Unknown: Ottawa paints the picture of born and bred Ottawa Valley rider Keegan Grady. His powerful voice narrates, while his enormous aerials and impressive river and creek lines remind us of the simple and pure essence of kayaking. Progression, passion, and the need to recognize and take action upon the ever-looming threats to rivers all over the planet are brought to life through the ardent soul of one of the whitewater world’s great Unknowns.
About: Tino
- Website
- http://levelsixinc.com/
- Profile
- My name is Tino Specht and I am the Head Coach at New River Academy. I have been here for 2 and a half years. My goals include making people the best athlete they can be as well as pushing myself to higher limits. I am also the video Teacher so you will see lots of video on this blog!
Posts by tinospecht:
Author Archive
Unknown: Ottawa River | Keegan Grady
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Down The New River with New River Academy (the locals)
Friday, April 22nd, 2011Hey Everyone,
Courtney Kerin produced this short video on the New River Gorge. Courtney is a new member of the New River Academy Video Class. She is learning very quickly! In this video she had to have a timelapse, new camera angels, and use some of the filters provided to her in Final Cut Pro. Great job Courtney.
Best,
Tino
Unknown: Chile
Friday, April 15th, 2011Hey Everyone,
Here is a quick short I made on our Spanish teacher and coach Lorenzo Andrade Astorga. The rivers in Chile are in danger of being dammed so this is our effort to bring some recognition to how amazing the rivers and waterways of Chile are.
Thanks for watching!
Coach Specht
New River Academy: Stephen Wright Guest Coaches the New River Academy Athletes!!!
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011Hey Everyone,
Kaleb and Jacob put this video together after a week of intense eye opening coaching from Stephen Wright! Stephen is one of the best coaches in the world and it shows through the the paddling of his students! It was an honor to have him involved in the program for a little while. Thanks Stephen!
Young Locals on Uganda’s White Nile River
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011Hey Everyone,
Now that we are at fast internet I want to share with you some of the videos my classes have been making. Here is one Nick Simpson made on the local kids that spend their time working at the wave we surf. Check it out!
New River Academy: Learn about African Animals with the Canadians!
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011Hey Everyone,
Here is a short video made by Jacob Slobodian in New River Academy Video class. The requirements for this project were to include timelapses, text animation, and interviews.
Great job Jacob!
Coaches Report (Last Week)
Monday, March 7th, 2011Hey Everyone!
After an amazing week on safari we are back on the river. I’m sure the kids are still dreaming about being 20 feet away from elephants and lions but we arrived to the hairy lemon with something just as exciting awaiting us. Stephen Wright, worlds bronze medalist and freestyle extraodinare will be taking over coaching this week and giving the kids a second perspective on the wave and on their paddling. I have coached the Keeners program for a few summers now with Stephen and I can confidently say that he is one of the best if not the best coach I have had the privelage of working with. Stephen has a way about him that keeps the vibe at the top of the posotive scale while also helping the kids to think about the river, waves, rapids, and training in a different way. I’m sure when the kids come out of this week they will have made significant jumps in their skill level. We also have plans to go upsteam and run some new rapids and surf some new waves. Last but not least we will be headed to a local school to drop off some supplies that we bought for their classes. Each student has donated a small amount of money to the pool and together we have bought books for the school as well as sports equipment and other tools needed in a normal highschool! Check back in soon to see how our last week at the hairy lemon goes!
Paddle Hard and Stay Warm,
Tino
Update From Kira
Monday, March 7th, 2011Dear New River Academy Families,
Alas, the last week of our Uganda quarter has arrived much too soon, but we are certainly going to enjoy every bit of it.
After exploring the expanses and exotic wildlife of Western Uganda, we have made our way back to the Hairy Lemon, which, as it certainly has come to feel like home to everyone, is the perfect place to finish up the trip. We are now back into full school days, and the students are enjoying surfing both Club Wave and Nile Special in the midst of mid-term exams and final projects.
This week, New River Academy has the privilege of world-ranked kayaker Stephen Wright joining our team as a guest coach. With tips from Wright, Nick Simpson has been perfecting enormous pan-ams and air screws, Zoe Ross is catching Nile Special every time, and Wayne Poulsen is throwing some huge blunts. Courtney Kerin is so excited to be back at the Hairy Lemon that on Nile Special days she has been staying out until the brink of dark, and any time on the water Hunt Jennings can’t seem to get the smile off of his face (even more so than usual).
On Wednesday of this week, the school will do a river run from Super Hole down to Nile Special so that students such as Jordan Poffenberger, Kalob Grady, Jessica Droujko, and Courtney Kerin, that are attending Worlds this year can get in some training, and everyone can surf and run the fun rapids upstream from our Hairy Lemon home base.
On Thursday afternoon, New River Academy will return to the local high school that the students visited earlier this quarter to deliver a plethora of much needed school supplies. Lorenzo Andrade-Astorga has been a leader in the organization of helping out the school, and is very happy that this donation has come together. Hayley Stuart, Jordan Poffenberger, Nick Simpson, Alex Anderson, Jessica Droujko, Julia Boland, Hunt Jennings, Colin Klein, Errik Hill, Jacob Slobodian, Kalob Grady, Courtney Kerin, and all of the teachers pooled individual money to make the donation possible.
The entire team is ecstatic that Amy Hill (Errik’s mom) arrived yesterday to enjoy our final week in Uganda with us. She will be paddling out to the waves and enjoying island life for the next couple of days!
New River Academy is going to enjoy our last week in this true paradise, but know that all of the students will be very excited for unlimited power, internet, and desserts when they get home!
“… And that has made all the difference.”
Kira Tenney
Communications Director
New River Academy
Africa… The land of Big Waves, Big Animals and Huge Experiences
Monday, February 14th, 2011Hey Everyone,
Just checking in from Jinja, the city closest to the Hairy Lemon Island where we are staying. Our days are packed full of workouts, school and cultural experiences. Just the other day we kayaked up stream and stopped to walk a few Kilometers to a local high school. We got to have a Q&A session with the teachers and students there which shed some light on questions we had been wanting answered. Then after that we played a soccer game against their school team and WON! This means the New River Academy Soccer team is undefeated. We won in Chile and now in Africa. Pretty good for athletes who sit for their sport! Speaking of athleticism we have been doing extra hard morning work outs latley as well as on water training. With world Championships steadily approaching we want all our athletes to be as prepared and in shape as possible. Its lucky for us that training in a kayak means going and having fun! Everybody has been perfecting their blunts, backstabs, and spins. Some of our National Team athletes have been working on combo moves and more difficult tricks as well! All in all training is going very well and everyone is happy as a clam in mud. I hope its the same for all the rest of you out there!
Best,
Coach Tino Specht
Welcome To The Island
Saturday, February 5th, 2011Hello to everyone out there. This is Tino checking in from the White Nile in Uganda. New River Academy has landed! Other good news is that we’re healthy and almost over the Jet Lag. We live on an island in the middle of the Nile river with 2 spectacular waves a 2 minute paddle away. Needless to say everybody is enjoying the new location. The food is buffet style for all three meals… this means everyone is getting more than enough to eat and on top of it all the food is all local organic and super healthy.
Training has been going well. It took the group a few days to get the hang of the tow in rope for Nile Special but now we can’t get them off of the wave. We have two famous waves beside our camp. The first is Nile special which is faster and bigger. I would say this one is more geared to our higher end skill set because your reaction time needs to be very fast to compensate for the fluctuations in the wave. The other is Club Wave. Club is a slower smaller wave which is perfect for our athletes practicing their blunts and spins. Now don’t worry all the guys who are practicing Airscrews and Mcnasty’s can throw them plenty big on Club Wave.This week we will be heading up stream for some river running and some worlds training in Super Hole. A hole similar to where World Championships is being held this year. I hope everybody out there is enjoying winter! We are all enjoying the summer heat and cool nights.
Paddle Hard!
Coach Tino Specht
P.S.: Sorry No Pictures, I have a ton to show you guys. I’ll put them up when I get to a faster connection.
New River Academy
Rt. 2 Box 245
Fayetteville, WV 25484
(304)- 574-0403
Fax: (304) 513-2247
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