New ALPINE QUEST SPORTS Store Open & Video
New Whitewater Shop in Glenwood Springs
Alpine Quest Sports announces the opening of its 2nd store in Glenwood Springs, CO. The whitewater retail shop is just up the hill from the Glenwood Whitewater Park.
We are hosting the local video premiere of “Hotel Charlie 4,” which includes a 127′ waterfall descent, on Monday, May 18 at 7:30pm at eTown in Edwards, CO.
About the video:
Hotel Charlie features paddlers Stookesberry, Darin McQuiod, Chris Korbulic, Jesse Coombs, and Pedro Olivia. Its main segments are a first descent of 100 miles of the Rondu Gorge and the Brazilian waterfall expedition, each shot in three weeks, in which Olivia claimed the controversial 127-foot world waterfall record.
Stookesberry says the short introduction with Rafa Ortiz in Mexico is the most spectacular intro to a video he has ever worked on. “No one got injured, thankfully,” Stookesberry explains. “We had good safety, and things still almost went wrong.”.
Wars, bombings, and guerrilla rebels often deter paddlers from certain international destinations (Canoeing on the West Bank, anyone?), but they have a way of enticing Stookesberry. “[Pakistan] was another one of those trips where I was drawn by political unrest,” he says.
While he was expecting political intrigue to create most of the excitement for the expedition, he was surprised at the amazing whitewater that the Rondu Gorge had to offer. “Our focus went from dangers out of the water to what was there at level,” says Stookesberry. The level of whitewater in that gorge also blew away McQuiod. “It’s unbelievable how dynamic and powerful big water like that is. You can get knocked 20, 30 feet off line by large wave holes,” McQuiod said.
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The most-talked-about part of this video is Olivia’s run off Rio Sacre’s 127-foot Salto Belo Falls. The footage has been featured in the mainstream media like NBC’s Today Show and pop-culture gossip Web site www.tmz.com; many whitewater kayakers are left with questions in regard to Olivia’s line going off the drop and how he resurfaced behind the waterfall. Stookesberry hopes that this video will give boaters the opportunity to answer questions themselves. “People can take the DVD home with them and put it on slow, speculate exactly how it went down,” says Stookesberry, “At the end of the day hopefully people will relax and say ‘Let’s examine it,’ and not just play it off as another crazy stunt.”
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