The more Chaos the more fun by Wil Scouten

Every time you attend Keeners, whether you attend first, second, or third session, who you end up with is a toss-up. There’s always questions like: who will I be rooming with? Are they messy? Do they cook? Can they McNasty? Even though the outcome is unpredictable, I’ve found that some of the people you meet while at Keeners will become your lifelong friends and paddling buddies. I’ve especially noticed this with bigger groups. You might be thinking, how is having a bigger group better? Let me explain with three reasons. Number 1: bigger groups, even if they’re messier and louder, give you more chances to make friends. Sure, smaller groups might seem easier for getting close with people, and that can be true, but large groups give you the chance to meet way more people. Even if not everyone clicks with you, the odds of finding people you get along with are just better. Number 2: more people means more hands to clean. Yeah, bigger groups can make a bigger mess. But I’ve found that the more people there are, the more likely it is that someone’s willing to help clean up or actually care about leaving a space better than they found it. Usually it’s the older Keeners, but sometimes the younger ones step up too as the session goes on. Number 3: you get to learn more. When there are more Keeners, Wilderness Tours brings in more coaches. It usually works out to about five Keeners per coach. That means even if the attention is split, you end up getting tips and advice from more people with different styles. And it’s not just the coaches. A lot of Keeners are super down to help each other out and share what they know. In the end, I think big Keener groups are better. More people to clean with, more people to be friends with, and more people to learn from.