Local family embarks on rare adventure

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Colin Steadman and his family are embarking on a rare journey, one that’s never been attempted in Alberta and which will act as a warm-up for an even bigger undertaking next year.
The Strathmore family recently purchased a $30,000 hovercraft from the United States, and on July 11, headed out to cover a 3,000 km distance across Alberta.
“I had seen the bigger hovercrafts and it always sat in the back of my mind,” said Steadman.
“I found out you can actually buy smaller ones. Eventually I talked the wife into letting me, she said you can have a toy but we all have to be able to fit in it and you have to be able to use it 12 months of the year.”
Steadman began mapping out his route after discussions arose with a Coast Guard team during a trip to Vancouver. With an initial plan of travelling from Vancouver to Lake Superior, the family was left in the lurch when the hovercraft was held up at customs.
As an alternative, Steadman, who works for the Alberta Construction and Safety Association, was approached by his employer to consider a shorter trip.
“My boss came to me and said ‘you know what … why don’t you tour Alberta, use it as a warm-up for next year and visit these regions,'” recalls Steadman. “Going around Alberta was probably a blessing because it’s almost 3,000 km this trip. We’ll be able to figure out what do we really need for next year, the whole family’s looking at it as a great warm-up for next year.”
Steadman’s interest in hovercrafts stemmed from his background of eight years in the military dealing with helicopters and hovercrafts.
He settled on a $30,000 Neoteric Hovertrek model out of Indiana that can be operated in any season, and on surfaces such as ice and football fields.
One of the major reasons that he chose this model was because of some of the features that are user friendly on some of the waterways. Neoteric Hovercrafts, who is based in Indiana, are sold internationally and have garnered much success on the global scale.
“Canada in particularly has been good along with Russia, Sweden, pretty much all of Scandinavia because of the environment,” said Filip Przybysz, public relations representative for Neoteric Hovercrafts. “There’s a lot of ice and winter adventures in Canada and a lot of customers buy hovercrafts because they would like to go on lakes and rivers.”
He added that places like Canada are becoming more popular for hovercrafts and the market for them are mostly for those who are pioneers and know about them.
Przybysz noted that Neoteric makes 30 to 40 hovercrafts in slower years and 60 in a busier year and at least half go to the safety industry and the others go to recreational use.
The trip began on July 11 in Lethbridge where they opened the trip on the Oldman River, before making their way up to the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers. They will also make their way down the Athabasca River before concluding on the Bow River.
If you would like to follow the Steadmans’ adventures, you can visit their website (www.hoveringacrosscanada.com).