The Keener Community - Seth Cox

As a person, student, and especially kayaker, community is one of, if not the most important aspects of my life. Happiness, for me, is provided by friends, family, and my loved ones. These aspects are also the reason I become a better version of myself over time. The people who surround you influence so many details of you. The Keener program gives access to a flourishing community of like-minded young and experienced paddlers who are all ambitious and in pursuit of greatness.

Whether small or large, communicating with your community is an essential aspect of life. The ability to portray thoughts well can make for a safer situation on the water, or making sure dietary needs are made for lunch. Being a leader means being able to communicate. When you have 4 people to paddle with there will be ample opportunity to lead. At Keeners we have race day Wednesday, and the first and second races that we competed in were in teams of four. In team Door, my team, every member contributed either thought or action to the race. Although we did not win, the competition was made better by the ability to work with good friends who openly, without judgment shared ideas.

The resources at your disposal as a result of being a part of the Keener community are incredible. An international group of boaters that are almost without fail extraordinarily helpful. Whether it is teaching, coaching, a paddling buddy, or someone to tell you a joke there is always a Keener at your disposal. After two years with the wonderful people in this program, I have met some of my closest friends and people I can rely on who live all across the United States and the world. As a kid you’re often told “The world is your oyster” and becoming a member of the Keener program has shown that to be possible.

By Ryder Crezee

So far during the keeners program I have had lots of fun surfing, racing, and getting beaterd with friends. Some of the current highlights of the camp have been surfing the corner wave and kayaking the Coliseum rapid. I look forward to more fun times.

Week 1 at OKS Keeners - Judah Franczy

OKS Keeners is a life changing experience that can help up kayakers learn and perfect many skills as well as becoming an overall better human being. At the moment it is week one of my Keeners experience. So far I love it. Between surfing, tricks, and rescue I have already progressed immensely. You get to paddle with world class coaches that can teach you almost anything you want to know. The Ottawa river is also a world class river that has some of the best waves and rapids. It’s very deep with big pools after every drop, which make for ideal safety conditions. The rapids range from class I to class V. Having a big range of difficulty is great for people to push their limits and put themselves out of their comforts zones.

For most Keeners the best day of the week is big water beatdown Thursday. On this day you will paddle around the river going in the biggest holes you can find and trying to get massive beatdowns. Doing this may be scary at first, although it teaches you how to deal with curtain situations for when you start paddling harder whitewater. Overall Keeners is an superb program for anybody trying to level up their freestyle kayaking skills.

First week at Keeners - Griffin Crezee

Hi my name is Griffin Crezee. I am from Truckee California. I grew up in a small town near Lake Tahoe, CA called Truckee. I have a dog, a mom, a dad  and a brother. I started kayaking when I was 13, (2 years ago) on the Truckee river. I came to Keeners because I wanted to become a better at kayaking but when I got here I realized Keeners is way more than just kayaking it’s hanging out with friends, meeting new people and last but not least learning how to be an independent person and learn how to clean, cook, and everything else independently. Also the Keener program teaches you how learn to persevere, like today I was flipped in Big Kahuna and came into the second hole up side down and didn’t swim because I knew all my homies would clown me if I swam. So the Ottawa kayak school's Keeners program has already made me a better kayaker, person and more independent.

The roundhouse - Noel Weisenburger

The roundhouse is a fun trick that I learned at Keeners, and it becomes a blunt with practice. A roundhouse scores 15 points in a competition and a back roundhouse will score 20 points. A roundhouse is a 180 degree rotation around the bow in the green water with a vertical angle between 0 and 45 degrees. A back roundhouse is the same but you rotate around the stern instead of the bow.

To do a roundhouse, you will take an acceleration stroke into the green water of a wave in a front surf, drop an edge to the side you want to roundhouse to and take a back sweep on the same side. The back roundhouse is done with the same idea but you take a forward sweep and start from a back surf. As you get better, you will start to get more vertical and it will turn into a blunt or a back blunt.

How to properly make microwave popcorn - Sol Obregon

 

1. Place the popcorn so the folded sides are sticking up  
2. Set the time of the microwave to one and a half to two minutes depending on your microwave
3. Stop when the popping slows because overcooking the popcorn could burn it
4. Take out the popcorn and open it enough so there is a small hole in the top
5. Turn the bag upside down and shake it over a trash can so the kernels that didn’t pop fall out of the bag 
6. When kernels stop falling out of the bag,  turn it right side up again and grab two of the tabs that are diagonal from each other 
7. Carefully open the bag away from your face because any hot steam could burn you
8. Pour the contents of the bag into a large bowl and enjoy! 

Phil’s surf - Brody Ast

When you surf Phil’s it is an extremely powerful retentive hole. When you are in the hole and it is stumbling you and flipping you, you don’t really know what is going on you just adjust your paddle to the spot that you feel is right. In the hole it feels like it is trying to rip your paddle free from you, you just have to hang on really tight. A strategy that I found was helpful is the Harry Potter roll, this is when you flip your paddle blade up and you hold your paddle blade out right in front of your chest and the water on the downstream side will catch the blade and flip you up. Surfing Phil’s is extremely fun and not very bad as long as you know what you’re doing and have the correct safety set up.