How to be Stephen Wright - Bennett Fleming

Of all the wonderful aspects of keeners, one of the best would be the coaches. Be it Joel Kowalski or Nick Troutman, all the coaches at keeners are top notch, but none stand out more than Stephen Wright. In my opinion he is the best coach here at keeners, and to pay tribute to his greatness I have created a simple yet effective guide on how to be Steve-O.

Step 1: Be short and bald.
Two of the most defining traits of our fine coach would be his small stature and his striking hair (or lack thereof). If you are naturally short and bald, good job! You have completed step one. For others, some measures may need to be taken. The hair can be attained by simply by shaving the top of your head, but there are options if you are tall. One option is to crouch. Another way is to chop your feet off, a piece of advice Steve-O once gave to keeners that could not fit in their boats. After completion of step, you may proceed to...

Step 2: Give advice.
Here it starts to get more difficult. The trick here is to give advice whether it be good advice, bad advice, or absolutely terrible advice. Some notable examples include: how to cheat at the garbage game, how to lose races, the aforementioned height trick, and various other actual pieces of advice that would help one kayak. Once the tips you give to people around you have them either A: stare at you in disbelief, B: laugh, or C: run away, you have completed step 2 and may proceed to...

Step 3: Be good at kayaking. Like really good.
I'm not joking. Be REALLY good. This includes, but is not limited to: creek boating, hole boating, wave boating, squirt boating, etc. The key to this step is to practice. A lot. Once you have become fantastic at all these types of boating and more, you may proceed to step 4...

Step 4: Smile.
Alright, sarcasm aside, Stephen Wright is an amazing person and one of my personal role models. It doesn't matter if he's critiquing you, telling you to clean up, or even trying to get excited for your own future failures, any action that Steve-O does is never without a smile. I honestly have no tips other than be the best person you can be and smile in whatever you do.

Congratulations! If you successfully complete theses four steps, you will be a short, bald, ,smiling, and wise kayaker that may or may not resemble Stephen Wright. For further tips, try living in a van, or owning a black dog named Black Dog. In the odd yet lovable place that is keeners, you can find the odd yet lovable coach that is Stephen Wright.

Thanks for reading,

Bennett Fleming

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.

Vince's back

Hey its Vincent again. This week has been great. On bigwater beatdown bacon
Thursday I had the opportunity to run Big Trickle. It is a nice little technical creeky run. We all had great lines. Friday was comp Friday. I ended up with a 0. My loop wasn't quite straight enough and didn't get quite around for my Felix. Even so, it was great to see everyone try tricks! Saturday and Sunday was first aid certification. We were learning how to deal with scenarios that my come up in life and on the river. Next, on Monday we all had a great time on the river. On Tuesday, we had SRT. We all learned to throw ropes and be more helpful on the river. Race day Wednesday was another fantastic day we had a race on little trickle and I didn't do as well as I liked but it was pretty fun! To conclude our day we split into groups. Some people raced on Upper No Name and Lower No Name. Andrew won for the second time for race day. On the other race it was a run to the start and into our boats. Jordan and Gabriel were the winners of that.

 My blunts are getting closer and bow stalls are getting closer. By the end of keeners I am hoping to blunt consistently, airscrew, helix/Felix, flatwater loop, and any other tricks I can get. With our keener coaches Stephen, Juanita, Devin, and Tyler. So far keeners has been an experience of a lifetime and still stoked from much more!

Vincent- Week 1

Hey this is Vincent from CT. This is my first year at keeners and I am loving it!  On monday we went down the middle channel. It was great because the level was at 14 feet. Tuesday we went down the same channel and I had the opportutinty to run Little Trickle. It is a little technical rapid that is a lot of fun. We did some surfing on Angels Kiss, which is a smooth glassy wave. Over those 2 days I have been working on my blunt and trying to double pump my bow. I am making progress each day with the amazing coaching I am lucky to have. Today was Race Day Wednesday. Our race was on Lower No Name, which is the last rapid on the Middle. We all had a great time. I managed to get 5th in the B finals in the race and hoping to progress next week with racing. Lets see what rest of this week brings and have some intense beatdowns for big water beatdown thursday.