A few weeks back I met @360Kaz at the Vancouver Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show at the Squamish Tourism Booth, and she gave me the scoop on her very cool job with MyPlanet360°.

MyPlanet360° is owned by Beamer Studios who have offices in Squamish and Germany, and they offer 360° virtual tours of various locations. For example, they were at the recent Illuminate Yaletown event: (click “full screen & more” below for the tour)

Illuminated Yaletown — © MyPlanet 360°

They do some shots for self promotion, but the business is based on finding clients who want a great piece of marketing to attract visitors to their resort, hotel, etc. Once they have captured the image, the client can use it, and it is also available from the MyPlanet360° website to share and embed on other sites and blogs, creating further value for the client via word of mouth. For example, I’ve recently added a 360 tour to an older post I did about the Stawamus Chief, and viewers of that post will be able to get a better experience of the Chief summit, as well be able to access the MyPlanet360° website.

Blackcomb Glacier — © MyPlanet 360°

So check out their site, they have lots of other great tours including some great shots of one spot that’s on the top of my hiking to-do-list: Berg Lake in Mount Robson Park.

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Tags: Illuminate Vancouver,MyPlanet360,Photos,Squamish,Virtual Tour,Whistler
Categories: Company Profiles
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Last weekend I had the chance to go bungee jumping for the first time, and so I thought I’d profile the company I jumped with, Whistler Bungee. I’m not an overly daring person, so I have to admit I was a weee bit scared, but it was something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now.

The whole experience was first class. The staff are very helpful, friendly, and not afraid to take the piss out of you if you show any signs of weakness. “Oh don’t worry, if something goes wrong, just make sure you swim to the left. If you swim to the right, the current will take you away”. Earlier in the day my friend and I were doing a few runs at Whistler, and got to talking with someone on the Gondola who had jumped with Whistler Bungee before. He said the staff went so far as to do a little play, where one employee grabbed him just before he was about to jump, and started yelling at another employee saying he harnessed the jumper wrong and he would have fallen, and that he was fired. The ‘fired’ employee then sulked down the bridge, only stop, turn around, and shout “Gotcha!…seriously you’re OK, jump”.

That said, the company has a great reputation for safety, and a clean track record. Overall, the experience of jumping was great. The 160ft free fall was amazing, and afterward you are hoisted back up, which I don’t think a lot of bungee places do. You have your choice to harness by the chest or feet, and how you want to jump. You can watch the videos below to see my jump, as well as my friends. (My friend is the one who does a slick looking back flip. I’m the one who screams like a little girl and flails around like a madman).

Whistler Bungee — © MyPlanet 360°

Whistler Bungee is located about 15 minutes south of Whistler Village. Whichever person in your group has the biggest car should drive because the 3km gravel road to the bridge is in terrible shape.  It costs $120 for your first jump, and $60 for any future jumps. Oh, and you get a t-shirt out of the deal. There is also a photographer who takes a bunch of pics you can buy afterward. Another cool thing about the company for all you sustainability folks, is that the entire operation is run off a small windmill and solar panels. The ‘operation’ consists of 2 light bulbs, laptops, and a payment machine, but hey that’s still pretty cool. I’ll definitely be heading back to jump again at some point, and if you’ve ever thought about jumping just go do it. Even if you’re a bit nervous you’ll be glad you did!

There are other great videos on their website

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Tags: Bungee Jumping,Whistler
Categories: Company Profiles, Other Outdoor Stuff
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Rocky Point Kayak does rentals and lessons out of Port Moody. On Father’s Day, my girlfriend took me out kayaking in the Burrard Inlet with a guided tour they had on for a deal. Since then we’ve also taken a Level II, Rescues & Recoveries course with them. Both experiences were great. On the Father’s Day tour, we cruised around the inlet checking out the sulfur shipping terminal, harbor seals, and some bald eagles.

Rocky Point Kayak has been operating in the Tri Cities since 2000, providing kayak lessons, rentals and tours.  We are focused on providing a fun and safe environment where people of all ages and walks of life can develop their kayaking skills and take them as far they want.

For the lessons they require a minimum group of 3 (which we had) and the instruction was great. The instructor was glad to teach us as much as we could absorb and practice over the 3 hours, above and beyond the outlined scope of the course. This was especially impressive since he had just come back from the Pemberton Music Festival and was a little worse for wear.

If you have little ones, they also offer kids camps in the summer, which I think are fairly popular. If you’re looking to get out for some lessons, or just paddle around the inlet at Port Moody, make sure you check them out. You can even start a more adventurous trip into the Indian Arm from there as well.

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Tags: lessons,Rentals,Rocky Point Kayak
Categories: Company Profiles, Kayaking
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I recently got SCUBA certified with a friend of mine, and thought it would be fitting to do the first company profile on the shop where I took the course. The shop was BC Dive & Kayak located on W. 4th, near Granville, in Vancouver. BC Dive offers SSI certification, which is one of the two main internationally recognized certifications, with PADI being the other. The course was $550 plus tax, which I felt was great value for the experience. The whole course lasted about a month, and included all gear rentals, roughly 6 hours of class time, 9 hours of pool time, and three ocean sessions (of two dives each session).

The staff was great; very knowledgeable and kind, and the shop has all the top brands for diving or kayaking. As a rookie diver, I can’t say how the store prices compare to other shops in the area, but I would highly recommend getting certification there if you are looking SSI.

Overall I’ve had a great experience with BC Dive & Kayak, and recommend checking out the shop next time you’re in the area.

Below is a short video of a feather star we saw on one of the dives.

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Tags: BC Dive & Kayak,lessons,Scuba
Categories: Company Profiles, Scuba Diving
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