The Tourism Board of British Columbia brought something extremely cool to San Francisco for a couple weeks this April: urban ziplining at Justin Herman Plaza. It was all part of Tourism BC’s “British Columbia Experience,” a travel promotion that included aboriginal dance, an art installation, and a 680-foot zipline between two portable towers. The zipline was free of charge for the first 500 people per day to show up by 10 AM and get a wristband.

Having ziplined in a rainforest in Laos, I am a hyooooge fan of ziplining, and of course tried to get a wristband. The very cute dude from Whistler with the cool accent, manning the Tourism BC booth, told me that people started showing up at 8 AM to get in line. When I arrived the next morning at 8, though, all 500 people were already there, and the wristbands were gone. “They started getting here at 5 AM,” the Whistler hottie confirmed apologetically.

I was a bit bummed at missing the chance — because no way would I be willing to wake up that ridiculously early for 30 seconds of zip-thrills — but the whole scene was fun anyway, even if you just wanted to show up, hang out in the sunshine and watch the action.

It was the centerpiece to a cool festival atmosphere downtown, and overall an effective way to get people enthused about checking out BC. I thought it was a great idea for British Columbia Tourism to capitalize on all the attention brought on by the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games and do these fun promotions. A friend from Canada told me they had urban ziplining in Vancouver during the Olympics, and that all these knuckleheads showed up hours in advance there, too. Guess it’s not just an American thing!

So, I guess now I’ll have to go to British Columbia myself soon and zipline for real. I also have to mention that it seems every person from British Columbia is super cute — either that, or the Tourism BC board totally knows how to promote a location. SOLD!