July 22, 2009
Hey, its Nick again.
This week is my last in the Keener program. My favorite part of my stay was surfing Phils Hole! It was the scariest experience of my life, but so rewarding! Another scary experience happened today when I got strangled by my life jacket during SRT training! SRT training prepares us for any possible accident or scenario on the river. I couldn’t get my life jacket off but then out of the blue Matt (the SRT teacher) pulled me out, making me narrowly escape death, haha. I had a ton of fun doing SRT. It is certainly a great tool to have when being a kayaker. I would like to thank the Keeners for putting up with my amazing singing voice.
I hope to see you all again.
Thanks.
Nick.
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Posted by mtpaddler
July 22, 2009
Hey everybody!
Unfortunately this will be my last post in the Keener program, but I still have a few more days to go kayaking. Today is now Wednesday and we did our swift water rescue course. The course started by saving a swimmer with throw ropes and rescue swimmers. We also experienced more dangerous kayaking disasters like being in a boat pinned against a rock underwater and getting your PFD (personal floatation device) caught by something and dragged to the bottom of the river. In these scenarios you have to cut yourself free or unstrap and slip out. Personally, it was a lot more difficult because my PFD was a astral green jacket, which has three straps either side and a quick-realase belt. I think I took almost thirdy seconds to free myself and once I got it undone I tried to walk to shore with a huge headache, which I’m pretty sure was a case of hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain). Either way, the course was educational, a great experience, a lot of fun, and certainly something to remember.
Thanks again,
Geoff
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Posted by airbornathletics
July 22, 2009
Hey everybody!
Jamie Rosenberger checking in, live from Keenerville. Every weekend we have 2 to 3 video classes taught by Sam Fulbright. After he worked with me on the editing program, Final Cut Pro, me and Stephen Forester had the skills to edit our own video! We made a video called “Love Shack”, which was shot by Stephen and myself. We tried to make it funny and ovbiously added some good kayaking. We learned that the goal of making any good video is to tell a story, so we tried to tell our story about the cabin we live in. It took us 2 weeks to completely finish the video, but we were very happy with the end product and even sent it to some kayak companies for sponsorship deals. Video class is just another one of the reasons that Keeners is the greatest place in the world. The program not only teaches us about kayaking, good behaviour, public speaking, but also gives us the tools and education to produce creative videos.
Check out the link below to view our film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYeOugwskVo
Until next time,
Jamie Rosenberger
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Posted by Kay Uwe Konojacki
July 22, 2009
As part of the role of being a Keener, we have to be respectful of others and help out when someone swims; whether they are a Keener or not. I think one of my proudest moments that I have had here was saving a teen kayaker by giving him “the hand of god”. The hand of god is where you flip someones boat up when they are under the water and cannot roll themselves back up. This is one of the skills that Stephen Wright had shown all of the Keeners so that we could operate on the river safely. I rolled this particular kayaker up quickly and he said “thanks” and then we paddled down the river. All in a days work for your average Keener
This is James, the brit, signing out.
P.s. I hope you like the photos.
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Posted by onlinemenshealth
July 22, 2009
Hey guys its Nyle here.
my expirience in Keeners was great. It is truly an honor to paddle here because you get to paddle with people like Stephen Right, Eric Jackson, Nick Troutman, Billy Harris, Joel Kowalski, Ruth Gordan, David Hughes and many others! My favorite part of my stay at keeners was when I got my first Blunts and Roundhouses. Ive met alot of new people and they are all great friends and amazing paddlers. The expirience was also made better from all the different parts of the world that people came from ( Belguim, Mexico, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, England and others. I have accomplished many of my goals here and that made me very happy. I want to thank Our Keener mom Jackie for always taking care of us and making us snacks. I would also like to thank Party Sam for watching us over the weekends and teaching us about video’s. And I want to thank everyone else that was a part of Keeners that made it all the more special!
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Posted by Jason Bordwine
July 22, 2009
Hey, my name is Peter Semehen and I’m 14 years old. I am from Toronto, Ontario and I have been paddling for 1 year . To tell you a little bit about Keeners, we have speech night every monday, speech night is after diner and we all go into the board room at Wilderness Tours and each of us are given a topic that we give a speech about it infront of Joe and all the Keeners. Speech night really boosts our confidence, social skills and teaches us how to speak properly to an audiance. The Ottawa water level is pretty low which is good and bad because the Middle channel is very shallow, but the Main channel is nice and deep. I’m sad to be leaving Keeners, but I will be returning in 3 weeks. I will take many memories back home with me but my favourite memory has to be when I surfed high tension on the Gatineau. I don’t think that the Keener program needs to change, it is already perfect.
Thanks!!!
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Posted by wavehopper
July 22, 2009
Hey there,
Sam Fulbright checking in here with the week 5 coordinator report. Jackie and I are going to get up a video report of how the Keeners’ week went, and other various news. So here is the first video.
Until next week,
Sam
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Posted by boilerblues
July 22, 2009
Today we are getting ready to do our SRT a river Saftey and rescue course, we will be doing various drills and activities in order to receive this qualification. It should be a fun experience and a good peice of knowledge to hold since we are boating on the water every day and there is a good chance that an accident could occur and we need to be trained to deal with it. The qualification will also be a good asset to paddlers looking to be either saftey boaters or coaches. I have been really enjoying my stay so far and I have enjoyed every day that I have been on the water. Billy Harris is coaching us this week and already I’m learning loads from him as he is a very talented instructor. I am looking forward to learning new things under his guidance and progressing my paddling.
Thanks,
Dave
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Posted by mnkayakingfool
