This video was shot with a 360 Fly helmetcam. As its name suggests, the 360 Fly records pretty much EVERYTHING around it.

Although you can only see about a quarter of the total field of view at any one time, the cool thing is that you pan the video around using your mouse (or your finger if viewing on a smartphone or tablet).

You might find it easier at first to use the ‘direction pad’ situated in the top left of the screen actually.

>>> Difficult course causes carnage in cross country World Cup (VIDEO)

Details of the 360 Fly camera

For example, in the above vid you can watch the footage from the rider’s eye point of view.

Or you can turn it around and watch him ride ‘at’ you (which is always a bit weird-looking).

Or you can pan to the side to see a bit more of the terrain.

Or you can jiggle it all over the place until you feel a bit nauseous. Though we wouldn’t really recommend doing that.

If you want to see how a 360 Fly vid would look on the sort of terrain a bit more familiar then check out the video below (NB: it takes a few seconds to get going, it’s not just your connection being dodgy!)

Although 360 degree footage feels something of a novelty that may just go nowhere, we can’t help wonder how good it would be to see a live-streaming 360 immersive cam on a rider in a race. It would really help liven up XC racing footage for example.

We shall see. UCI, are you watching?