers, my ambition to venture to the Ottawa river was high. On the first day we paddled down the middle channel. I didn't know what to expect, however I knew it would be amazing. I was right!!! The sheer mass of the river astonished me. I was overwhelmed by the enormous size of the foam piles and waves that we encountered on the river. On the third day we ran the main channel and at this point I saw the middle channel as the biggest rapids ever, but I was wrong. The main eats the middles for breakfast. I arrived late to paddle as I was bit by a spider and took a trip the the clinic , but missed nothing. At the bottom of the river we paddled the biggest rapid ive ever seen in my life, COLISEUM.

   

Blog #1 - Lotte Rayner

This year the Ottawa river is at a raging flow of 12 feet, 13 feet higher than the river I knew last year. But because the river is the Ottawa and in my opinion is one of the best river in the world the flow increase only makes it more huge, fun and  exciting. Yesterday I got to surf the biggest wave i have ever surfed in my life on the loren rapid called mini bus just below where garb usually is. Mini bus is a bit misleading in the name because it's not that mini and is indeed ruffely the size of a bus, I swear it's the size of a small house. My first time dropping in I was to far left and flushed but after watching other keeners drop in and shred it coming out all goods, I just went into the meat of it and found how awesomely fun and smooth it was I managed to get a spin and a round house on the monsteress wave!!

A wee bit farther down the river are the whirlpools, last year they weren't really there and we would spend quite a bit of time attempting to get a slight pull down and now the levels up I managed to get a solid underwater beat down with my whole boat submerged underwater it was kinda pretty awesome:))

Keeners has been awesome so far and I can't wait for the next 2 weeks I'm hoping that the water might go even higher! 

Hi mum and dad! 

New Friends--Ben Warren-Blog #1

I've been excited for Keeners for a long while now. Now that I am finally here my stoke levels are as high as they have ever been. My name is Ben Warren and I am from Asheville North Carolina and kayak whenever I can. Some of my favorite rivers back home are the Green, Pigeon, Ocoee, and many more. There are kids here who have come from all around the world to create the amazing kayak crew that we have here now (summer 2k17 keeners session 1). Even though it is only day 3 I have already made great friends. While I am not great friends with everybody in the group yet, I plan and hope to be by the end of the session. So far we have only paddled the middle, and we have owned it. We all styled elevator shaft and have been shredding on every wave. I can't wait to see what awaits us on other sections of the Ottawa that we will run in the future.