Nicole Week 6

Alright Keeners! Its been a great first two sessions but its time to move into a new session and it’ll be great you’ll love it. Though it has been sad to see the Keeners that we have grown close with from session two go I am really looking forward to meeting the keeners who are arriving for third session. As I am already talking to you about how sad it is to see the keeners from last session go yet happy to see the new keeners come I am going to touch on something that is often overlooked in the blogs, rather than talking about our week and what we did every day and how amazing the kayaking is; I am going to talk about the physiological aspect and friendship building that goes on in Keeners.

As you know here at Keenerville we are thrown together in houses (Yakistan, White House, Robertson’s, and Istanbul) without knowing each other and suddenly you are expected to share a room with a stranger, and a bathroom, kitchen and common space with six. Not only that but you are expected to share the chores and food, all of these things present challenges as sometimes the people you are living with may not be the type of people you would become friends with at home. I feel like this is one of the most amazing parts about the keener program, you get to meet all of these amazing people who you may never have talked to had they not come to this program the main basis of conversations being kayaking at first then you begin to realize that you actually have something in common with this person who you met a week ago. I have personally seen these friendships bring people out of their shells and make them more comfortable in a social environment.

Scouting at McCoys

The best part of all of the friendships you make at Keeners is that they carry over into everything that you do and it gives you connections world wide for example, in first session I met two people from Norway and two people from Costa Rica, then second session someone from Switzerland with both sessions having multiple keeners from across North America. This is amazing because now I have people to call who may be able to lead me down new rivers and I already have trust in them and know their skill level so it is better than having a stranger lead me down the river.

Thanks for listening

-Nicole

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!