Race Day Wednesday By Canon Shaw

Hi my name is Canon Shaw and I am 16 from Ithaca New York. This is my second year at Keeners and its only gotten better since last time. Ive been kayaking for about 3 years and have kayaked all around the South Eastern US, Colorado and here on the Ottawa river. Wednesday Race day was today and it is one of the days where we specifically focus on our down river racing skills and techniques, starting with our basic strokes and through out the day moving up to an actual race where we competed in heats of four to 6 people at a time. All in all it was a very fun and Adrenaline filled day on the water here at keeners.

weekend

So we have just finished our second weekend at keeners and the past few days here have been really laid back and filled with a lot of kayaking. This weekend we finally completed the ramp so that we have a cool and stylish way to enter the water. The ramp is a big slide made out of wood that has a ramp at the end so that you can slide down and off into the water, which makes it a lot more fun to get into the water. The ramp is also a great way to learn tricks like blunts and airscrews the only problem is you have to walk the boat back up every time, or you can do it like me: just pull your boat back up the ramp using a rope. 

The Keener Ramp: Ready and Waiting! 

As you may already know we are allowed to go kayaking on the weekend with out coaches, but the thing is is that you have to have 3 friends to go down the river and you only need 2 to go to the rapid right next to keenerville. Being able to go out with friends allows you to go to a certain wave you like and with only three people its a lot smaller line. Having a smaller line means you can progress faster, and learn more.