Just this first week that I've been paddling the Ottawa at Keeners has been one of the most fun and most intense of my entire life. I have finished every single day entirely exhausted, but I love the days that get me there. To me, the ability to paddle this massive, world class river every day for the majority of a month is insane. With this blog post, I'd like to express the reasons that I think the Keener experience is so sick and tell to those not here what being at Keeners is actually like.
Every morning before breakfast, we engage in some morning activity. We've done everything from a wildly heated ultimate frisbee tournament to a kayak-targeted yoga session. All of these fun activities are spent swatting and slapping away the terrible Canadian mosquito populations. Breakfast follows our groggy games, and is all our responsibility. It is so sick to have the freedom to make whatever breakfast you want and cook for your cabin mates, and, barring Robertsons cabin's dissues, everything goes smoothly and we get daily omelettes and pancakes.
While the morning routine is amazing, the highlight of each day is obviously the time on the water. We are surrounded by some of the best freestyle whitewater in the world, and are instructed by some of the best in the sport. All of the coaches are not only incredible kayakers, but they are all amazingly nice and funny. Each day on the Ottawa so far has been a nonstop, action-packed adventure, filled with trying to surf every wave on the river and crazy party surfs. The supervision is amazing on the river not only because they have the skills and responsibility to be completely safe, but the trust in everyone's ability to let us do awesome things we might not be allowed to with other groups. For example, Thursdays are Big Water Bacon Beatdown Thursdays, where every person is required to run McCoy's rapid three times, and most get surfed in the mighty Phil's hole. Just below the hole sit numerous safety boaters and people with throw ropes on shore consisting of both instructors and Keeners, so after being twirled around by the massive feature, everyone pops up, regardless of if they are in their boat or not, smiling. This robust safety and expertise also allows us to do crazy fun things like swimming through Coliseum, the largest rapid on the river.
After kayaking, we drive back upstream to our home, Keenerville, and dry before our excursion to Wilderness Tours for dinner and perhaps a showing of a kayaking film or an impromptu soccer or billiards game. These after water periods are the perfect time to have fun with our fellow Keeners, talk about the day or what kayaking is like at everyone's homes, or tell Carsten to stop flexing for the nineteenth time that day.
The weekends are also insanely sick in that we are allowed to kayak in groups of three down the river or to McCoy's rapid just upstream of Keenerville. Again, this is completely safe as all must be first aid certified and travel with someone who has attended Keeners before. We shuttle back up to the put-in with Wilderness Tours raft trips, and as payment for the ride, we help load the giant rafts onto the trailer and unload life jackets at the rafting warehouse. It is amazing to be able to hop on the Ottawa with your friends and be completely independent to make lunch and the shuttle times and be able to visit any wave one desires for hours. One of the most fun things we have done so far is paddling the waves at McCoy's just as the sun is setting by ourselves.
Keeners is a paddler's paradise. It is so sick to be living within sightlines of impeccable freestyle features and to be able to go paddling every single day on world-renowned whitewater with some of the best in the world and over twenty other awesome kids who are excited about it as you are. We paddle by ourselves, we celebrate Canada Day by shaving maple leaves into Ben A.'s head, and we have the most incredible time on the beautiful Ottawa shredding the gnar and so far, it has been absolutely the most fun and most intense time I've ever had. I have fun paddling every day and I have so many great new friends from all over.
No comments:
Post a Comment