Why Keeners is so sick - Spencer Hurst

Just this first week that I've been paddling the Ottawa at Keeners has been one of the most fun and most intense of my entire life. I have finished every single day entirely exhausted, but I love the days that get me there. To me, the ability to paddle this massive, world class river every day for the majority of a month is insane. With this blog post, I'd like to express the reasons that I think the Keener experience is so sick and tell to those not here what being at Keeners is actually like.

Every morning before breakfast, we engage in some morning activity. We've done everything from a wildly heated ultimate frisbee tournament to a kayak-targeted yoga session. All of these fun activities are spent swatting and slapping away the terrible Canadian mosquito populations. Breakfast follows our groggy games, and is all our responsibility. It is so sick to have the freedom to make whatever breakfast you want and cook for your cabin mates, and, barring Robertsons cabin's dissues, everything goes smoothly and we get daily omelettes and pancakes.

While the morning routine is amazing, the highlight of each day is obviously the time on the water. We are surrounded by some of the best freestyle whitewater in the world, and are instructed by some of the best in the sport. All of the coaches are not only incredible kayakers, but they are all amazingly nice and funny. Each day on the Ottawa so far has been a nonstop, action-packed adventure, filled with trying to surf every wave on the river and crazy party surfs. The supervision is amazing on the river not only because they have the skills and responsibility to be completely safe, but the trust in everyone's ability to let us do awesome things we might not be allowed to with other groups. For example, Thursdays are Big Water Bacon Beatdown Thursdays, where every person is required to run McCoy's rapid three times, and most get surfed in the mighty Phil's hole. Just below the hole sit numerous safety boaters and people with throw ropes on shore consisting of both instructors and Keeners, so after being twirled around by the massive feature, everyone pops up, regardless of if they are in their boat or not, smiling. This robust safety and expertise also allows us to do crazy fun things like swimming through Coliseum, the largest rapid on the river.

After kayaking, we drive back upstream to our home, Keenerville, and dry before our excursion to Wilderness Tours for dinner and perhaps a showing of a kayaking film or an impromptu soccer or billiards game. These after water periods are the perfect time to have fun with our fellow Keeners, talk about the day or what kayaking is like at everyone's homes, or tell Carsten to stop flexing for the nineteenth time that day.

The weekends are also insanely sick in that we are allowed to kayak in groups of three down the river or to McCoy's rapid just upstream of Keenerville. Again, this is completely safe as all must be first aid certified and travel with someone who has attended Keeners before. We shuttle back up to the put-in with Wilderness Tours raft trips, and as payment for the ride, we help load the giant rafts onto the trailer and unload life jackets at the rafting warehouse. It is amazing to be able to hop on the Ottawa with your friends and be completely independent to make lunch and the shuttle times and be able to visit any wave one desires for hours. One of the most fun things we have done so far is paddling the waves at McCoy's just as the sun is setting by ourselves.

Keeners is a paddler's paradise. It is so sick to be living within sightlines of impeccable freestyle features and to be able to go paddling every single day on world-renowned whitewater with some of the best in the world and over twenty other awesome kids who are excited about it as you are. We paddle by ourselves, we celebrate Canada Day by shaving maple leaves into Ben A.'s head, and we have the most incredible time on the beautiful Ottawa shredding the gnar and so far, it has been absolutely the most fun and most intense time I've ever had. I have fun paddling every day and I have so many great new friends from all over.

Not your Average Keener Day- Graham Carroll

Keener blog 2 :

      My keener day started off with hearing my fellow cabin mates arguing over who left a bowl of cereal on the counter. After they all left for first aid, I proceeded to make myself a delicious bacon and cheese bagel. Whilst eating my bagel I began to feel pain in my left ear. Sadly James ( mum ) told me I probably have swimmers ear and shouldn’t be in the water, and if I did go kayaking to use earplugs. Of course I went swimming anyways in football Eddie with Dano for about an hour until my ear hurt, again. Luckily my mom ( real mom ) made me bring loads of Advil so that did the trick.
     I then relaxed in my cabin until dinner mostly just complaining about the heat. At dinner I chose to eat chicken fingers. Wilderness tours was pretty packed due to the fact that it was “ Canada Day” ( still not sure if this counts as a holiday ). After dinner all the keeners swam in the river, played on paddle boards, or kayaked. I personally had a headstand competition on a paddle board, which I’m almost positive I won. Once we arrived at camp we shaved a kids head and now I’m writing this. Fun day at keeners completed.

How to do a flatwater loop- Carsten Dowdy

Have you ever wanted to show off your kayaking ability to your friends? I have. The flatwater loop is an extremely fun move to do and the stoke is beyond high when you finally get your first flat loop. The best part about flat loops is you can do them anywhere where there is water. This includes a pool, a lake, the ocean, and many other bodies of water. Here are a few steps on how to dial your first flat loop.

1. Attain some forward speed towards where you want to throw your loop.

2. One of the most crucial steps of the flat loop is getting into the bow stall. Getting into the bow stall position takes a lot of practice and failure. When you reach the spot you want to initiate the bow stall take a forward stroke on edge on the side you want to throw it. As you take the forward stroke lift your knees as high into the air as you can. Before your bow starts to drop after the forward stroke, flip your paddle over on its backside and drive your heels down through the water while pushing your paddle forward in a back stroke.

3. Once you are in the bow stall, you must hold it. A bow stall is held by a series of small movements keeping you stabilized and balanced in the upright position. If you find your boat flattening out, lean back a little. Leaning back to far will mean falling on your face. If you start to fall forward on your face, lean forward allowing your boat to stay stable in the bow stall position.

4. The pump is one of the most crucial steps of the flat loop. This step depends on how much air you get and the overall quality of your flat loop. To initiate the pump slice your paddle through the water and then flatten the blades out. After you flatten the blades out pull up on your paddle and push down on your feet.

5. If you have made it this far, congratulations, you are very close to getting your first flat loop. After the pump, you get rejected by the water and start to fly up in the air. At this point look up to the sky while holding your paddle in the air and throw your body forward chasing your bow as hard as you can. Shortly after this lean backwards on your back deck and kick your feet down.

6. The loop stroke is essential to pulling your loops through in flatwater. The way I prefer to do the loop stroke is with both paddle blades pushing back behind my head. When you feel your boat flatten out on the water, sit up. Congratulations, you have done your first flat loop!

How to poop like a ninja at keeners (Joseph Pancharian)

At keeners in your free time don’t tell anyone that you are going to go poop, but if are on the river then tell someone. So first you want to drop your pants and sit on the potty and poo. Once you are done pooping you grab the toilet paper l fold it or whatever you do to wipe the poo of your bum and flush it down the toilet. If the poop doesn’t go down the toilet then you have to grab the plunger and plunge the toilet until the poop goes on down and around the toilet and out of site. If you’re sitting on the toilet and it’s not easy to get the poop out, then your body is saying that you need to drink more water. Now let’s say you take a poo and it’s about as long as one of Santa’s elves; then maybe you need to do a little flush before you wipe your bum. If the poo doesn’t seem to be going down the toilet and the water starts to rise; then you have to grasp the plunger tightly and plug the crap out the toilet. Once you plug that toilet really good, then you can try to flush toilet again. It should go down the toilet now and if it doesn’t then you just have to plug harder. Now that your poop has gone down the toilet and then you think it really smells like poo in the bathroom, then spray some febreze. Finally you have to wash your hands before leaving the bathroom because people don’t want to eat food covered in financial matter. 

That’s how you poop like a ninja at keeners.

An Independent Weekend With the Boys-Jonah Bussgang

In my paddling career, I have only paddled with an adult or a coach. At my summer camp, Kabeyun, in New Hampshire, I learned to kayak with a coach at my side, and here at Keeners we have coaches paddling with us to offer advice and set up safety for big rapids. While having coaches and mentors that teach you new things is an invaluable resource, I learned that paddling independently is insanely fun.

As a second year Keener, while the rest of camp was completing wilderness first aid, I had the amazing opportunity to paddle the river with my friends, separate from coaches, schedules, and agendas.

The first thing we had to decide independently was where we actually wanted to go. Many people wanted to run the entirety of the middle channel; however, me and my friends wanted a chill day surfing Waikiki, eating fat, double cheese burgers, and playing cards.

The second we slid into the water, the speaker bumping tunes, I got a rush of freedom and excitement. Without a coach or someone guiding us down the river, we struggled to navigate the labyrinth of various islands and chutes. When we finally found the sound of the rush of the Lorne, we knew we were there.

All of us had run the rapid multiple times before, but it felt like an entirely new rapid when we had to navigate the rapid ourselves. We made it down without any issues and went straight for the lunch site. When we arrived, despite our independence, we were still Keeners and helped out on the grill and soup table. With no time restrictions or schedules, we stayed at the lunch spot for hours, listening to music, playing cards, and feasting on burgers.




After we had our fill, we surfed a lineless Waikiki with out of control bounces and endless fun. From this short but fun trip, I leaneredanh invaluable skills like navigating the river independently, managing time and calculating the time it takes to go up and down the river.

I cant wait for next weekend!

How to do a bow stall - T Buckley

Knowing how to bow stall is the gateway to doing many fun, and epic flatwater freestyle tricks. These tricks can include the flatwater loop, my personal favorite, and the cartwheel. 

Step 1: The first part of doing a bow stall is gaining speed, having speed will help your boat rotate from flat to vertical easily. The more speed the better. When you have your desired speed you need to pick the side, left or right, that you want to bow stall on. 

Step 2: The second step to getting into a bow stall is picking up the nose of your kayak on the desired side. For this step, you want to take a forward or sweep stroke, both work well, and pull you knees to your chest as hard as you can. During this whole step you need to be adding more and more edge to your kayak. 

Step 3: The second to last step is to push down on your back paddle blade, add just a little bit more edge, and swing the back of your kayak over your head by pushing your feet down into the water. If done correctly, your boat should be completely vertical. All you need to do now is balance. 

Step 4: The last part of a bow stall is balancing it once you have your kayak vertical. When you're throwing your feet down, you want to plant your paddle flat on the water, so that once you are vertical your boat, and each of your paddle blades form a tripod. But once you are in this position you have to keep working and maintaining the bow stall by balancing it. When you are in the tripod position, if you feel yourself falling forward on your face put your paddle farther away from your boat, and if you feel yourself flattening out, and falling backwards, move your paddle closer to your boat. 

Bonus Tips:

- Having a paddle with high buoyancy will help balancing

- When you are initiating, if you keep getting vertical but falling on your face immediately, try initiating with less edge. 

- Likewise if you are not even getting vertical, add more edge to the initiation. 

- You're not going to get it on your first try, even if you fallow these steps perfectly, it takes a lot of practice to get a consistent bow stall. So don't ever get discouraged when all your friends are cartwheeling and looping while you're just falling on your face over and over again. 

The Point Of No Return

KEENER BLOG WEEK 2

The point of no return

In many extreme sports there becomes a point in a line, rapid, section etc.. where there is no way out but the one ahead of you. There is no longer any bailout. You must commit completely or failure is impending. It gives such an overwhelming feeling of helplessness, but when you succeed, the reward is that much greater. 

So now to my story. For the past few months my Dad has been training for a sixty mile mountain bike race through the wilderness of the Pisgah National Forest. He had been trying to ride as much of the race course as possible, and one descent stuck out in particular, Heartbreak Ridge. Heartbreak is a four mile descent that drops nearly 3,000 vertical feet. In Lehman’s terms, it gets rowdy. So we set out to ride the famous section only to be stopped a quarter mile from the top due to massive damages from landslides. Tired and sore we limped back to our car and drove home in defeat. 

By Wednesday of that week we had already made plans to push for the top one more time. But this time we took a different route... one that involved nearly 7,500 vertical feet of climbing. 

The morning of the ride, I was flooded by nerves, and I spent hours thinking of ways that it could go wrong. I knew, but hadn’t fully realized that once we were an hour or two in there was no way out. When we closed in on the three hour mark we turned onto an old road called Curtis Creek. This road is know for being a nine mile climb that demolishes riders. But by then we were deep in a valley and the only other way out was at least three hours of brutal gravel climbing. We had reached the point of no return. The climb took us two and a half hours due the fact that we were reduced to a near walking pace. Although it was brutal, we had no other option. And after 25 miles and six hours we had reached the top. The descent was spectacular, in fact probably my best to date. 

So why this story? Well the point of no return isn’t just in paddling or biking, it applies to all of our lives. In life you must focus on the task at hand, not on the past or future, only the present. If you do this you will be not only more successful, but you will feel content and fulfilled. So get out there and cross that line.