Clay's Coaches Report Session #2

My first session up here with the Keeners we had some really strong paddlers and a lot of Keeners perfecting their rolls and learning the basics of ''head down while rolling and bracing'' and ''Look Upstream when doing freestyle tricks or surfing'' before moving on to roundhouses, some blunts, and lots of spins.  We seal launched rocks to practice waterfall technique, swam rapids intentionally, talked a lot about river running trip etiquette and of course surfed our brains out as Garb was perfect!

  This second session has just started and we happen to have MANY of the same Keeners as well as some really experienced new arrivals.  While all the kids are great people, I especially enjoy the novelty of coaching more advanced techniques and pushing the challenges of boat control on this higher level.   New to the Team are the ''french connection:''  Lea and Claire - two very talented junior slalom racers who are taking an interest in freestyle and river running, and the Kellog Show:  Grady, Brody and Katy Kellog who are top-notch junior freestyle paddlers from the same very large traveling family.   It's been really fun to see these french girls take 1st place in the races (beating out the boys) and now the Kellog's are forcing Kalob, Tim, Jordan and everyone else to really step up their game.

Today was beatdown Thursday and we focused on some strategies:
1. Visualize Success
2. Look for opportunities
3. MAKE opportunities happen.

These points can be used in all sorts of kayaking but also school, dating, job interviews, and the rest of life.  To test their grasp on these points we surfed some of the biggest holes in the river and the lesson seems to have paid off - only 5 swims in spite of more ''right side phil's'' surfs than I've ever seen!  I was really impressed with the kids' ability to keep focused in the face of utter chaos and proud of the tremendous gain the returning Keeners have made in terms of control and panic management since just last week.

  That's all for this blog report, thanks for listening and hope to see you on a river.

Clay Wright

Nicole Dannecker Week 6 Blog

Playing the game of "war" as part of a morning activity.

Hey everyone its Nicole again here with my sixth week keener blog! Its hard to believe that it is already the beginning on the last week of second session I guess its true when they say time flies when you’re having fun, especially since our amazing keener mom Anna Bruno helps us make the most of our keener experience both on and off the water by giving us solid advice and planning extra activities for us to do such as our Wal-Mart/Movies trip or taking us to the Beachburg fair this past Friday. Keeners would truly not be the same without her in the family. Then there are our amazing keener coaches Clay Wright, Tyler Curtis, Devyn Scott, Claire O’Hara and Stephen Wright, unfortunately Stephen and Claire will be leaving us this week. I for one have learned so much from them and I hope to paddle with them again one day! The coaches are one of the reasons that this program is so truly unique, they are some of the best paddlers in the world and they are able to relate to us when teaching us tricks whether it be getting a loop, or trying to get onto a wave that you can't seem to catch. They push us to strive to do our best and I have never achieved more in my kayaking career than I have this summer under their guidance and assistance.

          Though there are many challenges while in this program from the physical challenges such as paddling every day for three weeks to the mental challenges such as the Monday night speeches I could not think of a better way to spend my summer! The encouraging environment that surrounds all of us while we are here makes it easy to try new things or get up and speak in front of all of the keeners that you have only known for a couple weeks and feel comfortable and confident. The keener program is truly the experience of a life time and I am truly grateful to all of the people who made it possible for not only me but the other keeners to come and have this experience. 

Nicole Week 5

       Hey everyone its Nicole again with my weekly keener post. Its been a great week getting to know all of the new keeners who came for second session. Even though it was hard to say goodbye to the keeners from first session, I feel like this session is gonna be great and we will love it! I was really happy this week because I finally got the hang of getting my bow stall and surfing on push button!

Next week I hope to get surfs on Garb and maybe I could even get closer to getting a cartwheel on Push Button. I am really excited to meet the keeners who are arriving this weekend and I am sure that they will fit right in to our Keener family. I would like to thank all of our coaches, Anna, the WT staff, and all of the keeners who have made this possible and my parents for putting up with my endless rants on how excited i am to be here and of course giving me this amazing opportunity!

Jahn Pearson week 1

Hey guys its Jahn with the weekly post on Wednesdays. I thought instead of talking all about the paddling, I would talk about keener living. Keener living is truly amazing because you are right next to MCoy's and even better, baby face a really great wave. When you first get to keeners you will meet Anna your keener mom. Anna is a really good boater and a nice person in general.

Anna working in the Thunderdome. 

The accommodations at Keenerville are great ! You will be assigned a cabin which has 3 rooms with two beds a piece and a common area with a kitchen, couch and tv,  a bathroom and a kitchen table. I am living in Whitehouse, Yakistan belongs to the girls, and then there is Robertson's and Istanbul. Once you are here you will paddle with some of the greatest paddlers in the world. I must say that it is very humbling to paddle with such great paddlers. A side note is that no matter what, you will have an extremely hard time sleeping the first 2 nights.

On a personal note, I would like to thank my parents for allowing me to come here: dad I appreciate you.

David Aka muzzy thanks for the yo-yo and the stuff i really appreciate it.

Till next Wednesday- Jahn.

Nicole McCaw's Last Blog Post

Playing the Rock Games

     Hey everyone! This week at Keeners has been amazing as usual! From our first day on the water with our coach Clare O'Hara to Race Day, Big Water Bacon Beatdown, and Competition Friday.

   
 Unfortunately we have had to say good-bye to our amazing coaches Stephen Wright, and Clay Wright (no relation), and Clare O'Hara I am very excited to go into the next week with our new Keeners Luca, Eli and returning Keener Kira! We are also going to go on a road trip this week on Wednesday either to Lachine, or The Seven Sisters! I am really happy going into my last week of Keeners and I am looking forward to all of the new experiences that I will have! It's gonna be awesome! 

Going for Downtime at Brain Douche. 

   I am so grateful to my parents for sending me here for six weeks! This has been an experience of a lifetime and I hope that I can come back next year!