What it Means to be a Keener - By Katie Fankhouser

To me, being a Keener means a lot of different things. First of all, It means you are willing to face your fears and push you limmits. The people that get the most out of the Keener program give just as much to it as they take out of it. You have to be willing to go out of your comfort zone and put 100% into whatever it is your doing. Sombody that doesn't try can't expect to see progress or results. A Keener is respectfull of the river and the environment. We use the river everyday, the very least we could do is keep it clean. All the Keener's look out for other people. We take care of people and their gear when they swim, cheer on our peers when they beater and encourage each other to dig deep when things get scary. A Keener claims the bad rides and practices hard to get good ones. Even when you scream at yourself underwater for flushing on a trick you have never messed up on, you still roll up with a smile on your face and a fist in the air. And as Keeners, we do all this because we love kayaking. Every Keener I've met has a shared passion for the sport; this is the biggest one of all because the entire group genuinely enjoy's every minute we spend on the river no matter the conditions. Any day on the water is a great day on the water.