Down the Rabbit Hole - Holly Wilson

     One of the few on going jokes here at keeners between me and a few others has been "Welcome to the Rabbit Hole".
   
      Now before I begin explaining this, this is my first year at keeners. I have always seen and admired kayakers from afar for a long time. I have been coming to Wilderness Tours since I was approximately ten years old but only for rafting and every trip I would see these people in small boats chatting with any rafter or other boater that came across like they were best friends. Looking back I'm not sure if I was more interested in the lifestyle or the kayaking, but overall it lead me to want to kayak for years. Finally, last year, after years of begging, I was enrolled in the Teen Resident Camp here at WT and fell in love with kayaking.

     This is essentially where the "Rabbit Hole" joke begins. As I begun kayaking I quickly learned that almost everyone in this sport is crazy in their own beautiful way. Most of the people in Teen Camp were strange insane weirdos who knew how to have a good time and make a good time out of a situation that wasn't too happy. Those who knew how to have a good time though made the best of camp and made it that much more enjoyable and crazy. Now take all of those who knew how to have a good time put them all in one camp. Except instead of about six crazy teens you now have twenty-one who all get along and are insane in their own special way and you have the session 2 of 2015 keeners.

     This is where the "Rabbit Hole" joke truly began. Already on the first day I realized what a crazy bunch we truly were and made the joke that "we're going down the rabbit hole" as a reference towards the Alice in Wonderland  book. One keener, named Hunter Gibson turns to me ad says "No welcome to the rabbit hole". I have realized over the past week that this statement is extremely true. Not only do you have "to be off your rocker to want to white water kayak", as once said by fellow keener Charlie Barbera, but the wonderful adventures and memories Alice makes while in Wonderland also apply to this program. It may only be week one but I have already found friends who accept me for my odd traits and have their own and also friends who will last more than just this session.

     Overall, although it may seem slightly inappropriate to use the "Welcome to the Rabbit Hole" reference when talking about keeners at first, when thought is put into the joke it is actually a wonderful testament to the adventures and insane (meant in both ways) people working and living here with us this session at keeeners.

~ Holly Wilson

Tom Schwartz first week back at Keeners

Hello everybody, I am Tom Shwartz and I am from Massachusetts. This is my second year at keeners and I am pumped to be back. The first week here was fresh because of so many awesome thingsv like getting knew tricks, running new lines and just other random things. Also the river feels brand new every few days since the water level is dropping so fast. When I first got here two Sundays ago the water level was around ten and three-quarters and now it’s already down to around three and a half which is crazy since it has only been around a week. 

First of all I won big water beat down Thursday because I got whooped in right side Phils while having the selfie cam, which unfortunately was not on. So I could not the get footage of it, but I still enjoyed getting tumbled there. 

Also I had a fresh swim with Jordan to the gauge on Saturday after a day of paddling. Where we discover that with my lifeproof case we could listen to music underwater as long as our ears were also underwater. Which made the fact that my arms were so tired and I had to basically kick the whole way much better. After the swim we chilled on the rocks till pizza came for dinner. 

Later me, Hamish, Jeremy, and Maurissio went out to paddle Corner Wave because we it had just become good to surf. There was some good spins and blunts being thrown from every one. I brought my speakers along so we jam while surfing. Also got some pretty fresh pictures while we were out there. 

Mauricio Jamming out at Corner Wave

In addition to all of these fresh things happening this weekend my lifejacket tan is at its initial stages which consists of sun burns on my shoulders, arms, and anywhere else my pfd doesn’t cover. All of this should eventually turn into a nice lifejacket tan. So all in all I had a pretty sweet first week back at keeners and am amped for the next two weeks. 

Happy ending ! (Léa)

It's already the end of this amazing adventure on the Ottawa river. I'll miss this place and most of all every single person I met. It was super cool to share the love of Whitewater.

Last Wednesday was the best day ever, the trip to Lachine ! The waves there are awesome, and it's really spectacular to paddle in front of skyscrapers. Also we had a super good weather. All the conditions were gathered to make us spend an amazing time surfing Big Joe. I really enjoyed surfing with my sister, both of us shouting for joy. I'll come back there for sure !

Last but not least Big Water Beat Down Bacon Thursday. Actually it was the best one. I went to right side Phils for an awesome and also interminable hand surf. After spending a good minute in, my boat was full of water and then hand rolling was quite hard. It finally turned out well after many attempts. I had a huge headache all the day long due to the flow's violence but it definitely worth it.

For our last day on the water, my sister and I decided to do some topo duo -mainly because our boats had already been taken- It was a kind of surf and roll session. I had the most hilarious moment of my life underwater. We went for a surf on right side Horseshoe and then we flipped over, however we didn't have decided yet which side to roll. So we individually tried to roll on different sides for a long time until we finally synchronized our paddle stroke and were on the same side. It might have been really fun to see the boat moving any old how according to the laugh of the other paddlers.

-Léa

Swimming the Lorne

Léa's first play boating feelings !

Hi everybody !

Here I am, at the Keener program, discovering for my first time freestyle pleasures. What was quite unthinkable a few days ago as I still were in France. Actually I decided to join this program two days before its beginning to develop new kayak skills and especially to play differently with the water than I am used to as a slalom paddler.
   My first days in that type of boats were awesome, and full of new feelings. Also the place is magic, beautiful landscapes, incredible waves, and world-renowned paddlers. It's maybe the best river I've ever run, and the most complete one. Loads of different types of waves as well as right side Phils were I got hardly beat down -amazing feeling of getting out of control by the way-
   Yesterday was Freestyle Friday, so I competed on Garb -which is truly my favorite wave- and made some spins and roundhouses. Next goals ? probably blunt and donkey flips, but still training some basics before trying some new tricks, and of course improve my english level as well.

David Koyrakh's Post

Hey, my name is David. I am 14 years old, from Minnesota, and this is my first time at OKS.

I got into kayaking after going to the Banff Mountain Film Festival's Radical Reels tour about a year and a half ago. The videos showed me how amazing kayaking is, and were one of my main inspirations to start. A few weeks after seeing the film festival I bought a kayak, and went out on the lake behind my house almost everyday. I also went to local rivers every week or so.
I learned about the Ottawa Kayak School through kayaking videos, and I decided that I really wanted to go after doing some online researching about it. After some convincing, my parents were willing to let me go. I signed up for keeners, and my dad and I went on a three day road trip to get here. My dad is going camping/kayaking for a week with his friend and taking a whitewater class here at OKS for one week.

I've been having an awesome time here. I have been paddling with the teen camp this week to learn how to roll, and so far I rolled in whitewater three times. I will join the keeners on the river soon (one or two days?).

Anyways, that's all for today. Make sure to check back every Thursday to read my blog!