Keeners is a program for young paddlers to challenge themselves and improve immensely in just three weeks. Here, in the end of the second week, I have learned to push myself to try things I want to learn. The first significant barrier I had to get through was flatwater. Although it may seem strenuous and useless if you're first learning it, learning flatwater can be one of the most beneficial things you can do for your paddling ability. It toughens your core, and helps you have less of a reliability on the feature to do your trick. However, despite all these pros to doing flatwater, before Keeners I hated trying flatwater whether it was a simple lean clean or the double pump I never tried. So, when I started doing more flatwater at Keeners for warm ups and in between rapids, I was surprised with how fun it was! All of m fantastic coaches helped me more an more on my double pump, and gradually I got closer and closer to a bow stall. At long last, my double pump into a face plant became a double pump into an actual bow stall!! I was so excited, and of course when you're good at something you want to try it more, so over a couple of days I got to be able to hold it for a long amount of time, practicing bouncing up and down for different tricks. At one point in the day I got super close to a flatwater loop, so of course I paddled over to Claire and TC, my coaches of the day, and showed them what I'd done. However, instead of simply getting close to a flatwater loop, I completed one, all the way through!! As the weeks progressed I was able to double pump more consistently, perfect my flatwater loop, and get a flatwater loop by double pumping rather than plowing into a bow stall. Overall, my point is that no matter how badly you think you are going to do, no matter how embarrassed pun are to mess up, keep trying! Challenge yourself by pushing the limits and learning technique. It may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things to not try something, but overall it makes a huge difference.
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