On 24 January Daniel Bodin beat his freestyle rivals Colten Moore and Heath Frisby to the first successful double back flip in history on his custom built snowmobile.
After a series of test jumps, the 31-year-old gunned his snowmobile towards the kicker in a forest glade on his home snow of Malung and completed two full back flip rotations.
Not only that, the snowmobile motocross star managed to land his 204kg vehicle back down safely from 45 feet in the air.
Previous high-profile attempts at the elusive trick by Levi LaVallee at the 2009 Winter X Games and Justin Hoyer in the 2011 event both came up short, however Bodin was confident that he could finally wrap up the holy grail of tricks.
He declared:
I did it! I can’t believe I did it! The rush! It just can’t be described – nobody in this world can understand the feeling. I have nurtured the dream about nailing this trick for more than two years.
I have always felt that this trick was mine and I simply couldn’t let anybody else beat me to it. But pulling off a double for the first time in a competition didn’t feel right. I wanted to do it without the pressure and in an environment that I could control.
The multiple Winter X Games gold medallist first came to the sport’s attention when he landed the world’s longest back flip of 147 feet nearly a decade ago. He also managed to battle back from a 2012 horror crash that fractured five vertebrae to continue his gold medal haul, along with a near 215-feet jump off a ski jump slope.
Since his record breaking attempt, Bodin went onto win gold for ‘Snowmobile Best Trick’ at the Winter X Games which took place 26 – 29 January. Unfortunately fellow freestyler Colten Moore, who won silver for ‘Snowmobile Best Trick’ was injured at the X Games after attempting to land a double back flip on his snow mobile. He was transported away from Buttermilk Mountain in an ambulance.
Here’s to Moore making a full recovery and getting back on his snowmobile for more insane tricks.
Featured image: Daniel Bodin making history. Photo: Richard Ström/Red Bull Content Pool
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