Back from Canada

Well as you all know a couple of weeks ago I was on the Keener program in Canada so I just thought that I would do a quick round up of what I got up to there.

Where I was staying, “Keenerville”, was right by the side of the Ottawa river with Phils hole and McCoys wave about a 2 minute paddle away. When I first got there it was night time so I didn’t realise how close to the river the site was. When I realised I was thrilled and went straight out for a paddle. I even got peer pressured in to swimming Phils.

Every day we would get on the water at around half 10 and be given the choice to either run the Middle or the Main channels. Both of them had great features on. The middle had Angels Kiss, Butterfly (two of my new favourite waves) and Upper and Lower no name. The main had Buseater (which sadly wasn’t in when I was there) and Wikiki. Most days I ran the Middle channel but on the days that I ran the Main I really liked Wikiki wave and Collosseum. 

As well as all the great paddling we did there we also got trained in Swift Water Rescue and First Aid. We took a day off to do our SRT training where we learnt about log jams (something that never really happens in the UK but happens lots in America and Canada), how to get out of a foot entrapment and practiced a lot with throwlines. We did our First Aid training two nights after paddling and one Saturday. In this we learnt CPR and how to care for injuries such as 2nd degree burns and broken bones. The funniest bit here was when we had to fix our “injuries” with whatever we could find lying around. I ended up with my hand covered in neon orange duct tape for a broken finger and one of the boys had both his legs tied together for a dislocated knee.

Everyone in Canada was so nice and it was great having such great coaches there everyday to help me with my tricks. I can now roundhouse and handroll and my flatwater cartwheel has come on really well. Probably the best thing was that everyone was having fun just being on the water. I definately want to go back next year now its just a matter of getting mum and dad to fund it.

Here are a couple of pictures

Tasha