A snowboarder has managed to capture the astonishing moment an avalanche started around him.
Tom Oye was hitting the slope in Whistler, Canada when the snow beneath him cracked.
ViralHog
As the avalanche started to form all around him Oye was able to deploy his state-of-the-art backpack which inflates all around him keeping him above the snow and protected from the ensuing tidal wave of snow.
As the astonishing footage shows, Oye not only survived unharmed but was able to get straight back up afterwards.
If there’s one thing that every skier or snowboarder fears, it’s an avalanche.
Appearing out of nowhere with little or no warning these natural phenomenon can cause vast quantities of damage in minutes.
In the past if you were unlucky enough to be caught in the middle of one, the odds were almost certainly not in your favour.
Thankfully, new technologies have been developed to protect these athletes from the dangers of the job.
Oye was able to make use of his Black Diamond backpack. One quick pull of the safety chord and a high-powered motor inflates the airbag in seconds, protecting the user.
As you can hear from the video, the motor will repeatedly pump air into the bag to keep it inflated for a few minutes before immediately shutting down allowing the user to either get air if submerged or get back up if afloat.
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