Last Week of Keeners

With a scrape and a swoosh my boat slides down into the flat water next to Keenerville. I have made it with only a minute to spare (had I been late I would have won the fabulous prize of running Norman's without a skirt)! The Keeners have just been briefed on the trip that we will be taking tomorrow to the Lachine rapids on the St. Lawrence River in Montreal.

Our fabulous head coach Stephen Wright has just explained (with the help of a beautiful diagram) which waves to catch and how to catch them. He has also discussed the possibility of skirt implosions and broken back bands and the not-so-much-fun experience of swimming at the Lachine. It is with this background that we begin a very unusual flat water warm up.

We begin with three rolls of any kind. Then we progress to rolls without a back band or  with our knees out of their braces. Finally, we roll with our skirts completely off our boats. After emptying our boats we proceed to baby face wave to practice air screws. All of mine turn out to be major face plants, but even though I feel as though I have been slapped in the face I am really excited to be attempting the coolest trick on the planet. Eventually we paddle down to lunch and Garb. A torrential rain begins (which is awesome because it is really cool to paddle in the rain) and we surf and then head down the rest of the river. Hopefully the rains will bring the level up just a bit for the last few days of this Keener session.

Emptying out Boats after our Warm-up pre Lachine! 

My name is Jessie and this is my last session and also last blog ever as a Keener. I am sad to be leaving and I will miss this wonderful program so much! Thank you to all the people who make this program as amazing as it is and thank you Mom and Dad for sending me. I plan to have as much fun and kayak as much as possible in the next few days...

Luke Week 3

Hi guys, it’s Luke again on the third week of keeners. Yesterday I had the misfortune of slamming my thumb on my boat and injuring it in a way that makes it hard to grip my paddle. It isn't too bad, but I decided to take the day off today to attempt to nurse my thumb back to life so I can enjoy Lachine more tomorrow. 

One of my photos from today: Anna (our Keener Mom sitting in the Garb
Eddy in the Rain.) 

Even though I wasn't on the water, today wasn’t a total bust because I got to take some sick photos at Garb while everybody else was surfing. I managed to get a couple sweet shots before it started raining cats and dogs. It poured, which will hopefully bring the level up a little bit for our last few days here. Luckily, being a relatively inventive person, I used my rain pants as a camera cover and continued to take photos in the rainstorm. My camera stayed dry while my legs got soaking wet. Tomorrow we get to go surf Lachine and it’s going to be a good day!

Kalem Week 3

Hey everyone its Kalem again this is my last blog post for this session, but im lucky enough to be staying for the last session too. Normally, instead of being at Keeners I would be sitting at home eating popcorn, watching TV and being bored out of my mind. Home for me is Beachburg, Ontario, which is actually 5 minutes from Keeners. Keeners is in the same town as my home, but because I get to hang out with people and get to kayak all day, and get taught by the best coaches, and don't have to cook my own food thans to the WT kitchens, Keeners is way better than sitting at home. We even have popcorn at Keeners.

Last week, I had the opportunity to see what paddling a duo was like. The "duo" is a kayak that fits two people instead of one. I paddled with my fellow Robertsonian, Tim. Since it was on thursday, or "Big Water Beatdown Thursday", we ended up testing our limits. Some of the challenges in paddling the duo were figuring out how to control it, and working together with a partner. We both tried being in the front, and in the back, and both ways were pretty much the same.

Tomorrow we get to go to WT for fresh fruit and hot breakfast in the morning, because we are going on  a Keener roadtrip to the Lachine rapids in Montreal. I have never been before, but I am sure it will be awesome!

Tim and I trying for Left Side Phils in the Duo. Its harder than it looks! 

Zacks Last Blog

Throwing the double "Brown Claw" before dropping into Phils.
Yeah, the "Brown Claw" was also in the Olympics! 

Hey guys its Zack Michaels. Tomorrow we will be going to Lachine and surfing big joe and pyramid wave. Last year we also went to lachine for our road trip. Big Joe is the biggest and greenest wave I have ever surfed. Lachine is a lot of fun because it is so big and green and fast. Last year I couldn't throw any tricks, but I have gotten a lot better this year. I can at least spin and maybe blunt sometimes. I'm very excited to have another chance surfing Big Joe and Pyramid wave tomorrow. At the same time I'm really sad to be leaving keeners. I really hope to come back next year,  I think I will enjoy myself as much as I did this year. I feel like I have gotten so much better this year, and will get even better next year!

Co-ordinators Report, Week Six!

It is hard to believe that we are already in the last week of the second session of Keeners. The summer is flying by, filled with long days on sunshine spent on the water.  This is one of fullest sessions- we picked up Kira a week ago, and Jordan Sanford returned for another Keener session this past Sunday, bringing us up to 23 Keeners!

Last weeks highlights were a field trip to Pembroke to see the new Batman movie and a trip to Wal-mart to stock up on some snack foods. My big purchase was tupperware bins with locking lids to combat the army of Chipmunks that constantly besiege our Keenerville kitchens. The chipmunks are still around, but have had decidedly less to snack on. Another highlight was having Thomas "Deuce" Fahrun on the water as one of Keener Coaches. Deuce was one of the original Keeners with Joel and Nick Troutman, and it is awesome to have him back with the Keener program. We are excited to have him coach next session as well.

Our Fearless Leader: Sir Stephen Wright. 

Big Water Beatdown Thursday started with a breakfast of bacon, and a game designed to build communication and trust between the group. The Keeners were paired off, with one Keener blindfolded. The other Keener was then given the task of walking the Blindfolded Keener through a maze/obstacle course- without touching them! They were only allowed to use verbal cues, and they needed to stay behind their partner. This exercise was particularly useful when Kalem Kennedy and Tim Truesdell decided to take out the topo-duo- a two person kayak affectionately known as a "Divorce Boat." In the words of Tim, they were "looking to get beatdown twice as hard." Luckily for them, I think it worked!

Tim and Kalem rocking the duo- trying hard to surf Left Side Phils. 

This big water beatdown we moved away from surfing Phils, and changed it up, taking rides in Left Side Horseshoe, and practicing seal launches off the jump rocks below Chopping Block. It was a nice change of pace, and a good chance to work on some new skills, as well as try existing skills in different features.

Jordan Launches off the Jump Rock

Ziggy surfing in Left Side Horseshoe

Friday's competition used almost every wave on the river- the "A" class competed with two rides each on Corner Wave and Garberator, the "B" Class had two rides each at Babyface and Corner Wave. The Coaches changed it up by taking 1 ride each on all four waves. There were a lot of ties, and a lot of zeros, as the level was challenging. Once again, Stephen Wright took the win for the Coaches class, followed closely by Joel Kowalski.  Nicole Diviney got her first official spin in Competition, and had some of her best rides ever, as did Eve Preucil for the "B" class. In the "A" Class, Luke Eckert took home the win with 90 points. The winning moves were an Air Blunt on Garb, and a Left spin on Corner Wave. Luke started using a Jackson Rockstar this week, and it has made a huge difference in his paddling!

The weekend was leisurely, with the ladies having an early morning session at Garb, and lots of work by Tino, Luke, Sean and Duncan on the Keener Videos. I know I am excited to see them when they are finished.  It was Tino's birthday on Sunday, and the girls banded together to make a delicious chocolate cake with strawberries to surprise him. Well done ladies!

There has a lot of practice of boat emptying drills to get everyone ready for our trip to the Lachine rapids in Montreal tomorrow. The LaChine rapids are on the St. Lawrence river which runs through Montreal is a 4 hour trip from Keenerville, but well worth it. The rapids host the infamous Big Joe and Pyramid waves, big green glassy waves that you can get some of the biggest tricks of your life on!

Jessie practicing boat emptying drills. 

Last Night's speech night was filled with farewell's and "Thank you's"- to the coaches, co-ordinators, Joe, and of course, to everyone's parents for sending them here and allowing them to be a Keener.

We are all looking forwards to our last week together, and it will be sad to see this group go.

Have a great week, and be sure to check back for more blog posts! For daily photos and updates, check the Keener Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/okskeeners

Duncan- a little delayed.

Hi, it’s Duncan again. So that’s week two over. To be honest it went very fast. I’m very tired and all my muscles hurt. I guess that is a sign that we have been working hard and paddling loads. Today (Friday)  was competition day again. I was in the "A" group, but due to the competition being on two of the hardest waves I’ve ever tried to catch (Garb and Corner wave), I, along with 2 other people in our group got a score of 0. We do our rides, and then watch the video of them together afterwards to judge them. On Saturday I tried some video editing for the first time. It was fun and took a bit longer thanI thought it would but the finished product looks good. Its cool to think I helped make something all the Keeners will get to see. We got a new house mate this week, Jordan who is from Massachusetts. The majority of people in our house are from America with a couple from Canada. I am the only Scottish person at Keeners, but our coach this week, James, is from the UK. The bedrooms in our house are small and often hot so it can be hard to sleep. Luckily we have fans. The kayaking on the Ottawa is great and I wish I had more time here.

Practicing Boat Emptying Drills

Listening to Stephen Wright explain what we will do next! 

Duncan.

Last week of keeners :(

So today is the last week of keeners and all of the girls just figured out that we are all getting Ben Marr t-shirts!! We are all so excited,(hopefully he isn't reading this) but he is our idol! For those of you that don't know, Ben Marr is an amazing kayaker and last session he was a keener coach!

On another note today we went cliff jumping testing out the safest ways to jump off cliffs and some fun front and back flips. Today it was speech  night and one of the prompts was "name a memorable moment" and I was thinking about it and realized that there are so many amazing moments that I couldn't pick one! This made me realize that I really don't want to leave keeners! Anyway this is my last blog until next year bye for now!!

Jessie posing with a picture of Ben Marr, our Idol!! 

Thanks to everyone for all their help and to my parents for letting me come and play!!