Keener road trips

Being at Keeners, we are on the Ottawa river every day, and we get to know the river pretty well, and are fore the most part, quite comfortable on it. We understand how safe the river is, so it is harder for us to understand other dangerous aspects on a river. Going on a road trip to a different river changes all of this. Different rivers have different hazards, different water levels, and different features that we have to spend more time scouting, which helps improve our judgement as kayakers. This year, we went to the Upper Petawawa for the first time. While it might not be as high volume as some of the other Keener road trip rivers, i felt like i learned a lot from it.

On this trip, i ran my first ever boof, which was a big deal for me, as it made me much more confident. After about a fifty minute portage to the put-in we came to the first rapid, which was a boof. We got out to scout, and i stayed to watch the first runs down. When i finally got into my boat above the boot, I was incredibly nervous, almost to the point of walking it. I told myself that i had to run it because I had to start somewhere, and that this was the perfect place to do so. After I had a very nerve-racking float towards the boot, anticipating what could go wrong, I came to the edge of the pour-over. I took my boof stroke, and went over. I landed pretty well (I think) and furiously paddled just in case i hadn't. I could have ended there, and said that I had done the boof, but my confidence was soaring by that point, so I went back up to run it again. Once more, I went over it just fine, and felt a lot better than before my first run. The rest of the river had some more boofs and drops, which I was excited, instead of nervous to run.

Running my first ever boof

When we got to the last rapid, we didn't scout because there wasn't really a great place to get out. This meant that i was about to run two drops blind. There was a bend in the river before the first drop, (which i think was about 10 feet) so i couldn't see it until i was about to go over it. The previous drops on the river had prepared me, so by this point i knew what to do. I took a boot stroke as i was going over the drop, and was able to land it with ease. What I didn't know was that there was another smaller drop a few feet below, but once again, I ran it just fine. By the end of the river i was feeling super confident about things that I would have been super nervous about before the trip. While it wasn't as intense as running something like the seven sisters on the Rouge, I felt like I still got a lot out of the Upper Petawawa, and also enjoyed it a lot.

Night Paddling

What’s up everybody!

I’m currently writing from the USA, where I’ll be taking a brief two-week break from the Ottawa Valley in order to work out college stuff. I flew in yesterday, and am very sad to be gone, but I’ll be back soon!

For now, I get a chance to reflect on the time I did get to spend paddling with Keeners. Last Friday, while driving back from the take-out, we all went around and said our highlights of the session. My response: getting destroyed in the whirlpools (see my last blog), night paddling, and getting my first ever, legit flip turn. Add to that list what I said from last Monday’s speech night: skirt-less race down Normans and Coli as Hampsta so nicely discussed. I also mentioned holding hands with Alex during our Keener horror movie night, but that’s a little off topic. Of all those memories and moments though, night paddling is going to have to take the win. That and its most recently on my mind, and I feel it will make the best story.

Last Thursday night, I was lucky enough to get to paddle under the full moon. Led by Kalob Grady, one of last week’s coaches, we set off for McCoy’s. As Kalob himself said, one's fortunate to get two of these nights in a summer and I have never had this experience in all my years of kayaking here. So needless to say, I was pretty excited.

I spent the whole two hours we were out there at Corner Wave. I somehow only missed the eddy once, and otherwise got to surf to the point of exhaustion. Most people stayed at Baby face below, fearing a nighttime excursion in the horseshoe holes that guard the corner wave eddy – so I had the eddy almost to myself half the time. Kalob, Tom, and Max joined me, though Max was awesome enough to shoot photos for us for a good chuck of the night. In the end, probably one the chillest surfing sessions I’ve ever had.

For those of you who have never experienced night paddling before, it’s a world of its own. Despite a full moon, seeing the water is super challenging. Instead, you’re forced to feel your way around the wave. This makes any sort of edging, needed to perform most tricks, terrifying. The chances of catching an edge skyrocket. And trust me I know; I lost count of the amount of times I suddenly landed on my face without warning. After being upside down under water, you roll up completely disoriented, more so than usual. I had to find the dark shore, point my bow, and then I would usually just close my eyes and book it until I felt the water calm. And then there’s seeing lines. The two times I did punch the horseshoe tongue were also scary moments. It’s a fine difference between riding cleanly away through a green tongue, and being surfed in one of two foamy pits. Thankfully, I managed to spot the sweet spot at the last minute on both occasions.

But regardless, or maybe because of these strange new challenges, I found the night remarkable. (Thanks again Kalob!) I alternated between trying to throw down for Max’s snap shots, which were punctuated by blinding flashes. And trying to stay perfectly still on the fast, dynamic Corner Wave for the long 15+ second open shutter shots. Neither was easy, with the first requiring ideal timing, and the latter being pretty self-explanatory. But trying to do so was super fun, check some shots out below!

Other than that, it was simply an incredible time being on the river during a beautiful Ottawa night. Those of us at Corner Wave left after everybody else, and I won’t forget drifting back at midnight to the lit up Keenerville for a long time. 

Jordan 

The beginnings of a flashback 

Open shutter Shot

The End of the Beginning

Well here we are. Like the many Keeners before me I sit here at the computer with only hours left in my Keener adventure. Its funny, up until now I have had no doubt what to write about, and certainly no shortage of material. Now I stare at the compute screen and rack my mind for something to say that has not been said before in a final blog, something unique to set my writing apart. Then it struck me. That is just it! Everything good that can be said has been. It has been! Exclaimed! It has been put in ALL CAPS. It has been written over and over again. Each by an individual who is relating to their own experience, that while unique, shares a common quality. A past English teacher of mine once said, "Poets never waste a word, and repetition for a poet is the most powerful form of expression." The fact that countless Keeners has expressed the same thought, that "Keeners is a life changing and invaluable program and step in ones journey to not only being an excellent paddler but an excellent member of society" is exactly what shows the incredible impact that the Keener Program has on the lucky young men and women who are a part of it.

So instead of attempting to write an eloquent speech struggling to discover a new jumble of words to describe my great love and belief in this program, I would like to draw your attention to all of the people who have said it before me. Why should I, a single person try to convince you when I have a multitude of voices singing praises on this very blog. If you think that seeing is believing, then I challenge you to watch a Keener at a wave or in a coffee shop. Weather they are surfing the largest hole with a grin on their face, of picking up a piece of trash, I guarantee to you that their behavior and demeanor will stand out like a beacon which is warm, bright, and easy to fallow. So I will leave you now, although my Keener experience is over, the adventure continues. I wish all of my fellow Keeners the best of luck as they fan out across the globe beaming with knowledge and love of kayaking that has grown in them here at Keeners.

Running a Boof at the Upper Petawawa 

To all who think that Keeners might be a fun and nourishing experience, I encourage you to simply read these blogs and the enormous amount of praise that surround this program. And last but not least, I cannot think of a better way to end a final blog than by thanking all of the wonderful coaches and supporters of the Keener program. Each and every coach expresses interest in each individual, making a noticeable effort in learning the strengths and weaknesses of each paddler. For this I am forever grateful. Finally my biggest and warmest thank you to Mommy (Anna) Keener. Though endless banter and craziness she has never once abandoned us. Thank you so much Anna I will miss you. This is Jim Barton and Keeners is the best thing ever!

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 :).

Upper Petawawa

Paddling the Ottawa River everyday is an amazing thing. It is a great river that at every water level has something to offer. However, paddling the same river for three weeks with the same water level can sometimes become a little bit boring. That is why every keener session has a road trip. A Keener road trip consists of traveling to another river. There are three river where we normally go to. The Gatineau, The Rouge and Lachine. My favorite is the Gatineau at high water.

For this session none of those rivers were available due to water levels, so our coaches decided to try a new river. The Upper Petawawa became the river for our road trip. It is a very different river than the Ottawa, it has less volume and is steeper. Most of the rapids consisted on little pour overs and wave trains. There were no huge rapids but every rapid had a fun hole to boof or a green wave to kickflip. It was a fun river to run but I don't think it can be compared with the high water Gatineau.

The Third Rapid on the Upper Petawawa

Mauricio Martinez Laresgoiti

Goodbye Keeners

Well here it is my last blog. It been a life changing three weeks. I met some amazing and some crazy people (Johnny).
Keeners has been the best three weeks of my life; getting to paddle only of the best rivers in the world seven days a week is something that only very few people get to experience. Its a kayakers paradise.

Ropes and Knots. Learning useful skills even off water. 

The first week of keeners went kind of slow as I was kind of scared since I had never seen water as big as it was here, but as the days have went on I got more comfortable with the river and with the help of the coaches it now feels like my local run. All of the keener activities have made me a better paddler;  speech night helped me with talking to large groups of people, race day has given me a taste of a different type of racing than i'm used to, Big water beatdown bacon Thursday has shown me how to deal with situations that i'm not used to or comfortable with and how to cope in them, Ropes and knots will help me in some way some time I guess.... and competition Friday has given me a chance to judge rides and get to see what its like to compete.

Keeners has given me a chance to paddle with people that you see and think wow i want to be able to be like them , people like Devyn , Juan and Joel.
I want to thank Anna (mom) ,Devyn (dad) , Juan (Saurjaun) ,Joel my real mam and dad  and every one who helped I couldn't be more thankful.

Hampsta's second blog

One ring to rule them all.

My two weeks at Keeners have flown by much to fast for my liking and we have now settled into our last week in this kayaking paradise on the Ottawa river. But hopefully this week will be the memories of my time here. We have started the third week off with a bang, with the a themed week. The theme the coaches have chosen is Lord of The Rings week. Us Keeners have been split up into four groups; The Hobbits with Stevo being the king Hobbit because of his shortness and hairiness (which is the group i was chosen to be in and the group that is currently in the lead), the Orcs which is lead by Juanito or Lord SorqJuan, the Elves lead by Tyler Fox, and lastly the Dwarfs who are lead Kalob Grady.

The basic aim of Lord of The Rings week is to gain as much points for your team as possible by doing challenges set by the coaches and winning the challenges will gain you more points. You can also do minor activities such to help out coaches and make their lives easier. But losing points is also a factor during the week because swearing which usually gains you push ups will now lose points for your team and being late getting on the water will also lose you points.

My favorite activity of Lord of The Rings week so far was being involved in the skirt-less ( not actual skirts but spay decks which you use to cover up the cock-pit you sit inside) race down Normans and Colosseum. So basically because these rapids are pretty big and you are allowing your boat to be filled up with water it is very difficult to paddle as your boat is acting like a submarine and you are being sucked to the bottom. So the race started off with one paddler from each team doing the skirt-less race and one safety boater from each team assisting there skirt-less racer encase the skirt-less racer became endangered in some way. The Hobbits skirt-less racer was Jordan and I was the safety boater, the Elves skirt-less racer was Max and the safety boater was Jeremy, the Dwarfs skirt-less racer was Connor and the safety boater was Mauricio and lastly the Orcs skirt-less racer was Tom with the safety of Isaiah. The race was epic because as soon as the skirt-less racers got down into the whitewater their boats filled up and they were disappearing like a submarine and coming back up after 5 seconds doing stern stalls (balancing on the back of your kayak) the race was close but Jordan won which was great for my team, but only because Max who came first was disqualified for being helped during the race when you are supposed to be doing it by yourself.

I am looking forward to the rest of the Lord of The Rings themed week with many more cool activities to come!

yours truly,
Hampsta