Big-water Thursday

The kids are in their last week at Keeners kayaking and this week Eric Jackson, kayaking legend, has been coaching. Its been fantastic to observe all Eric's ideas for flat & moving water drills and races. There was quite an emphasis on hand rolling today, the kids were holding their breath upside down, spinning their boats 3 times & then handrolling back up on their offside. Later in the day there was a good eddy line on the river with whirlpools & all the kids were handpaddling in, tipping over, spinning in the

whirlpool & hand rolling back up.

Earlier today the kids were paddling in and around Phils Hole the biggest safe-ish feature on the river, some got a good working in there but noone got hurt & lots of the kids swam thru the hole.

Yesterday there was backwards boatercross down a rapid having to zigzag down touching rocks on either side. In the afternoon most of the kids paddled Garvans the biggest rapid on the river, a big long chute into a hole. I walked, not wanting to get hurt.

Eric's son Dane has been with the group & he is a fantastic kayaker & is always in his boat. He goes in huge holes & does cartwheels & all sorts of tricks in them.

Finn, Max, Otis & Foxy are having a great time. Otie had a great time today going down through Phil's twice & on the second run, I followed him down. He did all the handrolling drills as well. He has caught water snakes in the last 2 days. Today I saw an osprey nest at the top of a dead tree with a parent bringing a fish & feeding it to a chick.

At Keenerville the kids are living in a group of cabins on the riverbank with 3 different kitchen & living areas. They fend for themselves with getting breakfasts & keeping the cabins clean & tidy. Lunches are at the Wilderness Tours rafting lunch hut with burgers, hotdogs & snacks. Yesterday I caught a chipmunk inside the scroggin jar! Dinner most nights is at WT's base building which is 20 minutes drive from here on the banks of the Ottawa. WTis a big operation & in the weekends they have 1000 rafters a day & during the week 400 per day. They have a kayak school going everyday at 2 levels as well as the Keener program. The company also has interests in jetboating operations at Niagara falls & on the Sheen rapids at Montreal.

I'm managing to get in more paddling everyday and am enjoying my surfing. I had my first surfs on corner wave today & am getting in lots of spins. I'm still being carefull with my shoulder & can't paddle very hard with it, probably 75%.

Otie & I are staying in a wee cabin called the Love Shack while Max, Finn & Foxy are staying with a bunch of kids in the White House. There are all sorts of kayakers on this river from squirt boaters going deep on eddy lines to C1 playboaters in weird looking boats. Kayakers are on the good surfing waves from dawn to dusk. There is ettiquite on the surfing wave in which a kayaker coming downstream is not allowed to drop in on the wave but must go to the end of the queue in the eddy waiting to surf. Clear paddle signals are given to kayakers coming down to avoid collisions in the waves. Everyone observes the rules.

Tomorrow is our last day paddling & we fly to California on Saturday.