The crew of AW volunteers in Bellingham is bringing another whitewater kayak flick to town this year. The film is Hotel Charlie: No Big Names 4 and will be presented by film-maker and kayaker Ben Stookesberry. Includes footage from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Check out the trailer.
Tuesday May 23rd
Pickford Dream Space (1318 Bay Street, map)
Doors open at 6:00 PM, film at 7:30 PM
tickets: $5, students: $4
Beer will be served and there will also be a raffle for all sorts of exciting paddling gear
Proceeds to benefit American Whitewater and Sultan River hydro-relicensing efforts (see latest update on this project).
Local sponsors: Yeager’s Sporting Goods, Ocean Kayak/Necky Kayak, WWU Outdoor Center, REI.
Hope to see you all down there!
The Film
No Big Names cinematographer Ben Stookesberry and extreme kayaker Jesse Coombes embarked on a one of a kind white water expedition. They began their two-month journey with a second attempt of the Rio Buey, in the volatile interior of Antioquia, Colombia. Ben was on the only other attempt to run the Buey in 2003. Not long after running and unportagable 20 meter falls, Ben’s first group hiked out of the canyon, and into a paramilitary controlled ridge top, after just 2 miles into this spectactular 25-mile, Class V canyon. This time around, Ben and Jesse kayaked past the previous hike out point, and into one of the most committing gorges Ben has ever seen. Instead of encountering the paramilitary, machine gun toting locals, the pair encountered peaceful coffee growers who guided our boys into the canyon bowels to scout what lay ahead.
The pair then traveled to Central Brazil to join Ryan MacPherson and Ben Zupo for a month long expedition into Central Brazil’s unexplored Class V rivers and creeks. After an anxious start with no rain, and no water in the creeks, the group stumbled across some big rivers with massive granite falls. They soon realized that the door is opening to the highest concentration of whitewater on earth.
The Rio Umacinata forms the border between remote portions of Chiapas Mexico and Western Guatamala, and is notoriously dangerous because of gun runners, narco-traffickers, human smugglers, and sometimes hostile political dissidents. From Mexicoís Chiapan Highlands to the virgin jungle of far western Guatamala, Ben and Jesse end their expedition by attempting first descents of the Umacinta’s upper canyons . What they found may be forever known as the holy grail of big waterfall kayaking. After spending 6 days cutting trails, setting rappel points, and scouting the 1800 foot per mile canyon, the team descended two of the four major falls including Jesse’s descent of the first 80-foot falls into a boiling pool above the next 25 to 30 meter drop. A week later Ben convinced an international team of kayakers led by Tao Berman and Josh Bechtel to make another attempt on the gorge in order to run all four of it’s massive waterfalls.