Good Night. - Connor

Today’s the last day of Kenners, huh. It’s been pretty eventful the last few days, with the Gatineau River on Wednesday and some epic beat downs on Thursday. Unfortunately the footage of it was deleted, so we can’t look forward to watching it anymore. We rappelled down the 175 ft tower at rafters, which was a lot of fun. The climb was much scarier than the actual descent, up a series of rickety ladders with only a few metal bars to protect you if you fall. Today we’re doing our final competition down at Garb and Push Button, and hopefully we’ll get some nice footage to watch later. It kind of sucks that today is the last day cause I’ll probably never get on the Ottawa for a couple of years at least. It’s been a lot of fun while I was here, and I appreciate all of the learning opportunities I was given and the improvements I’ve made to myself and my boating. The coaches and Sydney were all superb, and distinguished this camp from other similar programs. Thanks to them for being awesome, and thanks to everyone else who accompanied me through this journey. Thank you, and good night.

TRIP TO GATINEAU | By Nicolás Meire

2 days ago, we a trip to the Gatineau River, a river that is like 2 hours away from keenerville. The river is really similar to the Ottawa River. We woke up very early and we had breakfast on the Wilderness Tours Resort. When we came to the spot, the first thing that we did was having dinner and making de groups that we were gonna use in the river. The first rapid was really fun. It had a really fun wave to surf and it had a hole in there some people did beat down. It was a really nice rock for jumping in another rapid too. The trip was not very long but it was really fun and was one of the best days here in Canada. At the end, we did a nice group photo and we ate fried potato.

Nicolás Meire

How to mentally prepare for a challenging rapid 

  By Sam Sharp 

        Challenging rapids don’t always have to be class five. It can be anything that the  person paddling the rapid is not used to or is just intimidating. The really hard thing on challenging rapids is to mentally prepare your self so that you are 100% confident because if you are not you most probably shouldn’t run the rapid. It is  ok to be scared of a rapid but if you can not imagine yourself running a perfect line on the rapid you are not mentally prepared. Everyone has that one rapid that they find very challenging and just to be blunt,  terrifying.  It is sometimes hard to know when you are ready to run a rapid like this. People  always say what rapids should I run before this to get ready and the truth is if you feel like this rapid is in your skill range the only thing you need to get ready is your brain. You need to get ready to go up to rapid and imagine yourself doing it perfectly if you can do that you are ready to run the rapid. 

A Different Wednesday Experience - By Cashion Porter-Shirley

Normally at Keeners, Wednesday is race day, but the third Wednesday is a little different. Instead of exerting ourselves in fun races, we drive to another river (depends on the water level) to have a chill paddling day. This Wednesday we drove to the Gatineau, Gat, River in Quebec.  The day started with what was supposed to be a two and half hour drive, but because of road work, it turned into 4 hours of driving! Everyone was happy when we finally arrived at the put-in. We ate lunch, put on our gear, and put into the Gat. The Gat is a really cool river. It had tough lines, and easy lines making it a really chill day. The downside was the flat water at the end, but other than that, it was quite worth it. If you are in that area, I would strongly suggest a run down the Gat. 

Emergency Blog about the Gat- Anya Sachs

Yesterday we had our keener river trip to the Gatineau river. The drive up usually takes around 2 hours, but it felt like an eternity. With all the road closures, the drive up took around 4 hours in a cramped van. I definitely took a lot of naps. We finally got to the Gat shortly after 12, and ate lunch at the put in. Finally we got to the first rapid, Lucifers. My favourite part of the rapid is the big retentive hole, which luckily, I got trashed in. After that we made our way down the rest of the river, took out and got greasy poutine, which was the highlight of my day.

Nigel Hocking
01/08/2019
week3 session 2

                                                          The Weekend

Over the weekend I borrowed a friends Jackson antix for a lap of the main channel. This was a big deal for me because I have never paddled anything other than a play boat. The first main difference I noticed when I got in was that my legs were a lot straighter and knees less bent. At first I was unsure of how I would handle it and if I could properly edge, but I quickly adjusted and got the hang of it. The second main difference was rolling. Usually I struggle some what with hand rolls in my rockstar. In the antix I was not only able to hand roll, I also got a few off side hand rolls as well. The third and biggest difference was the obvious speed. After the first few strokes it was quiet apparent. That day we finished a main lap in well under an hour. The boat made threading the needle at Mcoys a breeze.

From only paddling a rockstar to spending a day in a creek boat I learned that there was another side to paddling. What a great way to spend a Saturday.

Keeners Jump Rock- Trey Harrell

At keeners there is four jump rocks we get to do. Three are on the Ottawa but one is on the Gatineau. They vary in heights and for some you land in whitewater. The three on the Ottawa are really fun because they aren’t that high and are a good start if you’ve never jumped anything. The first one is where we do the stairway to heaven. This is where we get out of our boats and climb the rock and try to jump before your boat floats away. This one is hard because the boat moves fast. The second jump you will see is the lowest on we jump at just under twenty feet. This one is good for trying flips and is my favorite. The  third and final jump is on a rapid called Normans there you jump into whitewater and it can pull you down for a few seconds if you time it right. The cliff on the Gatineau is the highest jump at twenty five to thirty feet this one is scary at first but is also awesome. Over all the cliffs were great I got backflips off every one. I can’t wait to try them again.