Success At Last - Nathan Bond

Over my two years here at Keeners the one trick I have persistently worked towards is the blunt.  A blunt, if you are not familiar, is a hundred-eighty degree rotation around the bow of the boat initiated by edging on a bounce and quickly switching edges.  This trick has given me nightmares ever since I learned of its existence last year at Keeners.  I have been unable to fully achieve it and end up with the less impressive version of the blunt; a roundhouse.  Saturday, a group of fellow Keeners and I paddled down to Minibus for a laidback weekend session.  The lines were short and the rides were almost back-to-back, despite it being the middle of the day on the weekend, allowing lots of quality practice.  Then... it happened.

Needless to say I went pretty huge.  I have no idea what it was that immediately allowed me to get it but right after that blunt I got another left blunt on the same ride.  We went to lunch shortly after my great ride and more than half the group was eager to return to Keenerville.  Me and a few others were persistent and got just enough Keeners to stay with us.  After lunch it happened again.  This time though it was CLEAN, meaning no paddle blade touched the water.  Somehow, overnight, something must have clicked because all the sudden I can blunt and it feels good.  The moral of this story is to continue working towards your goals even if it may seem you'll never reach them because eventually you will just as I finally blunted after a year of failure.

How to do the best trick ever!!

How to Pan am!

A pan am is a super fun trick that is surprisingly easy to learn if you know already know how to air blunt! A pan am is a over vertical air blunt, the boat must be inverted and rotate 180 degrees while landing upright in a back surf or side surf. It is by far one of my best tricks as well as one of my all time favorites. Not to mention it looks awesome on the water! The steps to pan am are simple, yet they can become very complex if you make them.

1. Practice doing the blunt motion in the flat water.
2. Cycle to the top of the wave and charge down the wave on edge. Practice this step often so you make sure you can get good air.
3. Once you charge down on the wave on a edge and can get air, do the blunt motion.
4. As you air blunt, push on the paddle blade to turn the boat backwards, and flip your boat on top of you.
5. Once you are upside down, crunch with all your might to pull the boat underneath you. As you crunch, rotate the paddle blades so the water can pass under them, but you can still power the boat under you. 
6. Add a recovery stroke if needed!

While those steps may seem hard, once you break them down they are surprisingly easy. Then all you have to do is put them all together on the wave and you are all set!

The secret to doing a pan am is get the best take off possible. The best take off’s consist of hard edging, a strong initiation stroke. Most importantly do a pan am you need the confidence to flip the boat over on the wave. The pan am is a instant hit once you do it, and will absolutely “wow” your friends. The Keener program is a awesome way to learn this trick and many others, while you get to paddle sweet waves! Hope to see you out on the water!

Jacob Walker

Another Great Week on the Ottawa

Hey readers, back again at the end of my second week at Keeners.

        After another week has past I continue to improve my paddling skills and building relationships with my fellow Keeners. With my shoulder back to 100% and getting lots of time to rest on the weekend I was reading to tackle week 2. The highlights began on race day when we had a relay race through the Mcoys rapids. But the exchange between our second and third racer went bad and all hope of winning the race had been diminished. Further down river at the Lauren we had yet another race yet this time the race was timed one after another my team and I ran the pipeline touching a coaches boat on the right shore then ferrying across to the moby dick rock and touching another coaches boat. Story of my life out of 5 teams my team and I came last yet again with a time of 4mins 22secs. As the winning team achieved a time of 3mins 53secs.

         Big water bacon beatdown Thursday sucked for me missing both of my lines and simply floating downstream with no resistance both times!! Things picked up for me again on Friday with competition day after about 15 surfs in morning practice I was beginning to get get tired of the same thing over and over. So my coach Steve-o and I devised the plan that I would hand surf into pushbutton and while on the wave I would throw Steve-o a throw rope while he sits in an eddy up stream. After three failures in succession i decided to give up on the idea, especially after Steve-o said "you have not yet developed the level of tom foolery needed". After the episode of failure was over I still decided to spend the rest of the morning session hand surfing achieving more and more failure. This wrapped up the week and perpared me for antother weekend of rest.

Till next time, Aidan