Great kayaker better person - by Guillermo Meire

In this blog, I’m going to talk about a kayaker, who is not only one of the bests kayakers I have ever met, but is also an awesome person. 

I’d never imagine a person that just smiles every single moment, a person that could always see the good side of everything, a person that can’t be angry, …, since I met Stephen Wright.

Steven is one of our coaches at keeners. He is with us every day, of every week, of every session, of every year. This is my fourth year at keeners and I have spent lots of time with him, and from all this time I can’t remember any moment where Stephen was angry or sad.

But that’s not the only thing. He make us improve a lot as kayakers and as people. He is always trying to help everyone with their mistakes and to do things that scares them on water and off water. He is always making better people of us by making us pick up trash, help, and be nice to people and lots of other things. 

Also when things go bad he is the best, for example, like I said in my last blog, when I hurt myself by being hit by I rock in my back, he was the one that helped me to swim to an eddy and after that helped me by kayaking until the end.

And all that is just a very little part of this kayaker, I could be writing more awesome thing about him for a long time and I would still have more things to say.

I hope someday I can be like him, I don’t really know if that’s possible, but I still hope I can. I would also thank Stephen for being so awesome and hope he never changes.

Gatineau river

Early in the morning of July 31st, I opened my eyes as the light poured threw the window beside my bed. In the half a second it takes to open my eyes my mind becomes clear, and I realize the adventure packed day in store. As I walk out of my cabin half awake I see the pink and yellow hues of the sun rise glitter across the glass clear water, and feel the chilly morning air on my skin. I take a deep breath of the cool breeze as it fills my lungs. I sit back and take a moment to appreciate its beauty. As I look around I see everyone slowly walking to the vans like zombies. Mindlessly I follow the flow and try to remember if I have packed all my gear. I crawl into the back trying not to hit my head and find my way to a window seat beside and kid with bubbles in his lungs and look out the window, which is covered in shroud of fog. Steve turns the keys to the van and the engine roars to life. As the van speeds up it shakes on the rough gravel road. As the van screeches to a holt at our launch site I realize that my day dreams of the river during the long ride up we’re drastically  over rated. The Gat looked just like the Ottawa, but with bigger play spots, and many new things to learn. All in all the Gatineau 100% the best day of keeners so far.

TRASHPOCALYPSE -By Mar Casabonne

In a hidden corner, outside the Thunderdome is now sitting a lonely and empty trash can. No one dares to walk near it, no one wants to remember what happened this Monday, everyone wants to forget. We where sitting in the bus al ready to go, when someone was missing. We saw him, with the trash can full of trash, he was struggling to lift it so we went and help, all of the sudden, when we were trying to get all the trash in a bag, everything went terribly wrong, trash was all over the floor, and this apocalyptic smell came down with it. It was a complete disaster, struggling to breath, trying to lift the trash without dying and laughing so hard at the situation , we were starting the TRASHPOCALYIPSE. Everything went really wrong after that, the trash bag exploded in the bus, most of us where ready to puke, Steve O couldn’t stop screaming and I was about to cry. Fortunately we managed, after many attempts, to get the trash safely to its destination. Traumatized and very nauseous, some of us couldn’t eat any dinner. We have learned our lesson, never leave the trash in the can for more than five days, this one was in it for two weeks. 

SRT Certification Process at keeners.

At keeners if you are not certified with swift water rescue you have to take the course. When learning swift water rescue you do multiple things at garburater. The first thing you do is practice ropes. When practicing ropes you learn how to throw them and put them back into the bag. Then you go up above the YKK rapid and practice throwing ropes to swimmers. After that you do a tethered swim where one person is attached to a rope and jumps out to save the swimmer. These are the multiple parts of swift water rescue at keeners you learn. These things are essential to safety on the river. If you don’t learn swift water rescue you might screw up and and get someone hurt or even get yourself hurt. This is why learning swift water rescue is essential at keeners

7/30/19

Slater Wiles

My experience paddling at Kenners.

     After two weeks of paddling and a third one that has already started, my experience here as a Kenner is coming to an end. I am here now to explain what has transpired throughout these past 15 days including what I have gone through.

     It was a Sunday, more specifically, the 12th of July, the day my mother dropped me off at camp. She was balling her eyes out since she wasn’t going to be able to see me for three weeks which was and would be the longest she hasn’t been with me. I, personally, was fine with it. She helped me unpack then said goodbye and left.

     The first week was very fun, but the least out of them all. The reason being that I made minimale progression in my boat. Not being very good, things like waiting in long lines to surf then immediately getting flipped over or flushing out of a wave would be annoying. I was also very shy for some reason which is really unusual thing for me since most people see me as an outgoing person.

     The second week was a lot more fun. I got to know my fellow keeners better and paddling with them was like paddling with good friends. Getting to know your colleagues really helps enhance this experience and paddling in general since they can really make your day a lot better. I got better at paddling and seeing progress really helped and encouraged me to learn new things.

     This third week is now upon me, and has been up-to-date the best week so far. The speech night last night was awesome since we all know each other very well by now. I had an awesome day paddling yesterday kayaking over and under logs and surfing push button for half the day. It was definitely up there for my top three days here!

     This has overall been an awesome experience and I’m very happy that I was sent here. One thing you could take away from this is that as the weeks go on, usually you enjoy yourself more at this camp. So if the first week doesn’t go as planned, just bow there are two more ahead, and try to make everyday the best day ever!

     

Why Thursday’s Are Educational By:Kyle Cahn

On Thursdays at keeners it’s the day called big water bacon beatdown Thursday. Essentially you find scary holes and drop into them and get worked. We start the day at macoys, which has a huge hole called Phil’s. Dropping into Phil’s hole is definitely fairly scary, but in the end it ends up being super productive.  This past Thursday I had the biggest beatdown of my life. Lasting for just over a minute getting my paddle torn from my hands and ending in a swim.  Every person I have meet has not enjoyed swimming and neither do I but at keeners when you swim (especially out of a beatdown) everyone is cheering and they don’t care that you swam.   The other thing is it makes you less afraid of big holes. Which is probably a good and a bad thing but I think the good out weighs the bad. Overall I think the experience you have on Thursdays can help your paddling for than an average day at keeners. 

Playboats are not for Me- Avi Patel

Avi Patel
29/07/2019
Keeners Blog Week 3

Playboats are not for Me

     I've been kayaking now for 4 years, in those years I mainly trained in slalom, and ran rivers occasionally. I never really spent much time in a playboat other than at Keeners. As I am now spending a lot of time in a playboat I realize one thing, playboats are SLOW! I know that playboats are not meant for speed, but they are like a turtle on land. When I am paddling the treacherous flatwater I feel like my paddle strokes mean nothing.  Another thing about playboats are running big water in them are scary! Especially me who is already small in an even smaller boat I get tossed around in waves trains like a pebble. Playboaters give all of this away to have a good surf and loop easier. I'm not sure if I can give up all of the speed of my slalom, and the beefiness of my river running tank all for a surf, but for now, I make it through.

How to be calm when kayaking 

  By Sam Sharp 

     The best way to be calm while kayaking is to be confident in what you are doing. When you are confident you feel so much better on the water and you are also a lot less likely to get hurt. But sometimes it is hard to feel confident on the water if you have never done that river or rapid before. I feel the best way to overcome this is to trust your paddling ability if you feel like you are ready for that river or rapid then you should 100 percent do it. But if you feel like you are not and don’t think you could nail your line you most probably should wait until you are ready. It also help to kayak with people you feel comfortable with and know that they can help you if you are in need. Being calm on a river is the best way to succeed and be a good kayaker. These are the best ways I know to be calm on a river. 

The Pembroke trip - Hanna Gazzard

Last Tuesday the keeners took a trip to Pembroke. A tradition at keeners is to go to a movie and Walmart once every session. The trip started with a 30 minute bus ride and dinner at the mall. I got a subway sandwich which was delicious. After dinner we went to see Spider Man, this was not the original plan. Many of us were hoping to see the lion king but it was sold out. Turns out spider man was a really good movie. Then we headed off to Walmart. It was a mad dash through the store because we only had 30 minutes to buy all the stuff we had forgotten at home. Personally I bought 6 packs of Mr. Noodles and zinc for my sun burns. Overall it was a really nice break from camp life and a super fun excursion!

Water levels - T Buckley

On the Ottawa river, there is water. This water tends to not stop flowing, this means that the amount of water can change. When I arrived here 5 weeks ago, the water level was at 16 feet, and now it is at -1.5 feet. In 5 weeks, the water level has changed 17.5 feet. At 16 feet the world-class wave "Mini Bus" is in. At -1.5 feet, another world-class wave called "Garberator" is in. The water level changes frequently and can even change by an entire foot just overnight. Changing water levels are part of what makes the Ottawa so fun. I could happily surf Mini Bus for 6 weeks, but having changing water levels, and changing play features and rapids make the Ottawa a very diverse and fun river.

Keeners- Gavin masters

Keeners isn’t just about becoming a better kayaker. It’s also about the experience that you have with people you just met less than three weeks ago. It’s about making friends who are also good kayakers. Keeners is about experiencing new exiting and scary things, it’s about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.

BABYFACE'S CHANGE | By Nicolás Meire

The first day in Keeners, when I came in the water, the first thing that I notice was that water was much higher in comparison to last  year. Then I began to think about all the nice waves that I surfed last year; Pushbuttom, Garb, Babyface... Babyface! That wave was really close to Keenerville, and when we began to paddle to McCoys I had a face of happiness waiting to surf the incredible wave of Babyface. But when I came to McCoys I had a disappointment... Babyface had disappeared! Under Horseshoe was literally nothing, just a couple of small waves. Then I knew that Babyface only appear when water is low. That had a good part, that new waves like Aspen or Infinity Wave had appeared, but other good waves like Pushbuttom or Garb had disappeared. But on the first week, water began to drop, and Babyface began to appear. It was a small wave , and it was hard to do tricks like spins because you always got flushed out of the wave. But in the next few days, water droped more, and the fun Babyface that I knew from last year appeared. That wave was perfect to do Spins, Roamhouses, Blunts and maybe some Air Screws. But in the next days something happened that i didn't expect; Water droped more, more than last year, and Babyface got a lot bigger. And it wasn't more Babyface. It was more like a "Garb 2.0". When I was in the wave, i was totally out of control, and for me, it was more difficult to do tricks, but I know that for other people it is much easier.
I Just want to say that it is just amazing how much a wave can change it 2 weeks.

Nicolás Meire

A keener poem By Graeme Stevens

Today I couldn't think of a good blog topic so instead I am going to compose a poem.

The sun is up, the water is shining, the coaches are groggy and the keeners are whining,

Its a new day at keener-ville  and its gonna be fun, get out of bed and the morning activity's a run!

Breakfast is next and the pancakes are ready, the fire alarm is going off and the smoke is coming steady,

Whoever didn't do there dishes is in trouble, and some can't run because in there lungs is a "bubble"

Get to the thunder dome, do push ups if you're late, sit down on a coach and chill, BUT WAIT!

Today is no ordinary day, oh no no no, today is Thursday and its gonna be a show,

Satlers, left side, right side, in all you will get trashed, but don't worry, the worst thing you'll experience is a splash,

At the end of the day, faces are full of smiles, and the flat water paddle, seems to go on for miles,

load up the van, and away we go, back to keener-ville, to review the video,

Next up is dinner, salad,chicken, ribs or an egg, then off to knots, with local beauty greg,

The day has been packed, and the keeners are tired, it seems as though an early bedtime is required,

The stars come out, as the darkness arrives, and this keeners Thursday, goes into the archives.

Pourover swimming - connor

2 days ago, right before recording our competition laps and right after lunch, all 22 of us went up to the Lorne to swim just beneath the pourover on river left. The thing that makes this so much fun is that the water body recirculates you and can push you down so far everything becomes black, and we had an unofficial competition to see who could get the furthest. Several of us, me included, made it like 20-30 feet away from the hydraulic, to the surprise and amazement of our instructors and other boaters in the eddy. On one of my runs, however, while I was attempting to swim the farthest, I had accidentally redirected myself towards the rock wall perpendicular to the pourover, and face planted it as I was swimming. Even worse, my helmet, which was badly fit on my head, slid back right before the impact, making sure I had no protection when it happened. I heard a crunch and quickly resurfaced, dizzy and in pain. I walked back to the pourover, wondering how bad the damage was, and once I removed my hand, some of the others gasped at it and asked if I was ok. I had no idea how it looked, and once we were back in our kayaks Kyle took a picture and showed me it. It was freakin massive. I had a goosebump the size of my fist on the left side of my forehead, and one part was bleeding down my face. I felt woozy and had a massive headache the rest of the day, and still feel pretty crappy when writing this. I never got checked for a concussion, and might have a mild one, but even if I don't I'll definitely remember this part of the trip.

Yay! - Helen Engelhardt

Our coach, Stephen Wright (Steve-o) exclaims 'yay!' all the time, usually when explaining an activity or when we're about to do something awesome and fun on the river. 

Having a positive and enthusiastic mentality is super important at Keeners. We are on the river all day every day during the week, and sometimes that means we get tired or hurt. It's important to keep good spirits, so that every day is amazing and we always learn new things! Hearing Steve-o exclaim yay every time we're about to do something scary or hard brings up the morale in the group.

The attitude of people around you really influences how you feel. When people around me have a positive attitude, it makes me want to do better. It's also more fun! At Keeners, everyone loves kayaking. Being around a group of enthusiastic and motivated people makes every day more exciting and awesome!

How to kickflip - Walker Edens

Kickflipping is one of the most fun downriver moves you can do on the Ottawa. The first thing you need to know how to do to kickflip is backdeck roll. For a backdeck roll you put pressure on the water with your paddle in the back of your boat while rolling. To finish the backdeck you push down on your paddle and hip snap. Position your paddle diagonal to the corner of the stern of your boat. That was the hardest part pf the kickflip. To kickflip you paddle up a wave and take a hard left forward strokes on the lip of the wave then go into a backdeck in mid air. If you don't get enough air then you can finish your backdeck when you land on the water. Once you get good at kickflips they become more and more fun.

Swift water rescue ~ Nick Collier

Tuesday and Wednesday of week 2 is solely designated towards the progression of our swift water rescue skills.

We started off Tuesday with some class work to help us understand the fundamentals of swift water rescue. We then went down to the lawn rapids where we practiced our throw bagging which then led into throw bag rescues. We finished off the day by learning how to use the quick release belt on our life jackets.

Wednesday began with live bait practice down at the lawn. This involved a crew of 3 working to rescue a swimmer, 1 of the 3 team members is connected to a rope and has to dive into the river and bear hug the swimmer. They then get pulled back to the shore having successfully competed the rescue. We then moved over to the “death slot” where we experienced a situation where there was a strained blocking the river. This prepared us for potential situations that may arise in the future, whilst being in a safe environment. After this we moved on down to a pour over and practiced what to do if we were stuck in a retentive hole. This sent some people deep, with Connor Mclay claiming the top spot. Finally we moved on down to push button and practiced various wading techniques.

Overall swift water rescue is a skill that needs to be practiced and maintain so that we can keep ourselves and our mates safe on the river.

Kayaking at home - Caleb Jatko

Kayaking at home 

By:Caleb Jatko

Alabama has some really good kayaking. We have so many good class IV-V creeks. Their are multiple playboating spots. Like ender hole on the Locust Fork and multiple spots on the Mulberry Fork. Ender hole is a really good hole for all tricks. Some of the good creeks are Big Scir, South Sauty, Little River Canyon and Shoal Creek. The Locust Fork and Mulberry Fork are my home rivers. All of the paddling in Alabama is all rain dependent, so we have to mainly paddle in the winter. All of the rivers are so amazing and I love the kayaking in Alabama.

Double sessions- Anya Sachs

This year, I decided to sign up for sessions 1 and 2 of keeners, it was a last minute decision influenced by my friends. I'm currently wrapping up my fifth week of keeners this year. Doing two sessions definitely has its positives and negatives. The biggest drawback for me is eating pretty much the same food every day for 6 weeks. They feed us pretty well up here, but dinner at wilderness tours, and the same lunch on the river every day starts to get tiresome. I also miss my life at home a bit. However, I am definitely happy I did two sessions. By the end of the first session, I was not ready to go home, the first three weeks just seemed to fly by. I also get to meet more new people to paddle with in the first and second sessions. The river level changed a lot throughout my time here, so there are different features to play on then at the beginning of the summer, which means that I can't get bored. If you're up for the challenge of 6 weeks on the Ottawa, I would definitely recommend a double session.

Keener cake

Yesterday we wanted to make a cake but we had no ingredients to make it so we improvised. The result was probably the best cake I’ve ever had. To make it we took pancake mix and instead of using water to make the batter we used 3 red bulls. It was a fizzy mess at first but as we stirred it the batter settled down and began to look like it was supposed too. We cooked each side for three minutes and made five total pancakes and cut then so they were all equal size. We stacked the pancakes using Nutella in between each one to stick it together. Then we enclosed the whole dessert with Nutella to so u couldn’t see the pancakes. To make it more visually appealing we added tones of toppings starting with hot chocolate with we measured out one cup and put  in just enough water to make it the consistency of peanut butter. I then drizzled that over the cake and crushed up corn flakes and fruit  loops and put that on top. This was done just to make it less brown but it added the extra crunch that the cake needed. One thing that we didn’t add that would of made it way better was strawberry’s to lessen the chocolate flavour.

How to Get Beat Down in Center Slot - By, Cashion Porter-Shirley

Center slot, if you don’t already know, is a hole that is easily avoidable, but if you feel like meeting the devil and all his black magic, go ahead and follow these steps: 

Step 1. Have safety set up. This hole is very funky. Sometimes, it will let you out quickly, but sometimes, it will throw you around like a rag doll in a washing machine. This means that having a safety team set up will allow you to safely get beat down. 

Step 2. Stay left in the slot. The right side is the normal line which will not push you into the hole. Going left will push you directly into the middle of the hole. 

Step 3. Make an entry plan. This plan is not specific. You can choose any way to enter the hole. The way I chose is to plug it. This instantly pulled me into a side surf. Another way, with style, is to entry move. Note though, that this might dislocate your shoulders or throw you out of control immediately. 

Step 4. Get absolutely chundered. There isn’t much more to this. There is no right way to get beat down. It is a natural occurrence. 

Now that you have successfully been beaten down, you are on your own. You make the decisions about when you swim so good luck, stay safe, and get sendy. 

Keener Meals-Trey Harrell

Keeners meals are different than any other camp I’ve been to. In the morning we make our own breakfast. Some cabins have a couple people cook for everyone and some just all do their own thing. Today my cabin made pancakes and another a cabin had cereal. For lunch we stop at the raft spot. On the Middle channel there is veggie burgers, chicken, and sausages. Then on the main their is veggie burgers, normal burgers, and sausages. Finally for dinner we go to Wilderness Tours. There they have a salad bar and some type of meat as a main dish. But if you want something else there is also always a second option for you. Overall the meals are good but the get repetitive.

How to not do a meltdown - by Guillermo Meire

It was a beautiful Monday in the second week at keeners. We spend all the morning training in our freestyle skills in Mccoys in small groups of 6. Our coach was Steven. 

I learned lots of things, like how to do better blunts or how to get my Mcnastys more straight.

After that we went to the lunch side, were we got some food.

Than we went river down until we came to Coliseum. At this water level the meltdown was very good and some people of the group tried to do it. At first a said a were not going to do it, but after I saw this people doing it and not getting much time underwater I thought it wasn't that bad and I decided to do it. 

I went in it and I disappeared fast under the water. At first I thought it was ok, but after I felt that I continued going down instead of going up I began to become scared. For some seconds it was all black and than I began to go up but my paddle was still going dawn and I released it. 

When I finally come up I was upside down, without paddle, and I also saw that my skirt had imploded on one side, so after I tried to hand roll and I missed it I decided to pull my skirt and I swam. But the worst was about to arrive, after I swam I got hit by a rock in my back very hard. But thanks to my group I’m got rescued and my material to. 

Swimming in whitewater. By Mar Casabonne

When you start kayaking, one of the first things  you learn is your roll. Swimming is always the last option, its usually dangerous and it is NOT fun. In Keeners, you’ll get to kayak a lot, big waves, holes and beautiful rapids. You will also get to swim a lot, those big rapids that scared you , yep, you are going to swim them as well. I was not stoked when the coaches told us that we had to swim all through McCoys , I was scared out of my mind.  All we had to do was give Sadlers hole a big high five and try to swim left towards the football eddy, that was it. But something in my head kept telling me I wasn’t going to make it, that even though all the current went left, I was going to do something wrong and drown in that rapid. Everything went fine, it was actually one of the best things I have done so far with this program, I got to high five Saddlers and hug Phil’s (which was pretty scary and wasn’t in the plan) , I got to the football eddy just fine and had a blast. Even though no one will recommend you to swim while you are kayaking, I have discovered that swimming big scary rapids is pretty fun after all. 

Nigel Hocking
23/07/2019

                                                                    Progression
Ottawa kayaking school's slogan is "Rapid Education Since 1982", and it's true. Wilderness Tours has some of the worlds best kayakers teaching the keeners program. Using these resources over the past week I have gone from trying to catch a wave to throwing my first shuvits, spins and roundhouses. The trick to maximizing how much you take away from each day is to ask question and put yourself is situations that make you uncomfortable. An example of this is beatdown thursday. This is one of the best days of the week, but also one of the scariest. It is important to push yourself like dropping into right side Phil's or surf Sattlers. Whatever you run, the more you challenge yourself, the more comfortable you will be running bigger stuff in the long run. With the Ottawa being so forgiving, there is no better spot to push your limits.
           

23/7/19

Slater Wiles

Rolling and the Problem With Nose Plugs

     Last summer, the first few days I spent in the white water kayaking were great until I flipped in my boat . Not only due to to the fact I didn’t know how to roll, or that I was scared of the white water, it was because my nose would get full of water. Thankfully my instructor gave me his nose plug, and the next day I bought one of my own. 

     This cheap peice of metal (or rope depending on which one you have) is very useful. In glory of all of its use, preventing water to get in your nose, which according to me is one of the worst feelings, it unfortunately is not very reliable when it comes to durability and longevity. Since they are made out of a metal that is very malleable, it ends up breaking after a few weeks of kayaking with constant bending to take it on and off of your nose.

     That said, yesterday, my nose plug broke when we were surfing Push Button. Since I hate the feeling of getting water in nose, I sat on the side for twenty minutes or so watching others and learning from their mistakes so I could still be productive without it. I tried surfing a few times after before we left but the nose plug teally limits what u could and couldn’t not do comfortably.

     Later that day, we finished running the main channel. It was the only day I didn’t want to flip on any of the rapids, I flipped twice on Coliseum. I was told that blowing out of your nose slowly was helpful, which it was, but I feel as though that limits the time you can spend underwater since you only have so much air in your lungs. Luckily, I got up my first roll for both of them. The reason I flipped back over another time was because for some reason, every time I get back upright, I wipe the water off of my face. Usually, that means that another wave will come and flip me over not having the paddle in my hand to brace. One thing I learnt was that the water keeping our eyes closed is in the helmet and not in the eyes. That said, if you let the water drain out, you will be able to open your eyes a few moment after you roll back up. 

     What I can take away from yesterday’s experience is that I should always have an extra nose plug in my life jacket, but at the same time not to rely on them too much, and that I should always paddle as soon as I roll back up in white water.

How to make Pancakes by Grey Edens

To make pancakes you first have to make pancake mix. To make pancake mix follow them instructions that it says on the pancake powder bag. After making the mix, get a pan or the black pancake maker. Then you spray it with Pam to prevent the pancake from sticking to the pan or black pancake mixer. Heat the pan or black pancake mixer up for at least 1 minute. Then pour the pancake mix onto the pan or black pancake maker. The pancake mix will automatically turn into circles because of surface tension. Wait for the sides of the pancake to bubble and then flip the pancake. After that, keep checking what the bottom of the pancake looks like. Once the bottom of the pancake is cooked enough, put it on the plate. Then you have your pancake.

How To Use Keeners To The Fullest:Kyle Cahn

When you become a keener you are given a chance  that not many people can say that they have had.  Everyday you are surrounded by world class coach’s, and an incredible river.  Use your coach’s every day like you’ll never have them again. Ask them a question after every surf, get them to help you with your flat water tricks, Or even just about some gear they are using.  Even if you paddle with a super good paddler at home I can’t make any assumptions but I’m guessing they haven’t competed non the less won world championship.  All the coach’s have been paddling as long as you have been alive.  The Ottawa River is so diverse and so big that you can try new lines a lot of the days that you are here.  You can run a line one day with the biggest of waves then run the opposite side of the river and have more of a “creeking” experience.  Overall keeners program presents you with opportunity’s that you might never have at home. 

The First Weekend - Avi Patel

Avi Patel
22/07/2019
Keeners Blog Week 2

The First Weekend

    The weekend is very different than the weekdays. It is a time where everyone relaxes and recovers from the past week. This weekend I didn't get as much time to relax but instead got my Wilderness First Aid certification. The coarse was from 9 am to 4 pm for 2 days. It had positives and negatives, it was fun when we got to make splints and learning CPR, but oftentimes there was a lot of lecturing and became tiring. The weekend was hot reaching 40 celsius. After each day of training, I hung outside and watched people celebrate about how cool their hydro-dipped helmet looks. Also, I watched movies and enjoyed popcorn while learning about my new friends. A Keener's weekend is really useful, helping everyone step into a fresh new week.

Wilderness first aid - Gavin masters

Wilderness first aid was a vary fun experience. The hole corse is vary intriguing it is a two day class with fun interactive lessons. The instructors are vary interesting. I just recommend not using your phone during the class because it is disrespectful to the person that is trying to teach you something. In first aid you get to splint up your friends. You might strap them to a back board and cary them around. 

beat downs and rope knotting

Keeners Blog

#1. Beat down Thursday’s was probably the most exiting day yet. Swimming Phil’s first thing in the morning was pretty awful, but it really woke me up. We (tried) to surf Phil’s as well, and watching people go down right side was great, plenty of solid beat downs. I tried to surf left side, but flipped right above it and rolled into it, which was pretty terrifying. After that, I went down main side for the 1st time, and it was gnarly. We swam below Butchers Knife, where there are a few whirlpools, and they pulled us down to the bottom of the river and some of us stayed down there like almost a minute. Colosseum was crazy, the hole there was a monster. Really glad I skirted it, but Avi went straight through. After that, there wasn’t much of the river left. Right after dinner we learned some knots which was interesting, but now I know to never leave teenagers with a bunch of rope cause it’s gonna be bad.

Eggs - Anya Sachs

Unlike other summer camps, at keeners, we get to make our own breakfast. There is a lot of options that you can choose from for breakfast, with varying levels of difficulty. The easiest is cereal, or froot loops, and that seems to be a lot of what many people eat here everyday. Another good option is toast, which you can then spread peanut butter, jam, or my personal favourite, nutella on. But, unfortunately, you can't rely on nutella for nutritional value. So what I recommend to eat for breakfast is eggs. Eggs are an amazing source of high quality protein, and will keep you energized and feeling full until lunch. In two eggs, you can find 13 grams of protein. The protein found in eggs also contains all 9 essential amino acids, which are considered to be the building blocks for the body. In addition to protein, eggs contain nutrients such as iron, vitamins A, D, E, B12, and folate. Some ways to include eggs in your keener breakfast is to scramble them, and then add cheese, bacon bits, and salt and pepper. Or if you're feeling rushed in the mornings, you can hard boil a few eggs in the evening, put them in the fridge, and then eat one or two the next day. At keenerville, where you have limited ingredients, eggs are the key to having a healthy breakfast.

How to mentally prepare for a challenging rapid By Sam Sharp

Challenging rapids don’t always have to be class five. It can be anything that the person paddling the rapid is not used to or is just intimidating. The really hard thing on challenging rapids is to mentally prepare your self so that you are 100% confident because if you are not you most probably shouldn’t run the rapid. It is ok to be scared of a rapid but if you can not imagine yourself running a perfect line on the rapid you are not mentally prepared. Everyone has that one rapid that they find very challenging and just to be blunt, terrifying. It is sometimes hard to know when you are ready to run a rapid like this. People always say what rapids should I run before this to get ready and the truth is if you feel like this rapid is in your skill range the only thing you need to get ready is your brain. You need to get ready to go up to rapid and imagine yourself doing it perfectly if you can do that you are ready to run the rapid.

LIFE AS A CELIAC | By Nicolás Meire

My name is Nicolás Meire, I am 14 years old and I am from Barcelona, Spain. I was diagnosed of celiac disease when I was 6 years old. Celiac disease is a intolerance to gluten, a protein that is in cereals like wheat, barley and rye. This means that you can't eat foods like bread, cereal,pasta and all types of food that all the people like. The problem of that , is that you need to replace basic foods like bread for gluten-free bread, that's made of other cereals like rise. In Spain, it is complicate to find gluten-free products. Here in Canada and the USA it is much easier.

 In all supermarkets you can find gluten-free pasta and in all restaurants there is a lot of food that celiacs can eat. For example here in Keeners we eat pizza on Friday. In a normal camp in Spain if you are celiac and there is something with gluten to eat, you just need to eat another thing like vegetables. But here in Keeners I can eat gluten-free pizza on Friday, and I can eat a lot of other things that in Spain are really complicated to find, and that is really nice.

𝓝𝓘𝓒𝓞𝓛𝓐𝓢 𝓜𝓔𝓘𝓡𝓔

Competition day at keeners (Graeme Stevens)

Friday at keeners is no ordinary day. It's not race day, nor is it it beat down Thursday, no, Friday is competition day. Competition day is a day like no other, it is a day specifically built to challenge yourself, to discover and break boundaries. Competition day is when you are given two rides on a specific feature to score as many points as possible. each ride is filmed and point totals and criticism is given at the end of the day. This competition day we where given a choice of what feature we wanted to compete on, some chose corner wave, some chose right side horseshoe and some ( Like me ) chose baby face. Corner wave was a great wave, capable of giving good bounces and a good foam pile. The downside to corner wave is that it's very challenging to get on. Right side Horseshoe was also a great option, it was a very sticky hole, with a good surfers left pocket in which to throw tricks, however because it was so sticky and steep, some rides turned into beat downs. There where people who lost there paddle halfway through there ride, people who suffered window shade after window shade, but there where also very good rides with very good tricks. The top two rides where in horseshoe. The feature I chose to compete on was baby face. Sadly the level is a touch to high for baby face to be in, therefor it is very flushy because the wave is always greening out. Even though it wasn't perfect, baby face still provided okay bounces and a good foam-pile at time. If theirs one thing competition day has tot me it's that sometimes a competition is just an excuse to train and to learn new tricks. Some competitors might not have had good rides, but they might have learned new tricks in practice or they might have just enjoyed watching and supporting fellow competitors. all in all, I'm sure i speak for everyone when I say i can't wait for next Friday!!

Helmet Hit - Helen Engelhardt

On Day 2, when attempting to ferry across Corner Wave to Football Eddy, I accidentally went down Left Side Horseshoe. I flipped and rolled up twice when going down, but on the third time I flipped I hit my head really hard on the bottom and so I pulled my skirt.

I've never hit my head that hard before, and it scared me. I knew before that kayaking could be dangerous, but I hadn't ever had an experience that showed me first hand how easy it was to hurt yourself. 

It took away a lot of my confidence for the rest of the afternoon. I was terrified of anything happening again, terrified that I would hurt myself and not be able to paddle, or play violin, or go to school.

Learning in kayaking doesn't happen all at once; instead, it's composed of a multitude of little victories that eventually lead to cool new things. That afternoon, one of those victories was wearing a helmet. If I hadn't been, I probably wouldn't have been able to paddle the next day.

How to conquer your fear of big and scary rapids on the Ottawa - Walker Edens

Fear is good and bad. Fear greatly impacts your decisions. Fear is good because it keeps us alive and keeps us from doing dangerous things. Fear is bad because it keeps us from doing somewhat scary things that end up being fun things. For example Phil's Hole on the McCoy's Rapid looks very scary. When you watch videos of Phil's you see the worst of the worst beat-downs, but in reality most beat-downs only last 5-20 seconds. Big and scary rapids like Phil's Hole always end up fun. There are 5 steps you can take to determine if you should run a rapid. Step 1: Ask lots of questions about the rapid. Step 2: Watch people run the rapid. Step 3: Evaluate the dangers of the rapid and also try to find out how to avoid them. Step 4: Run and easier part of the rapid (if possible). Step 5: If you come to the conclusion that you know you can easily run the rapid but you and still scared of it then try to build up courage to run it. Step 5: Run the rapid. Most likely no matter what rapid on the Ottawa you are on it will end up lots of fun. Thanks for reading my blog!








                                                - Walker Edens

Race day Wednesday ~ By Nick Collier

Every Wednesday at Keeners we dedicate the entire day to fast lines and epic races. 

We started off the most recent Wednesday with a game of Sabre ball. This was ideal for getting the competitive vibes flowing. We then paddled over to McCoy’s rapid where we did the first only relay race of the day. The challenge of this race was that we had to look after a baton whilst kayaking, more importantly we had to avoid the various features that make up the McCoy’s rapid. This consisted of Phil’s hole and Saddler’s hole. The race went well with only 1 swim receiving huge cheers from the keeners.

The next race of the day was a timed race down through Garb. The challenges of this race was the seal-launch and ferry across the river. The results came in with Clay Wright taking the gold, followed by myself and then bronze was Sam Sharp.

In conclusion race day Wednesday is a sweet day designed to challenge the paddlers and encourage good paddle strokes and techniques.

what to expect on the Ottawa -Caleb Jatko

What to expect on the Ottawa

By: Caleb Jatko

  The Ottawa River is the best. It has so many amazing play boating features like corner wave, horseshoe, garb, chopping block, and so many more. One thing I like about the river is that you can just paddle casually or really push yourself and play. The first rapid is right at keenerville it’s called Mccoy’s , it has phil’s hole, corner wave, and horseshoe. After Mccoy’s there is a 20 minute flatwater paddle. Next is The Lorne it has garb and waikiki, both of them are good waves. After that their are a couple more features like push button and chopping block. Chopping block is one of the best waves on the Ottawa, you can do all wave tricks on it and you can get huge kick flips off it. The last 2 rapids are Norman’s and Colosseum. That is why the Ottawa is the best.

First Race day Season 2 - by Guillermo Meire

Today was our first race day and it was really fun. I think race days are very important, because we learn lots of things that will be very useful for our futures. Some of the thinks that we learn are studying the best and fastest lines in the rapist, when is more important to paddle hart and when you can relax a bit, how to make faster starts, what are the places where you don’t want to go if you want to go fast, ... . 

During the day we made three different races. The best one was probably the first o e, it was a race in teams of four. What you needed to do in this race, was going from the over part of Mccoys rapid into the football eddy that’s a very big eddy in the middle of the rapid. There you needed to touch a kayak, come out of yours, leave it on the side and run all the way up to the start where the next person of the team should be waiting for you.  160

The think was, that Mccoys has a lot of lines and each person has to choice the one that looked faster to him. Finally my team got the third position.

Now we all know better how to see the bests lines and all those things that I all ready said and had very very fun day.

Catching a sturgeon

On Monday the first day of keeners we split into two groups. One paddling the main and one paddling the middle. I went with the group going down the middle. We had lunch at the Garvins lunch site. As we were eating our burgers down by the water we saw a huge fin protruding out. As it got closer we realized that it was a huge sturgeon. We all despised that we had to catch it. Me and another keener waded into the water and herded it into a sheltered corner. And it took both of us to lift it up. I’d say it was at least 4 feet long. I’ve never seen a sturgeon before let alone catch one with my bare hands. Afterwords I found out that they are endangered and relieved how rare and cool the experience was.

First Race Day - Cashion Porter-Shirley

This was our first race day of session 2, and it was a blast. It started out with warm ups in the flat water that would help us in a real race. The first was a team race on McCoys, the first rapid. We spent a little bit of time scouting our lines and getting one practice lap each. The race itself was a blast. My team didn't do to well as we came second to last, but that did not matter to me. After that we did a little bit of playing in horseshoe and then scurried down to Lorne, the second rapid, ahead of the rafts. At Lorne, we did a mass start boater cross race. We had to paddle down and touch the right wall before making our way down through Waikiki and then touch Clay's boat. I had a great line and was rushing to beat fellow Keener, Guillermo, for the second place spot. I got to Clay just before him, but My hand let go of my paddle while I was reaching for his boat! This immediately disqualified me from the race, and the spot went to Guillermo. After lunch, we did a timed race on Lorne. The difference between boater cross races and timed races are that only one person goes at a time. This means that it only comes down to skill instead of the added obstacle of other boaters. In this race, I had a great line, but messed up the wall tap which caused me to lose a few seconds of time. I tried to make it up as best I could in which I did as I placed fifth. Now my back hurts, but I can't wait for more to come!

Keeners Race Day-Trey Harrell

Keener’s Race Day

Every Wednesday the keeners have a race day, where you race down rapids as teams or solo. We did three races at three different rapids. The first race was at McCoys and it was a team relay and we started at the top and went down to football eddy. Once we were in football eddy we had to go out of our boats and walk back to the top to hand our baton,  which was a foam sword, to our next teammate. Then my group went to lower garvins and did a ferry racer. We did a forward ferry to one side then backwards ferry back.

Then the third race was a boater cross down upper noname. The start was kind of unfair but it was fun. Race day has been my favorite day so far and I can’t wait for the next one.

How to hydro dip - T Buckley

This year at Keeners we taught ourselves how to hydrodip using spray paint. This is how you do it:
Step 1: Buy your paint. You need to buy your color paint, as well as primer and gloss.
Step 2: Use painter's tape to cover any part of your item you do not want to be colored (such as logos)
Step 3: Spray a coat of primer into your item. It doesnt have to be a thick coat, but it needs to cover the entire item. This will allow the color paint to stick better to the item. Wait for this to completely dry.
Step 4: Pick your colors, and spray them onto a tub of water. The tub doesnt have to be big, but big enough to fit your item. A large Tupperware container works well. Spray each color into the middle of the water. Once you have sprayed your colors for a few seconds each, wait for them to fill the surface.
Step 5: Dip your item. You have about 30 seconds after you spray the colors to dip your item, any longer and the paint will harden. Once you have fully dipped your item, move it around underwater to move extra paint from the water's surface.
Step 6: Once your color paint has fully dried, spray it with 1 or 2 sheets of gloss. The gloss will dry in less than an hour, but you need to wait a full 24 hours after glossing to use your item to prevent cracks in the paint.
Step 7: Enjoy your newly hydro dipped item.

The middle channel-Gavin Masters

Running the middle Chanel is fun and not too hard. There is a long paddle before the first rapid. Then there is the first rapid witch is a little funky but nothing that hard. What makes this rapid interesting is that it was formed to more easily move logs down the river. Then there is S-bend witch is an easy read and run withe a fun play hole at the bottom. After another half mile paddle on a flat section of river there is butterfly rapid witch is a wave or a hole depending on where you go. If you choose to take it safe and go to the right it will be a fun and enjoyable wave train. However If you choose to go left you might get surfed. Then there is a short half mile paddle to the lunch. Then you will paddle to a wave called infinity wave this is a vary good wave it is also vary fun. Then you will to upper no name and lower no name. After that at the bottom of the next rapid there is a big bad hole that you don’t want to be in call vampire. 

A typical day as a keener By:Kyle Cahn

On a typical day as a keener you’ll wake up at 7:45, you’ll hop out of bed and do a morning activity.  Some days it’s something like ultimate frisbee or maybe some yoga.  After that you head back to your cabins to make breakfasts. A normal breakfast is maybe cereal, eggs, or pancakes.  After that you have your cabin checked by a staff then you head out on the river.  What u do kayaking can vary day to day. Wednesday is race day, Thursday is big water bacon beatdown Thursday, and Friday is comp day.  On any of the days when you get to the lunch spot you you help make lunch for the rafters.  Then you’ll finish the run. After loading the trailer you’ll head back to keenerville where you get ready to head to dinner at Wilderness tours. After dinner you have time to hang out before lights out at around 10:30. That’s your typical day at keeners. 

How I Got Here Nigel Hocking

Nigel Hocking
16/07/2019
Keeners Blog Week 1

                                                          How I Got Here

          I first started Kayaking last year at Wilderness Tours teen camp. After completing two sessions I knew I wanted to come back. Kayaking was just too much fun. During my time in the teen camp I had seen keeners around in their unique black shirts and hoodies, but didn't really know much about the program. At the end of my two weeks here I had asked an instructor about the keeners. She told me it was a great program for enthusiastic paddlers wanting to improve. I knew could go but i needed to practice my rolls. This was hard considering I had no kayak, gear or river near me. After looking around i found a good deal at a Toronto paddle shop for a Jackson rockstar 4.0. With in a few months I had a paddle  and had driven up to a local lake to practice.
I have only been here in the keener program for two days, mostly running the middle channel, but it has already been a blast. Here there is many opportunities to learn new tricks and paddle rapids you would not normally paddle. I am really excited to continue with the rest of the session and to progress with my paddling.

Injuries Slater Wiles

I’ve had a lot of fun kayaking these past few days, which have been very eventful, 
but some things have been holding me back from really reaching my full learning 
 potential. In the form of injuries, my knees and especially my shoulders have been 
annoying me and would frequently cause pain. I hurt my knees a few weeks ago, 
by running on a treadmill and was barely able to walk for a full week because of it. 
Affecting me while I was in my kayak, the motion of pushing down with my legs 
attempting/learning to do tricks like a bow stall, would weaken my knees. For my 
shoulders, they would bother me every once in a while, which would further prevent 
me from trying anything not wanting to risk damaging it for longer. What I have 
i knobeen doing to make the most of every single day whilst not letting my minor 
injuries become any bigger and letting them heal, I have been really paying 
attention and listening to the advice that my coaches have been giving others, 
ias well as watching my fellow keeners constantly fail and succeed. In other words, 
to try and learn from their mistakes without having to put myself at risk. As far as 
how bad the pain feels, in the morning, they (as in my knees and shoulders) aren’t 
too bad, but the more we paddle, the worse they get. Thankfully, today was a lot 
better than yesterday, but everyday I seem to get hurt in a different place on my 
body. All in all, my coaches (especially James) have been helping me overcome 
this by assigning me certain stretches, that have seemed to help in the past day. 
Foam rolling as well had helped a lot. All I can do now is make sure that I heal 
and don’t let it take anything away from my experience.

A Peruvian kayaker in keeners. By Mar Casabonne

I started learning English when I was three years old, grammar , writing , speaking , listening, everything. So my English is pretty good, or at least I thought it was , until I arrived at keeners, and I heard the first river talk of the week. I had never been more lost before. Kayaking has been my life for the past two years, but every time I  went to the river, there was at least one Spanish speaker in the water with me, so all the kayaking concepts I know are in Spanish, or at least most of them. So listening to the coaches say all this things we had to do in the water, and being so lost , made me realize that if I didn’t start practicing my river language as soon as I could , I was going to be lost for the whole session. Three days have passed now, and I have learned a lot, I’ll go back home being a bilingual kayaker. So if you have any doubts about coming to keeners and not speaking English perfectly , don’t worry, you’ll learn a bit every day, all you have to do is ask and keep asking. 

The Boat is Key Avi Patel

Avi Patel
16/07/2019
Keeners Blog Week 1

The Boat is Key

When you are kayaking the most valuable object is your boat. You want it to be an extension of you, and it has to be perfect. On the first day everyone is getting your outfitted to them, trying to get it perfect. When I getting outfitted in the small boat it felt fine boat I was small in it. I added foam and padding, but all of that only helped so much. It was still not perfect. I thought I just had to get used to the boat, but it was much more. I struggled to throw my weight around in the boat and lost confidence. It just wanted to have fun, but I was too uncomfortable. I spoke to the counselor and they understood, the next day they helped. I got a new boat and was off, it fit me perfectly, and I was confident again. Always make sure your boat fits the way you want it, and you can always ask people for help.

Arriving at Keeners - Hannah Gazzard

Arriving at Keeners on Sunday I was so nervous, I didn’t know the river, the kids, or the coaches. Basically my parents were sending me off for three weeks and I had no clue what I was doing. I did know that I was very, very scared of the Ottawa rapids. I’m now three days into my stay at keenerville and I never want to leave.  Although I am extremely sore and tired I’m learning so much and so quickly. Every day is so much fun and I’m excited to see what I can accomplish by the end of this three weeks! Anyone coming to keeners in the future has very little to be worried about and lots to be excited for.

How to improve your skills at keeners by Grey Edens

 If you just wake up each morning and paddle the Ottawa rapids hoping you’ll magically learn moves, you won’t. When you want to learn a move as fast as possible, consult with the coaches and feel free to ask them what you can do to get a certain move. If you don’t do this - for example if you are trying to learn how to loop and you plug into a hole and throw forward hoping you’ll land the loop and not even ask the coaches how you can land it like a pro, you’ll never learn how to loop during your tenure as a keener. Another example of what would happen while attempting to throw a move such as an air screw in a wave, would be like if you were just bouncing up down in a wave and trying to back deck in mid-air and landing on your face. Then you try to airscrew again and again constantly landing on your face without even asking the instructor what you are doing wrong. It is MANDATORY that you ask the instructor what you are doing wrong and how you could improve unless you want to purposely never land an airscrew and land on your face. Personally, I go to keeners to improve my kayaking and have fun. But I can only improve my kayaking if I consult with instructors. This scenario is the same with other keeners. And this is how you learn fast in keeners. (By asking instructors what you can do to improve)

Collie swim - Elliot Gougeon

Blog 

Colli 

We started by scouting collisuem and then Steve-o said that we were swimming colli. my heart dropped and I started looking at the rapid in a whole new light. I was terrified, as we started to split up into groups I had no urge to swim it. We started to walk down to the edge of the river. The first group leaped into the river and with hoots and hollers they proceeded to swim down into the maw of the river. My group was up next, we started to one by one jump out into the river swimming towards the curler. As soon as we got swimming I realized that I was far behind the other swimmers and I was going much slower than them. I punched through the first curler and then I swam hard right but I did not swim far enough. I looked forward and saw the mouth of big Kahuna open up and swallow me. I heard the walla walla walla for about 10 seconds and was able to swim up to the top but then was shoved under again. I arose from the foamy depths and did not know were I was. I tried to swim but was completely gassed , I missed the eddy and realized I was in a bad place. I tried to swim right, my back missed the eddy and swam some of dogs leg. Luckily Adrian was able to get me before I swam any further. 

I’m not that strong of a swimmer.