As I first arrived at Keeners, I was nervous and a little bit scared. When I entered the river and began to paddle around in the flatwater,
I was so off balance that even doing a couple forward strokes was enough to flip my kayak. Within 30 minutes, practicing some forward and
backstrokes with the coaches, I gained some level of balance and flipping in the flatwater was no longer a problem. My next challenge was
actually running through rapids. As we ran the river on the first day, I would stop in front of each rapid and ask a coach or a more experienced
Keener what the easiest line through the rapid was, usually in a state of panic. I would then proceed to flip somewhere near the top and run
most of the rapids upside down until rolling up somewhere near the bottom. Since then, I have tried harder and harder lines daily and my confidence
as well as overall kayaking ability has greatly improved. I can now easily run many rapids that were once very difficult for me (most of the time
without even flipping). I have also become a lot better at surfing waves/holes, and through learning how to control my edges I have have also
acheived one of my biggest goals coming into Keeners: doing a spin. My flatwater skills have also continued to increase and I have learned how to
doublepump and am very close to bow and stern stalling. Hopefully I can continue to become a better paddler and acheive more goals over the next
two weeks of Keeners.
Haim, no ragrets?
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