A New Freefall Benchmark. Almost

**kellywy** · 03-30-2008, 08:32 PM

Just got an e-mail from Ben Stookesberry in Brazil. He just fired off a 120 foot monster falls. They went to check out the falls to try to capture footage of 22 foot anaconda that is seen quite frequently at the bottom of the falls.

Ben became inspired and had a great line. He chucked his paddle about 80 feet down and on impact blew his sprayskirt. He attempted multiple handrolls and then began thinking of the giant snake that could swallow him whole. He ended up swimming and washing to shore very quickly.

Attachment 39944

Here are words from Ben

This 33 - 39 meter falls
is an example of hydraulic perfection in Brazil. 3000
cfs on the Current River converge into a 15 foot wide
power tongue that plummets into the pool 107 - 115
feet below. Due to heavy rain, the river was running
about 9 feet above base flow creating a roiling pool
with a 6 - 10 foot boil in the pool below. Certainly
the act of running a falls like this seems to be the
epitome of hedonism, but I like to think about it as a
group descent. My safety and film team at the bottom
consisted of Ryan Mac and Chris Zawacki. Ryan
McPherson has been to Brazil for the last 5 years and
knows more about Brazil's class V rivers than anyone
else on the planet. Chris Zawacki is your go anywhere
do anything positive laid back kind of guy that is an
amazing boater and photographer. My company at the
lip consisted of two of the most positive people on
the planet... Jesse Coombs and Pedro Olivia. Pedro
has been pushing this trip to the amazing quantity of
huge runnable falls that exist in central Brazil and
he can be seen in the photo living it up in the 70
degree spray of this monster. As you already know,
Jesse Coombs is the hardcore kayaker \ business man
that brings a coherent analytical perspective to
extreme end of the whitewater spectrum.

The story goes on and will develop more as our trip
comes to an end over the next 8 days. This is just a
teasing taste of what you will see in this the third
volume of Hotel Charley: The Lost World.