The Alpine Butterfly By Jack Carroll

          Hey readers it's Jack Carroll here with another blog post from Keenerville. After reading my tittle you must be wondering what an Alpine Butterfly is and why am I writing about it? The full name of the Alpine Butterfly is the Alpine Butterfly Knot. I am blogging about this knot because today was Thursday, and every Thursday night at Keeners ropes and knots night. On this night we learn about various knots, types of rope as well as situations to use these in kayaking. For example a two to one haul system that can be used to pull a boat out of a deep gorge. The Alpine Butterfly Knot is one of the knots keeners are introduced to on ropes and knots night.

          The Alpine Butterfly Knot is a knot created on a bite of rope that when finished will have two tail ends and a loop in the middle. In order to tie this knot you must first find a sizable piece of rope. Next fold the rope in half and lay it on the table. After that make a single twist in the rope by grabbing the corner of the folded piece of rope and simply twisting it. Once you have completed this make a second twist the same way making sure there is plenty space between each twist creating three separate spaces. Next take the corner of the folded piece of rope and pull it down through the third space and up through the second space. Finally pull it tight by the tail ends and the loop. Now you have successfully tied an Alpine Butterfly Knot. This knot is very versatile as it can be pulled or loaded many different ways. The major drawback to this knot is it can not be inspected from a far distance to see if it is incorrect. Knowing the uses of ropes and knots can be very use full when creeking rappelling around waterfalls or even anchoring your self to take the perfect picture. For these reasons I have found it important to share one of my new found pieces of information. Hope this can be useful to you readers in the future.

          Enjoy the water, until next time,
                                                           Jack Carroll

The importance of trying new things - Zack Michaels

When Kayaking, it can be very easy to get into the habit of doing the same thing every day. Going down the same lines, throwing the same tricks on the same features every time. This, however, can be a bad habit to get into. It is fun to do this because you are kayaking, and I recently fell into this habit. For example, on Garburator, I would always throw a righty blunt to start off my ride, and then do some spins before redoing my blunt. It was fun, because I would be surfing my favorite wave and throwing blunts, however on Friday I tried something new. I tried an airscrew, a trick that I had always thought was way out of my league and therefore never tried. Now, to be perfectly honest, I failed miserably, landing on my face and flushing off of the wave but I got way closer than I expected to come. I failed, but it was so much fun, and a very refreshing experience. When you try the same things over and over again, even if you succeed, you get pushed into a endless loop, which may be fun but there is so much more fun to be had by just failing at something new. Now, when (and if) I get my airscrew it will be exponentially more fun than doing blunts all the time. Basically what this comes down to is that trying, and failing at something new is ten times more fun than succeeding at something you have already done before.    

A start to a good day :) - Andrew Oxley

It is always very hard for for people to be stoked in the morning for different reasons; too cold ,tired ,wet clothes ,etc. Here are a couple ways to get over that reluctance. Number one; take a cold shower and a coffee. The cold shower wakes you up, and the coffee will stabilize the hot and cold. If you put on your wet clothes quickly, it will help wake you up. The second way is to be enthusiastic about the day. It helps if you sing "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego Movie as you start your day. It is important to eat a very good, and filling breakfast. An example of this is eggs and bacon. Make sure you have a good nights sleep, and always drink a lot of water before you go paddling.  

Aidan Uens: Week One

Hey readers, coming to you after finishing my first week of kayaking with the rest OKS Keeners of  session 3 2014 .

 

       After four one week sessions of teen camp (also a very great program the OKS offers and I would  highly recommend for beginners), spread out over three summers my teen camp coaches finally pushed me enough to pull the trigger on Keeners. Luckily throughout those four sessions of teen camp I progressed faster than the average paddler, running the main channel (is considered the high adventure channel compared to the middle channel/family trip by rafting companies)  in my first week of teen camp. During the fourth session of teen camp, although I was enjoying myself and was feeling challenged by my instructors, I was feeling held back by the other teen campers considering most of them were beginners and have never kayaked before. This definitely played apart in pushing towards Keeners.

       My issue with feeling challenged and being held back was surely took care of when on the first day  I ran the main channel. Unluckily the first rapid after lunch has the infamous name "Butchers Knife", there is one spot on this whole rapid that needs to be avoided, ya you guessed it I hit that one spot, after getting pinned on a/the rock I shredded my forearm and tweaked my shoulder, forcing me to take a day off. Even though I took a day off I spent the day on the river taking photos of the Keeners running rapids and surfing waves.

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Crystal like structure in the rock give the rock a sand paper type grip.         

       

 Over the first week I have had the chance to paddle with five different world class coaches. These five include: Clay Wright, Stephen Wright, Claire O'hara, Devyn Scott, and Nick Troutman. All five of them are worth a google, all except for Devyn (founder of Airborn Athletics was held back by shoulder injuries) have been world champions at least once or  multiple times.

See ya next week, Aidan Uens          

           

Using fear in a positive way - Leeland Gentry

Hallo readers, My name is Leeland, I am a first time keener, and I am 15 years old. When I first arrived at keeners I was very excited and anxious get on the river, but as the I saw the week schedule on the wall in the common room, I saw the a dreaded thing that I hoped was not a reel. Beat down Thursdays, and for thous of you who do not know what beat down Thursday is, it is a day to get heavily beat down in a big whole somewhere on the river. I had heard of this day from other former keeners I had met in the past, but never thought much of it, but as soon as I saw it for real, all of a sudden my anxiousness and excitement to get on the river was gone.

  The firs couple days in keeners went by fast and terrific, wonderful days on the river, getting to know the coaches, and having an all round great time. But as Thursday came around I was dreading the time to get on the water, my stomach was turning and I was scarred, even though I knew that I couldn't get hurt, I was still very scarred, because I knew that I would have to do beat down Thursday sooner or later . When we got on the water we ferried across the river and got out to hike up to a raped called McCoys there we scouted the raped and talked about the different lines we could take, afterward everybody was ready and waiting in an eddy above the rapid, but still very scared of what might happen. But instead of my fear bringing me down and making me scarred about what could happen, I use my fear to motivate my self and gain confidence to run the rapid, and as soon as my turn came up I charged down the raped with confidence, knowing I would surf  left side Phills, and did, but came out smiling and more happy and pumped up I had been the whole week. This shows how fear can be a good or bad thing it jest depends on how you approach it.              

           

Matt's First Blog- Magpie River

          Hey everyone, Matt here. I’m 15 years old, and this is my third year at Keeners.  I live in Asheville, North Carolina, in the United States. I have been kayaking on rivers since I was eight, however in the last few years I have mainly focused on playboating.
          Last week I was also in Canada, but I was up in Quebec on the Magpie River. The Magpie is a beautiful river in the practically untouched Canadian wilderness, which starts on a 100-kilometer lake and ends at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the Atlantic Ocean. Our expedition started with a scenic flight to the end of the 100-kilometer lake in a 60-year-old float-plane! It took 3 trips back and forth to shuttle all of the people and gear to the lake. After the last trip, when the plane took off, we were all a little shocked at the silence in the Canadian wilderness.
          Before long, we all geared up and got ready to put on the river. The first day we only ran one rapid, and camped out on the side of the river. It didn’t take very long to realize that we had forgotten our tents. I remember thinking, “This is cool. We can just sleep under the stars.” That’s exactly what I did for the first night, and it was great! Then it rained every night for the rest of the 6-night trip.
          The next days we navigated our way down the river through some gorgeous canyons with the craziest cliff faces I have ever seen. We had a ton of great rapids and a few difficult portages, but it was all in all an amazing trip. It was as life-changing experience to be away the bustle of ordinary life and just go to bed when the sun sets and wake up when the sun rises. I learned how to make leave-no-trace fires that literally leave no trace. I learned how to brush my teeth without leaving a trace. I learned how to line rafts down rapids, and I appreciated the importance and beauty of nature that this trip offered. It’s heartbreaking to know that the Magpie River is likely to be dammed in the future for hydroelectric power. I can only say I am very happy to have paddled this river while it’s still around and I hope many more people will get the opportunity that I had.

England comes to the Ottawa river - Daniel Whiteley

Today was the first big water Thursday of this oks keener session. It was really cool to run the McCoys rapid again with everyone in the group because it helps teach you different lines and which lines are the best. Seeing everyone do the lines then say how it was can really build confidence because you know after watching them and listening to them, it shows that no matter how big the rapids look, it's all safe and anyone can run all the possible lines. the lines are all really awesome in such different ways, like the line that goes though the middle of phils hole which is a big hole in the middle of the rapid and is really safe if you get it right. All you need to do is be at the peak of the wave in front of phils hole called the marker wave becasuse it marks which line you're taking through the hole. Then paddle quite hard straight forwards to get it perfect. The other safe way though phils is to go hard right of the of the hole to sneak past nicely. you can surf either right or left side of the hole to get either a really good surf or possibly take a beatdown and it might push you out. The only thing about phils hole is you have to be really confident to be able to control the boat and try not to have a beat down unless you really want a beatdown because it's big water Thursday.
One really safe line is the one i took on my first run which is through the top hole on the left side of the rapid called satlers hole. To play it safe you go through the middle of satlers and there's a tongue which pushes you straight out but slightly to the left and in to the eddy at  river left. From here you can go to an eddy just below phils which is called safety eddy because from this is a very safe place to be no matter where you want to go downstream.
After we had finished paddling and had came back from dinner we used a slack line and it was my first time on one, it's like a tight rope but a couple inches wider and also way more bouncy. I guess i still need a little more practice but it's a lot fun even though it's super difficult.