 The Hydro-Bronc
Philip Chauvet and Rod Blair, owners of Virtual Sports Inc., don't necessarily have an affinity for gerbils. But you wouldn't know it by looking at their latest product, the Hydro-Bronc. Letting participants walk on water like gerbils running in a wheel, the Hydro-Bronc is a geodesic dome of seven inflatable pontoons that has found a home on everything from Class V whitewater to the flats. And sales are spinning as fast as its users. After one recent article on the invention, Chauvet fielded more than 700 phone calls at his Salem, Ore., office from people wanting to try it out. "The public is sold on the idea," he says, adding that more than 100 units are circulating in waters worldwide. "There's tremendous interest in the thing." The media also has picked up on the new-fangled contraption, with stories appearing in Focus, Outside, People, Popular Mechanics and Men's Health magazines, as well as NBC's Extra and the Fox Network's Action TV. "We've been inundated with interest," adds Chauvet. "For some reason, it's taken off media-wise." That reason could well lie in its oddity. At nine feet in diameter and capable of floating 500 pounds, the unit sticks out like, well, a gerbil wheel on water. And it has drawn stares from San Francisco Bay, where someone used it to walk from Alcatraz to the mainland, to California's American River where an inspiring soul used it to run Class V Tunnel Chute. This past December a group even used it to tackle the Batoka Gorge on Africa's Zambezi River. Learning the ropes is easy--if you can walk, you can Hydro-Bronc. Users stand on a mesh, trampoline track and grab onto swivel handles located on each axis. Then they simply walk or run wherever they want to go, shifting their body weight to steer. Whitewater walkers are harnessed in with a quick-release buckle, and by design the unit can't tip over. "You put all that together and weigh it against a kayak or raft, and it's safer," maintains Chauvet. "It has gone in holes rafts won't go in and has done fine." Its novelty is one reason the Hydro-Bronc appeals to outfitters. Jason Wingert, owner of Edgewater, B.C.'s Water's Edge Ventures Inc., recently purchased 20 of the water walkers and plans to run them five at a time commercially this spring. "I think they're going to do great," he says. "Every time I've seen them people have been climbing all over them." Other outfitters aren't so sure. "They're very physically demanding," says Tom Moore of Kernville, Calif.'s Sierra South. "It's an aerobic nightmare. And I don't think we have the right river for them. But in the right place, and on a less-technical river, they would be pretty fun." Chauvet maintains that he and Blair, a computer-aided design teacher who came up with the idea in 1991 and put it on the market in late 1996, are not trying to take away from conventional river trips, but rather add to the sport by creating a new ride. "It's creating a new niche that will bring new blood and money into the industry," Chauvet maintains. And the money isn't gerbil food. The unit carries a suggested retail price of $1,999, with add-on options running another $440. --For more information, contact Virtual Sports, 6644 Rippling Brook Dr. SE, Salem, OR 97301, (503) 363-0013, www.virtualsportsinc.com.--edb
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