Non-Kayak Related Injuries -Sam F.

There are a lot of ways to get injured at Keeners. But a lot of those injuries often don't occur on the river.

I was standing in the Whitehouse kitchen after a long day of paddling, finally getting to relax and goof around with the other boys. Eventually I had the great idea to microwave a gummy. Though I only microwaved the gummy for 15 seconds, it was still to hot to eat. So what better thing to do when a food is inedible but pass it off to someone else to try it. So we decided to pass it off to G$ (Guillermo) to eat it since he eats a lot. Instead, G$ decides to flick the gummy at everyone and some of it lands on me. None of us actually knew the gummy was hot enough to leave a burn, but it actually was. So that's how I have ended up with a small burn on my arm.

Now the reason I am sharing this story is to prove that teens given enough time on their hands will easily find something stupid to do.

We are here mainly for 3 weeks of improving our kayaking skills, and to get injured off the water is a really bad way to end it. My gummy incident could have been a lot worse and so could some of the other crazy ideas we have come up with.

So sometimes I have to remind myself how terrible it really would be to miss out on kayaking from some mindless, easily preventable idea, and take a step back and think about what's about to happen and if it's really worth it or not. I am lucky enough to be up here kayaking every day with amazing coaches and it's really a chance I and no one else should miss out on this opportunity.

Thanks for reading!