The Last Thursday By: West Burge

           We did a multitude of things that scared or challenged me on the this Thursday. The day started just as a normal Thursday should start, with a good hardy breakfast. I continued my trend of experimenting with different pancake and waffle types. For breakfast we had chocolate strawberry waffles and fried eggs. I cooked for most of the morning and then squeezed in a little bit of time to eat and clean at the end. All the Keeners met in the thunder dome to have a morning meeting before we kayaked. We talked about how to stay stoked for the last few days of paddling. Stevo put it this way, "When you go home you will spend all of your time thinking about the Ottawa River. You will miss it, you will wish to be playing happily in it. Then you will think about how you wasted the last three days of Keeners sitting on the side of the river watching other people doing fun things. Then you will wish you had done the fun things that the other Keeners had done". On that note we headed up to Phill's hole to start off thursday. There were some pretty epic beatdowns. After that we headed down to lunch and then to Braindoosh. Once we had played there for a little while, we headed down stream to Coliseum for a quick swim. I was really scared of this at first, but eventually I got over my fear and sent it. This was probably one of the coolest things that I have done in my life. It was pretty awesome. My point of this article is to make the most out of the days you have at Keeners. Somebody had to work really hard to send you there, and you better make the most of that $999 dollars a week.

How Trying New Rivers Helps Kayaking Overall, By: West Burge

Do you ever wonder why more experienced boaters are generally better? Well, I think I have the answer. I think that they are better because they have done more rivers. If you have paddled lots of rivers, that means you have had to deal with many challenges. You will have dealt with challenges like unknown rapids, unexpected holes, pinned boats, and most other things that can go wrong. Dealing with challenges can make you a better kayaked because you are more confident in your skills.  This means that you can boat scout better because you know you can paddle up when you are done looking at the line. It also means that you don't freak out when you get in a swift water rescue scenario.  That can help because you can generally stop things from going more wrong quicker. This skill can, in the rare occasion saved lives. The sport that we participate in has a lot of risk involved so it is always better to be cool, calm, and collected whenever we go boating. When you achieve the rank of an experienced boater you will be more efficient in rapids. Trying new rivers can help you become more experienced, and a stronger boater. New rivers might have new features, that you might not have on the rivers you usually paddle. This will help you figure out how to deal with new features any time you come across one. I have tried a few new rivers where I live and never have been let down. Try as many new rivers as you can, and remember to have fun!