This weekend I had the chance to check out the Flying Canucks…they aren’t hockey players, but they are amazing athletes who use trampolines to entertain people.
The team is comprised of former Olympic athletes and Cirque De Soleil performers, it is a high energy show that even has a DJ.
As you’ll see in the video, Olivier Lemieux actually took my little Kodak Zx1 on the trampoline with him for a few tricks:
Consider yourself warned as it may make some people a little queasy seeing the kind of moves his body goes through. There is also a brief picture in picture clip to give you an idea of what tricks are being performed from two perspectives. It’s not perfectly in sync but pretty close considering I only had one video camera at the event.
A big thanks to the Flying Canucks for having me out and for putting on a great show. They are performing March 5-7, 2010 at Metrotown Mall in Burnaby and then taking a break and will tour again this summer.
After three weeks, over 17,000 photos and hours of video, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are done. It feels strange to see the city slowly transform itself back to the pre-Olympic state (with some Paralympic exceptions).
Once I get back from SXSW mid-March, I’ll jump into the Paralympics as much as I can using my True North Media House badge. I’m also still waiting to hear from Nikon about my D90 that got a little too exposed to the elements during my adventures. I’m hoping it can simply dry out and work again but we’ll see in about a week.
For now, here’s a highlight video I made using various video and photographic content I created during the games:
This morning I had a chance to be one of the first to ride the new Zipline that goes over Robson Street:
Needless to say, it was amazing!
Thanks to ZipTrek EcoTours for putting this on. It opens to the general public FOR FREE on Friday, February 12th. You can watch people ride it on their webcam.
I shot this with my Kodak Zx1 camera with the fisheye lens attachment. Seemed like a perfect day for a waterproof(ish) camera.
UPDATE: I felt confident enough to take my Nikon D90 out for a zipline spin too:
I ended up riding the zipline 4 times…it’s unlikely I’d ever get a chance to do that again (go again & again) so I made the most of it! They even said I could just leave the harness on between runs…except to get back to the launch tower, I had to walk up Howe Street and cross Robson on the sidewalk…yes, you get lots of looks when you are fully geared out with a harness and helmet. So much fun!
I was invited to check out two prototype models of Chevy’s upcoming Volt plug-in electric vehicle today. I can safely say nobody has ever offered to let me drive a pre-production vehicle before so I jumped at the chance.
These cars were handmade in at GM’s design factory and are in town during the Olympics (GM is a vehicle sponsor). The fit and finish (and even some of the tech) wasn’t final yet as they are still tweaking the designs at this point.
It’s the first fully electric, plug-in vehicle and it was a lot of fun to drive. We were in a parking lot with a little track made out of cones around it and were able to get it going at a pretty good clip. Definitely ‘peppier’ than I was expecting.
I really like the idea of being able to simply plug the car into a normal wall outlet (you actually plug it into a box that plugs into the wall). It can currently go approximately 64 kms per charge running in practically silent electric mode. It will cost just under a $1 a day to charge the vehicle.
The driver’s dashboard:
The centre console:
This is what happens when you get the Volt up over 88 mph:
They even have an iPhone app that allows to you monitor many aspects of the vehicle as well as unlock/lock, start and charge it all remotely.
It’s all tied into the OnStar system. A free demo version of the Volt ‘Experience’ app is already on the (US) App Store if you want to check it out yourself…search for “OnStar Experience”.
I was also able to attach a camera to the windshield to get some driving video. Because it was a prototype, with a custom paint job, the engineers didn’t want me to attach the camera to any painted surfaces. I didn’t want to be the guy that damages a very expensive prototype either.
Here’s the resulting video with a cheeky soundtrack I added by Basement Jaxx that I think GM should licence for the Volt’s promotion:
It was a pretty cool opportunity to check out this pre-production vehicle, chat with a couple of the engineers who designed it and for the chance to drive it. I’ll be curious to see what changes get made when they finally put it into production next year. It’s supposed to hit the Canadian market in mid-2011.
Over the holidays, I got to check out a friend’s Go Pro HD which really blew me away since you can put it just about anywhere thanks to its numerous mount options, waterproof housing and wicked wide angle lens. Unfortunately it’s about $300 and I just can’t justify that right now but I still wanted to be able to have some fun with the cameras I already have and attach them to different things to shoot HD and timelapse videos.
So this weekend, I picked up a Delkin Fat Gecko Mini-Mount (Amazon link although I bought mine from London Drugs):
It’s a beefy suction cup mount for attaching your camera to all kinds of things…like your car:
I know what you’re thinking…but this mount is much more robust than the $12 mount I found on ebay (which I overloaded).
I wanted to try it out with some ’safer’ positions first that I could keep an eye on but after spending some time today with it stuck all over my car, driving at different speeds (including taking it on the highway) I trust it to carry my smaller cameras like the Kodak Zx1 and even my trusty Nikon P6000 pretty much while attached in any position to my car, inside or out. Driving from my home to downtown (about 30 minutes on the highway) over all kinds of turns and bumps resulted in no problems with the mount…it’s solid.
Here’s a video showing some of the different angles I shot during my ‘test drive’ today:
The mount also comes with an extension arm which lets you get out and away from the attach point better so I’ll be trying that next. I also need to dig out my wide angle and fisheye lenses to make the field of view on the Zx1 even wider.
UPDATE: Found my fisheye lens and added the extension arm to the Fat Gecko….the results are pretty awesome:
Amazon link
