It’s summer – time for electric Bumper Boats!!

These bumper boats at Harrison Hot Springs, Canada, – about an hour and a half drive from Vancouver – are what electric boats are meant to be (at least for some of us): all fun, all the time, with pretty close to zero emissions, since 95% of the province of British Columbia’s electricity comes from renewable sources.

We could give you the lowdown on the 24 volt motor and charging time, but here are the really important stats: each boat has a water gun that can hit a target 10 feet away. And A half hour of bumping and blasting costs about $US 20.

We’re going to be serious for just a few more sentences, to tell you that the province is also home to Corvus Energy (batteries) and Ballard Power Systems (fuel cells), which are each working on some of the largest electric and hydrogen powered ferries and cruise ships in the world. (Here’s the Plugboats article about them).

We’ll also tell you that if you are visiting Vancouver there’s another electric boat experience available from Electric Harbour Tours. They have a range of zero e-boat trips around the city, with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, where you cruise by places like Stanley Park, home to one of the largest urban great blue heron colonies in North America. Ironically for a zero emission excursion, the trips start in a place named Coal Harbour.

But enough serious stuff. Have a 2 minute laugh.

Do yourself a favour and take two minutes (1:41 actually) to look at how much fun these two hosts from the YTV Canadian kids’ channel are having as they shoot each other with those highly accurate water guns and bash and bounce around in the electric bumper boats at Harrison Hot Springs Watersports.