Ottawa vs Southeast by Ava Christensen

Paddling on the ottowa is a lot diffrent than the paddling in the southeast. On the ottowa there are lots waves while in the southeast it's mainly holes. This means the tricks we throw are also diffrent. Some of the tricks that are often thrown here are roundhouses, blunts, and airscrews unlike back in the southeast where some of the more common tricks are loops, spacegodzillas, and mcnastys. A similarity to the Ottowa and my local paddling spot is that they aren't strongly affected by rain. I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina which is near the U.S. National Whitewater Center where the water level is controlled by pumps. The Ottowa does have some variation because of rain but not as significant of a difference then some of creeks around North Carolina that are dependent on rain. Every keener session on the third week there's a trip to another river besides the Ottowa. One of the rivers that the keeners sometimes visit is the upper petawawa. This is a run with lots of fun boofs and shallower rapids that are similar to the types of rapids you would see in the southeasyt

Big Water Beat Down Thursday - By Andrew Burgoyne

Big Water Bacon Beat Down Thursdays is every keeners favorite day and their worst enemy. Every Thursday we put ourselves into big features or try harder lines. I  personally love Thursdays because most times I would get someone to go with me and ride inflatable pool toys like a huge camel or a huge orca. The best spot to get beat down would be Phils hole because it has two different sides, their is left side Phils which is less retentive and more flush and then their is right side phils which is more retentive and keeps you in the feature more and it is more aggressive. Lots of people go into right side Phils without a paddle and those are usually my favorite ones to watch because I find those rides more entertaining to watch. Lots of people try harder things they don't usually do, Like going in and surfing philes hole.every Keener has fun on Thursdays and gets so exited and we all cheer  for the person that is on the Feature.Thursdays is every Keeners favorite day, Every Keener can't wait for Thursday. That's why I think Thursdays is the best 

How To Surf Garb Passably - Patrick Kyle

The first time you drop into Garb feels like you get hit by a bus - don't panic, everything will be OK, so long as you edge the right way and don't face plant the rapidly moving water. If this doesn't deter you follow the next couple of steps to place yourself at a confidence level where you can start to have fun and learn some moves:

1) Make sure you avoid the curler coming out of the eddy - the large bubbly, foaming line of "don't go overness." This will rocket you far to river right and you will miss the wave or catch an edge and capsize. Drop in further down to miss the curler.

2) Don't stop paddling, once you're out of the eddy and dropping down, keep paddling towards Moby Dick and the full impact shouldn't overwhelm you. Keep your bow pointing right and lift up your left edge. Now you are off to the side comfortably skipping along the rail.

3) Wait until the top of the foam pile is to your left and carve on top of it - you may flush, but if you don't to begin with, you aren't trying hard enough.

4) Now you are sitting at the top of the foam pile, high up and in the perfect position to zoom down the wave. Lean forwards and your boat will drop down the foam pile and hit the green water. You will probably bounce, maybe get a little air depending, but make sure the face forward the whole time and you should be fine.

5) Point back to Moby Dick and surf out to the right of the foam pile and drop back. Follow steps 3 and 4 again. Repeat until confident on positioning on this wave.

All is set - if you follow these 5 simple steps, you should easily be able to attempt some epic tricks without being frustrated about the set up... enjoy.

The Keener Lunch Site - Andrew Palim

As keeners we eat lunch at the rafter’s lunch site, either at the Lorne one the main channel or Garvin’s on the middle. While there is also good food served at both there are certain ways to, say, optimize your time at the lunch site, secure more food and have a better time with the lads. Today I will fill you in a few secrets I’ve learned the hard way over many lunches.

Firstly, get a mocha at the soup station. Skip the soup, we’ll be eating more than enough hot food later and the caffeine is essential to overcome the fatigue that comes from kayaking everyday. Be sure to high tail out of there before the raft trip comes or you might be “voluntold” into serving endless throngs of rafters soup, a purgatory from which you will never escape.

Next up is the main event, the burger stand. I highly reccomend going behind the counter here, the work is pretty easy and lots of keeners will be behind with you so it’s easy enough to dip before the crowds. The advantage to working at the burger stand is access to cookies, and extremely limited resource only awarded to keeners deemed helpful by the kitchen staff, and you can easily take a two or three patty burger without fear of reprisal, because after all you are helping out. After you’re done chopping some veggies and collecting your aforementioned reward you can settle into your burger. But don’t forget to always toast your buns and add cheese. As for condiments, the more the merrier, if mayo isn’t dripping all over your rash guard you don’t have enough toppings. Depending on the temperature the benches by the trail and the fire are good places to eat, as they allow easy exit in case of Steveo requiring keeners to pick up trash and let you disguise yourself as a rafter for the purpose of eating more cookies. 

If you followed my steps you should be full, sufficiently caffeinated and quickly back on the water, doing what keeners do best: kayaking.

How to have fun on race day - by Hunter Vincent

At keeners every Wednesday is race day, race day in my opinion is one of the funner days of the week just beacuse of the amount fun that is had. At first though race day can be a bit scary or intimidating and serious  depending how you feel about it as well as the other keeners attitude about race day. My advice for you if your feeling any of the things I listed is to just go out there and have fun and push yourself, as well as try not to get to caught up on how good or bad you do, or if you swim, or don't get the perfect line or get beatered in a hole. For me personally I learned that these skills help you have an amazing time beacuse for us today was race day and keepin a cool head and having fun made it so much better to do and caused for some good laughs at the end of the day from the races at garb and the epic fails at Normans and coliseum. All in all race day can be amazing or suck it's all about how you yourself make it, and trust me you will have a much better time when your having fun.

Progress your kayaking by analysing your failure. Author:FINNIAN DONOVAN

Lets start off by just accnologing the fact that we have all at one point messed up a roll, a blunt or loop etc.

THERE IS NO POINT Feeling bad about not getting a trick or what ever for the first few times, because that is when you start saying to yourself" you can't do it. "

That is not the root you to take from now on. If you fail just analyse in your head what you did wrong, go for another attempt and take into account what you did wrong and try to fix it.

This is where Keeners comes into place if you for what ever reason are not getting something on the water you have the best coaches in the world by your side who's main purpose is to help you progress and you have nearly seven days a week for three weeks to progress.

Sleep is important:

Sleep has a role in the unification of memory, which is essential for learning new information (in a keeners case new tricks etc).

Sleep also helps you feel less stressed and even helps your diet.

These are the main reasons why getting a good night of sleep while at keeners is so important. If you do not have a good night of sleep your mood will be affected in a negative way, you will not have much energy, your judgment and your efficiency Will not be great. 

That means no learning cool new things on the water( sounds awful right? Of course it does). Just analyze your failure, get a good night sleep  and you will eventually learn the move you want to perform.

Keeners is a great place to come to if your that kayaker who wants to progress to the next level and maybe even eventually turn pro. Its only day three and I am learning so much already aswell as having the time of my life...

My First Experience With Boater X By Kyle Cahn

Most of the time when I’m kayaking I’m on the river with less than 5 people. But today I was pushed down the Lorne rapid with 10 other people. This is how it went. We all lined up facing the shore, Clay tried to throw us off by counting farther than 3.  “1  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, go!”  There was a wave of commotion and I was out of there. I was racing down the river, Patrick got caught on a rock and all of the sudden I was in the lead. We had to go and touch Tyler’s boat which was on the Moby Dick rock then ferry across the river and touch the far side. I was coming towards the boof rock I lined up my stroke and executed. I landed and looked to my right to see everyone else getting sucked to the wrong side of Moby Dick rock. I turned around to see Owen right on my tale. I turned on the jets to get to Tyler’s boat. I was dogging people left and right who were trying to get back to Tyler’s boat. I stuck my bow into the current and started to ferry across. I give it everything I have left to not flip in the waves I took one last big stroke that sends me straight to the wall. I slam the wall with my paddle to see Owen pulling up right behind me. I won my first boater X ever. Here are the 3 things I learned from that race.  First avoid the big crowds at all costs. Second keep your head up at all times to avoid other kayakers. And third clean lines are fast lines.