By Peter Murray

To start off my blog I will write about my challenges. My biggest challenge was and still is overcoming the after effects of covid. Boating while still tired has been difficult, and when surfing people will see me gasping for air and coughing on the wave and think I’m shouting. Something I am proud of overcoming would definitely be covid 19, and being able to go out and paddle. Something I am proud of doing learning and becoming good at roundhouses despite still being on covid recovery path.

My time at Keeners - Griffin Crezee

First I would like to thank my coaches and every one else who works at Keeners especially Savannah and Sveta. Also all my coaches have help me learn a lot: like, front loop, roundhouse and kick flips. Also I have made a lot of life long friends. Before I came to Keeners I kinda had like a closed mindset with meeting new people I would only hang out with them if we had the same interests. But here at Keeners I have learned they can still be cool pepole if they don’t have the same interest as you. So in conclusion Keeners was one of the best times of my life. Thank you.

My time at Keeners - Judah Franczyk

My time at Keeners was one of the best 3 weeks of my life. It taught me tons of skills that I can use on and off the water. It dramatically improved my kayaking skills. Between the First Aid and CPR course and the Swift Water Rescue course now I am also much more prepared in case something were to go wrong on the water. I learned how to clean, cook, and overall care for myself which will be very helpful once I move out and am on my own. I made some amazing friendships that will last a lifetime. And last but not least I want to thank my coaches such as Luke, Silky, and Stevo for teaching me new skills and tricks, I also want to thank Sveta and Savannah for putting up with us and having to keep us in line while off the water.

By Ryder Crezee

This week at Keeners so far has been very fun. I overcame fears that I never would have expected to come across. I did things like Tomahawk and run the Dragons Tongue. Although, I have been a little bit uncomfortable at times on the water because my nose plug broke. It is a bummer but is a blessing at the same time because it will eventually make me immune to being uncomfortable with water in my nose. Overall this week has been very fun.  

Competition Friday - Maya Musgrove

Hello, my name is Maya and this is my second Keeners blog. Every Friday at Keeners we have a freestyle competition all day, and sometimes it doesn’t go your way. Sometimes you will get flushed, flip, or even miss the wave altogether. It’s really easy to get upset over your run, so I remind myself if something’s that help.

The two runs that you get don’t determine how good at kayaking you are, they only represent a small part of your abilities. You could have an amazing run and learn a trick, then get on the wave for your comp run and immediately flush. That doesn’t mean that you're bad, it just means that you had a bad run. 

It’s really easy to start comparing your runs to other peoples, which does not help at all. It’s also not fair to yourself, everyone is at a slightly different level and if you compare yourself to others who are at a higher level, the only thing you're going to be thinking is that they’re better. However, if you start comparing your runs to your other runs you might be able to find ways to improve.

Being a Keener is all about improvement - Olin Pekarek

On the Ottawa river, one of the most important factors on the river is confidence. Being confident on the river can contribute to a number of things such as your skill level, the amount of control you have in a given situation, and your comfortability in large rapids. Being a Keener is all about improvement, whether it's physically, through the training and day to day paddling, or whether it's mentally, meaning improving your confidence in stressful situations and in large rapids. Fear is known to be an emotion that leads us to smarter decisions, and the safety of yourself, but Keeners are taught to defy that feeling and make sure you can make it through stressful situations with a calm and controlled mindset. 

Other feelings of discomfort in large rapids are led to make us push ourselves past our limits to makes sure we nail our lines and ultimately improve our confidence in the water. Comparing the situations that the Keener program has put me through, opposed to the situations I have experienced on a variety of rivers, helps show that in a stressful situation in the future, both my first aid training and swift water rescue training will be extremely helpful, assuming that these situations do occur. All in all, being a Keener includes overcoming fear to ultimately feel more calm, controlled, and comfortable in terrible situations.

What happened this week two session two 2022 - Fisher Jacober

This week was a super fun one. We started off Monday pretty slowly, we all stayed up way to late and where super tired so no one wanted to do anything. 

Then Tuesday and Wednesday where swift water training days. I already have my SRT certification, so me and five other keeners spent those two days with Clay. On Tuesday we have a big day of surfing and just having a whole lot of fun. Then Wednesday was race day, but because it was just the six of us we spent a lot of time practicing our race starts. We did this by starting facing or touching the bank and the practicing starting and getting going fast. We then did some super fun partner races on Normans rapid and Colosseum rapid. Each team of two had a beach ball and you had to push it down the rapid, you couldn’t hold onto it, you had to throw it or push it. 

And then of course Big Water Bacon Beatdown Thursday, this Thursday was a ton of fun, there where soo many good beat downs. Jolie had three good ones, her helmet came of in one of them. And then of course Chloe, she has her amazing beatdowns and won beat down of the week. And then she went into right side Phil’s in a Dynamic Due with Ben Marr and they got thrashed for a little bit. 

We can’t forget about Fancy Frito Freestyle Friday, at these lover levels Push Button and Garburator are in, so those where the two competition locations. I chose Push Button, we didn’t try very hard, instead we just had a fun chill session. That’s what happened this week two session two at Keenerville. 

Thank you.