The Swap Tent is up in Kirkwood and our Swap Center is ready in Columbia and we are accepting used items during normal business hours through Friday, April 13 at 5 pm.
Are you ready to swap? The Midwest's largest outdoor gear exchange begins Friday, April 13 in St. Louis and Columbia
Bring in your bike and your kayak, or your skis and snowboard along with camping gear and that jog stroller you haven’t used lately. Throw in a few pieces of clothing and your ready to roll. Your first ten items are absolutely free to enter into the Swap. After the 10th item, each additional item is $1. To help reduce your check-in time, please download and print this form, fill it out as much as you can and bring it with you.
To thank you for participating, everyone who checks in used gear receives a coupon good for 20% off one clothing or footwear item on that day!
Alpine Shop Kirkwood is decked out in paddling imagery and there’s a big tent in the front of the parking lot filled to the brim with canoes and kayaks.
Boats, boats & more boats. Must be the Great Canoe & Kayak Event!
Yes, we agree – it’s a beautiful sight.
Tonight, Friday, March 2nd, we host the Missouri Premiere of the Reel Paddling Film Festival for the first time here in St Louis. There are still some remaining tickets, but not a ton. If you’re interested in what should be a great night of paddling flicks, we definitely recommend you come by tonight. Films start at 8 pm. Seating is first come-first served.
The Book Area theater is already set up and ready to go for this weekend's programs and activities
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 3rd, our full plate of programs throughout the day will begin at 10:30 am and go all the way through till about 6 pm when our Paddlers’ Party takes us through to our store close at 9 pm. You can find more information on all of this here.
Also don’t forget about our Boat Auction which takes place at 2 pm on Saturday. If you’re interested in selling your boat, you can bring it in to our Kirkwood store between 9 am and 1:30 pm.
Finally, one of the best parts about this event is all the local groups and organizations that will be with us all weekend long looking forward to speaking with you about activities on the water this year. We’re pleased to welcome the following:
Aker’s Ferry Canoe Rental
Author Bob Myers
Camp Manitowa
Gingko Adventures
The Great River Rumble
Missouri Whitewater Association
River Hills Traveler
St. Louis Canoe & Kayak Club
St. Louis County Parks
Webster Groves Nature Study
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Alpine Shop is in the house at the St Louis Boat & Sportshow this week at the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St Louis.
Not only are we showing off some of our newest kayaks for the 2012 year, our very own Programming Director, Marty Koch, will be hosting seminars on Kayak Fishing and Paddling the Ozarks during prime time on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll also have a full kayak demo on Friday night at 8 pm at the Dock Dogs Pool.
While this event has typically been aimed at the motor boat set in the past, the organizers are moving the focus more to everything outdoors and we’re happy to be a part of it.
So get on down to the Boat and SportShow this week – and say “Hi” to your friendly neighborhood Alpine Shop folk!
Tonight, we open the tent for Alpine Shop’s 18th Annual Winter Swap at 7 pm. One of the best parts of this day is watching the line of excited people grow around the side of the building. Here’s some time-lapse footage from last year’s Winter Swap to give you an idea of what we’re talking about.
Enjoy! (And we’ll see you tonight. What time are you getting here?)
Don’t forget, while the tent opens at 7 pm tomorrow night for used gear sales and clearance items, Alpine Shop’s new gear sales will start at all three Alpine Shop locations first thing in the morning. Want to see what’s on sale? Take a peek at our new gear sales here.
While everyone breathlessly awaits 7 pm tomorrow to enter the tent and find this year’s best deals, here’s one more sneak preview at what we have inside.
For 17 years, Alpine Shop has always had two distinct Swap Celebrations: a Spring Swap dedicated to bikes, boats, camping gear and all warm-weather pursuits, and the Winter Swap devoted to all things done outside in the cold including skiing, snowboarding and playing in the snow. So for the 18th year, of course, we threw all of that out the window.
As of Monday, October 17 at 10 am, Alpine Shop Kirkwood and Columbia are ready to accept your used items into the Swap. Bring them in early to avoid the line. If you prefer to leave things until the last minute, please note that ALL used gear registration needs to be finished by 5 pm on Friday, Oct. 21. More than likely, this means you need to be in line at 4 pm at the latest to check-in your gear. As we continue to improve the Swap to make sure our lines don’t stretch back for hours on Friday night, that same technology has forced us to make some changes in how we do some things. Check-in is one of those things.
We’ll still open the tent at 7 pm on Friday night. We’ll still have people tailgating for the tent opening hours before then. You’ll still find the tent filled with great prices on used and clearance items. (Or, you’ll still see the money coming in from the items you’re selling!)
You will find a few changes inside our stores, however. All of our new-gear sales will begin when we open our doors first thing in the morning in Kirkwood, Chesterfield and Columbia (or on-line at alpineshop.com). If you’re just interested in new gear deals, you no longer have to wait until the 7 pm starting time anymore. Also, we’ll have Early Bird and Night Owl deals on new gear on both Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 22-23 and Sat. and Sun., Oct. 29-30. You can find those limited time specials on page 3 of our on-line new-gear sale catalog here.
Used gear sales are open in Kirkwood and Columbia on Friday, Oct. 21 from 7 pm–11 pm; Sat., Oct. 22 from 9 am—9 pm and Sun., Oct. 23 from 11 am—6 pm.
Weekly mountain bike races begin tonight – Thursday, June 30 – at Castlewood State Park as the Alpine Shop Short Track Dirt Crits kick off the 2011 season. This series of races, part of St. Louis’s Off-Road Racing League, runs for five weeks and features three races each night.
Mountain bike racers of all abilities are welcome! Choose your race based on your ability: A- Expert, B-Sport and C-Novice/beginners. Each category follows the same course. The difference is in how long the race lasts. The A racers lasts 45 minutes plus two laps. B race goes for 25 minutes plus two laps and the C race lasts 15 minutes plus two laps.
At the time of posting, registrations were full for the 6/30 races; but spots were still available for the following races. If you’re interested in participating, please click here for on-line registration.
Following the races, all participants are invited to partake of some fantastic food from The Wolf Public House, including beverages from New Belgium Brewery.
Alpine Shop has some drool-worthy prizes to give away all series long for both participants and spectators alike. Just stop by our tent to find out more.
Alpine Shop knows you wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive first. (You wouldn’t, would you?) The same applies when you’re shopping for a new kayak, canoe or bike, as well. Alpine Shop’s Demo Days are the perfect way to Try Before You Buy.
Boat after boat after boat, just waiting to be paddled by you.
Let’s take boats to start. Every craft will handle just a little bit differently, and you’d be amazed at how much little adjustments – like moving your seat forward or back – can have major effects on how a new boat paddles. That’s why this weekend’s Demo Days at Creve Coeur Lake are so helpful to you if you’re in the market for a new boat. We’ll have a full selection of nearly every major brand we carry available to paddle at Sailboat Cove on Saturday and Sunday, May 14-15. And while we’ll continue to have smaller Paddle Demo Days throughout the summer on an almost bi-weekly basis, we won’t have the sheer number of canoes and kayaks each week like we’ll have this weekend.
If you’re just getting started on your paddling career, you won’t find a better introduction to the sport then the chance to discover what each individual kayak or canoe type can offer you. And while some of the finer points of each craft may not be readily apparent to you, what you will find is an idea of the general type of boat that will work best for you.
If you’re an experienced paddler looking to take a step up, here’s your chance to play around with other people’s boats to your heart’s content. Find out which boat matches you’re desires perfectly.
Below are a couple of links that you may find useful before coming out and seeing us. Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help you find your perfect boat.
This year, we’re pleased to welcome the Specialized Test the Best Demo Team to Alpine Shop’s Demo Days! Creve Coeur Lake Park – besides the lake – also has one of the area’s most popular bike paths, so it’s a perfect fit to try out our newest line of bikes to find out exactly what type of bike works best for you.
Bikes and boats are all included in your $5 registration fee – and you’ll also get a free hot dog, chips and drink as well.
If you’ve never been with us in Kirkwood for the opening night of a Swap, then this video is for you. We want you to know exactly what you’ve been missing out on.
This video shows footage just as we’ve opened up the tent for customers. Everyone has a great time. We gave away a bunch of great prizes to people standing line. Thanks to Columbia Sportswear and Marmot for providing many of the prizes.
If you weren’t able to join us tonight, we hope you’ll come by sometime this weekend and join in our official kickoff for spring!
Lighting isn’t the best, but this will give you an idea of just how many bikes and other gear are just sitting in the Swap Tent waiting for the mad rush this evening. Don’t wait around, get in line as soon as possible!
