How to tie your own harness

Tying your own personal harness can be very important for many things in the sport of kayaking and in many other ways as well. Tying your own harness can be important for rappelling, taking photo/video, or even for scouting a drop where you want to lean over a cliff edge safely. Tying your own harness is very simple and safe when done right.

The first step of tying a harness is to make an overhand knot in your piece of webbing.

Next take the rope and make an overhand knot on a bite. The key to do this is to make it big enough to slide on your leg but not too large that it is loose.

Tie another overhand knot on a bite the same size as the first one about a fist length away.

Now slide the harness onto your legs and do the rest standing up to prevent the harness from being too tight.

Take the long end of the webbing and wrap it around your waist once. make sure it wrapped above your hips because otherwise the harness will fall off.

Next wrap the end through the piece of webbing connecting the two leg loops and around your waist again.

Repeat at least three or four times. The key to this is making them relatively tight so you are secure.

Take the two ends of rope and connect them together using a water knot. Again it is important to make them tight but not uncomfortable. If need be you can always get someone else to help you.

Now you have a fully functional harness. When attaching to the harness make sure to clip through both loops to ensure safety.

Goal Setting at Keeners

Goal setting is an extremely important aspect of kayaking because it is the only way you will ever improve your skills and become a better paddler. Even the best of the best kayakers have ways they could improve their skills and set goals.
 The purpose of goal setting however is not to set an unreachable goal such as learning an airscrew if you have never surfed a wave before but something more attainable and specific such as learning how to cycle on a wave so you can progress towards bigger tricks.

The best goals may not even be to get an airscrew on Corner Wave or get a spin at S-bend. The best goals are ones that are specific such as improving your edge to edge transfer for a blunt or roundhouse, or about remembering to throw your body under you in an airscrew instead of out to the side. The point of goal setting is to make you work for something but also to reward you for achieving your goal so you can work towards your next one.

The Middle Channel of the Ottawa River

        For those of you that are unaware, the Ottawa River Rocher Fendu section consists of two white water channels that kayakers as well as rafters run. The Main Channel, which is where most of the water flows meaning higher volume rapids, larger holes and waves, deeper and faster moving water. There is also the Middle Channel which is much lower volume with much shallower and generally shorter rapids. Although the Middle Channel may seem less interesting, It is still a fantastic place to challenge yourself and practice some skills. Some of these reasons include:

Map of the Rocher Fendu Section

1. There still are large rapids.
        The Middle Channel consists of one of the largest and most difficult rapids on the Ottawa River called Garvin's. This rapid contains three main lines that may challenge you all in different ways. ST Chute is the river left most channel which is a small chute with a giant hole at the bottom. Although the hole is very flushy, making it through upright is always a challenge. The other middle section is called dragons tongue, which within itself  has two lines, the main tongue with a small drop at the end and also the Boof of Destiny. This line has always been the result of lots of carnage and people getting worked. The river right most line is called Elevator Shaft, which at the current level is completely dried up but at higher water is a fun rock slide.

2. There are plenty of spots to play.
        The Middle Channel consists of many play spots with virtually no line up the majority of the time. The holes, although shallower and smaller are a difficult place to practice skills, The kayaker must be in complete control of their boat as flushing is very easy. Although this may not seem very appealing, it helps improve a kayakers ability to understand and be aware of what is around them or risk flushing off of the wave or out of the hole. These holes are also deep enough to do every trick imaginable without risk of anything down stream and the eddies are also fairly large so it is rarely a challenge to catch them even if you miss one or two rolls. 

3. There are still opportunities to get worked and challenge yourself. 
        When a group of us went down the Middle Channel on Tuesday, some of us decided to try to do a boof off the side of a rapid called Butterfly. Virtually everyone followed our instructor Kalob Grady through a line that we thought was the line we were supposed to run, however he was trying a new line and ended up getting worked. Not knowing what the actual line was, all of us followed him and got a good beatdown. 

        Although many people opt to run the Main Channel as they feel it may be more of a challenge, The Middle Channel is always a fantastic option to improve your skills and have a fun day. It is always how you make of the day and how you use your time to become the best that you can be with what is given to you. It is also always a fantastic idea to try and challenge yourself in new holes and new waves so you learn how to read the water and not just understand the one play spot you spend all of your time in. 

Carnage on Beatdown Day

Big Water Beat Down Bacon Thursday, as mentioned in past articles, is a way to test yourself and become comfortable in very uncomfortable situations such as getting worked in a hole or pour over. This definitely came into play when we ran the Upper Pettawawa river on Wednesday. Three of the people from our group decided to follow each other down a rapid that we had somewhat scouted ahead of us. Our leader Joel had run the rapid ahead of us and he said it was good to go. Three of us followed each other into this big hole which was hidden from above and all three of us got a decent beat down. Luckily we were all very comfortable in this situation and we knew we could just try and wait it out. Luckily all of us got flushed fairly quickly and were able to roll up afterwards without much harm.

This beat down day was definitely a sight to be had,  with the water level lower than last time we had beat down day, Phil's hole, especially right side Phil's has become a lot more retentive. Today we had a ton of people getting absolutely destroyed in right side Phil's with a number of people also getting beat down in Satler's. Juanito started the day of with an amazing beat down in Satler's throwing a awesome loop and getting tumbled eventually breaking a paddle. We knew it was bound to be an awesome day. With points up for grabs for best beat down, and it being the last week, people went as hard as they could leading to their being around 7 swimmers, a number of people ending up hand surfing, and a lot of people getting tumbled. I had an amazing beat down where I started of in a surprisingly controlled surf, then getting tumbled, eventually loosing my paddle and hand surfing for a bit. I ended up surfing upright sitting on the back of my kayak, my skirt at my thighs before trying to pull my skirt, getting flipped upright and then dry exiting. Although I wasn't having much fun during the beat down, thinking about it now I find it quite a fun experience and a fun way to bond with my piers. And I ended up getting my team 300 points :).

Keener's Night Out

Every session, halfway through the second week, the Keeners take a trip to Walmart to buy some food and/or 'necessities'. For the trip all 20 of us hoarded into Walmart, and headed straight for the food isles. Teenagers being teenagers we grabbed as much junk food as we could; Fruit Loops, Freezies, chips, Twinkies, you name it. As you can imagine, not many of us will be sleeping due to the amount of sugar intake that will likely occur. A couple of us decided to buy some funny things for beatdown day, these included a reflective vest, a boogie board, a pink floaty for little kids, and a foam sword. These were bound to make for a fun beatdown day and they sure did. After the trip to Walmart, the Keeners headed to the mall food court for dinner and to watch a movie. After a very quick dinner as we were late for the movie we went into the movie theater to watch 22 Jump Street. Although not necessarily the most appropriate choice for camp, the majority of the Keeners enjoyed the movie. All in all it was a fun experience for everyone and a great change in our daily evening activities.

My keener experience so far has been incredible and I can't wait for the next 4 weeks that I am here. I have learned so much since being here from coming in with not much experience to beginning to understanding the basics of wave and hole boating, to almost having a bow stall, to learning about running rapids and choosing lines to run. Although I am missing being at home, I am very happy that I came here to become a better kayaker.

Connor's perspective on BWBDT

Listening to Joel describe Phils Hole

My name is Connor and I am from Toronto, Canada. This is my first time at Keeners and so far the experience has been amazing. Although I have only been at Keeners for two days due to exams, I have learned so much and made so many new friends. After having only been whitewater kayaking for a week after doing the WT Teen Camp last summer, Big Water Beatdown Day was definitely an intimidating challenge for me. Even though I was nervous about every rapid today I had the most incredible time. After being upside down in basically every rapid today, surfing left side Phil's  and running Coliseum were definitely two huge highlights of my day. Having so many friendly, supportive and knowledgeable faces, not just with the instructors but with the other Keeners as well, made the day so much easier and so much more fun for me. All in all, a fantastic beatdown day for everyone.