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Athletes take on triathlon

Cam Bertch races to the finish of the solo sprint event at the Drumheller DinoFest triathlon. The event grew again this year with racers taking on both sprint and Olympic distances as individuals or as teams.

Athletes swam, rode and ran their way to the bitter end, and in doing so earned the title triathlete.
   The Drumheller DinoFest triathlon on Saturday morning, June 14, saw competitors take on the grueling course in both the sprint and Olympic distances, and also in solo and team events.
   Organizer Morgan Syvertsen said this year they saw more participants and more volunteers, which made it a smooth event.
   In the solo Olympic distance Mike Cochrane of Cochrane took the win with a time of 2:41:01. In the team event, Carbon racers Alyssa, Joshua and Kari Church came out on top with a time of 2:50:03.
    For the sprint distance, Kacey Blanchette of Drumheller won the solo event with a time of 1:29:29. Rob Kloepfer and Chris Capobianco won the team event with a time of 1:25:50.
   This was the third Drumheller triathlon, and each year the numbers keep growing with participants from within and outside Drumheller. Organizers are confident the event will continue to grow.

“Sharkasaurus” set to film in the area

Spencer Estabrooks was in the Drumheller area over the June15 weekend scouting locations for his short film “Sharkasaurus”.

One of the winners of a short film funding competition is basing his next film on the Drumheller area.
   Calgary filmmaker Spencer Estabrooks was in town over the June 15 weekend scouting locations for his short film, “Sharkasaurus.”
   The film’s plot revolves around a creationist preacher, and a scientist/palaeontologist who is working in the badlands, up against the creature “Sharkasaurus”.
   Estabrooks said they found some great spots to shoot in Drumheller, and they’re in the process of finalizing locations.
   “In Drumheller, Three Hills and Dorothy there’s a corridor of really nice locations,” said Estabrooks.
   The film maker was one of ten Calgary/Edmonton winners of ten thousand dollars through Storyhive, a Telus funding program to produce short films and documentaries.
   Estabrooks explains how he came up with the topic for his short film.
   “I lamented the fact all the shark movies that had been done, then I realized there’s no land shark movie,” he said.
   “It’s the ultimate shark out of water story.”
   Estabrooks said the winners were selected by a vote in process, and social media, a poster, and a personal ad in Calgary’s Fast Foward magazine were used to help advertise the film.
   The “Sharkasaurus” crew has ten weeks to complete the project, which will be available for viewing on Telus Optik television.
   Information on “Sharkasaurus” can be found at http://yycyeg.storyhive.com/project/show/id/174 or www.sharkasaurus.com.

Strong summer expected by area attractions

Drumheller was a hub of activity last weekend as many locals and visitors came out for the third annual DinoFest. It appears this should be a strong summer for tourism in the valley.

On your mark, get set, summer.
   Drumheller’s busy season is upon the valley and by all indications it looks like it could be a banner year for tourism.
   This weekend the season was welcomed in by Dinofest and just two weeks later, the Gran Fondo bicycle race will be taking to the blacktop in and around the valley. Last week, Travel Drumheller hosted a meet and greet and mini trade show with local operators and the atmosphere was very optimistic.
   Chris Curtis of Travel Drumheller said his message of making the valley a top tourism destination resonated with the whole room. He also was impressed by the caliber of attractions that have been established in the valley.
   Judging by the excellent Victoria Day long weekend, indicators are strong for the season.
   Jenn Balderston of the Atlas Coal Mine said the weekend was record breaking.
   “It was our busiest May Long to date,” she said.
   Over the weekend they had 1,043 person tours, up 181 tours from last year.
   “The Atlas continues to grow each year at an unprecedented rate and we are thrilled visitors are interested it the valley’s mining history and hopefully that interest only grows,” said Balderston.
   “My word, the long weekend was awesome,” is how Jay Russell of the Atlas Coal Mine summed up the season kick off.
   “There are issues we want to have addressed in the next couple years because of the growth, I think we are going to have to put them on the front burner,” said Russell.
   These are issues such as overflow parking and adding more tours on the schedule.
   “These are excellent problems to have.”
   The Tyrrell also opened the season with strong numbers. They had 11,203 visitors over the long weekend. While they were down about 500 compared to last year, Mike Dooley of they Tyrrell explains this could be accounted for by the weather.
   “If we had a strong Monday, possibly we would have been on par or even above,” said Dooley.
   He says there is a strong season to look forward to, predicated on the incredible media coverage the valley received last season. This year the Tyrrell will also be in the Calgary Stampede parade.
   “Last year we had the Amazing Race in Drumheller, and we’ve had Canada AM already this year, so there has been a ton of media coverage,” said Dooley. “We have DinoFest again, Tough Mudder and the Grand Fondo, there are a ton of events packed into this summer.”

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