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Home / World

Watch: Snowboarder rides and survives avalanche because of backpack

Daily Mail
12 Jan, 2017 06:41 PM3 mins to read

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Source: Facebook / Tom Oye

A brand new birthday present saved the life of one snowboarder, whose terrifying ride through an avalanche was captured on his helmet cam.

Tom Oye, 29, may not have lived to tell the tale of his terrifying near-death experience if it wasn't for the inflatable backpack his family recently bought him.

Oye was shredding the fresh powder in Whistler, Canada when suddenly cracks cut through the snow, the Daily Mail reports.

The video captured the terrifying moment Oye realised the ground was about to fall out from underneath him.

"Oh s***," the snowboarder exclaims.

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Oye then brings his knees to the snow as he opens up his inflatable backpack, which helps to keep boarders at or near the snow's surface during an avalanche.

The screen on Oye's helmet camera suddenly fills with white as he descends through the avalanche.

Oye's heavy breaths can be heard in the terrifying footage before the sky suddenly appears, the sun once again shining down on him.

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"Oh s***," he says again, realising he is safe.

One of his friends then comes sliding down the mountain, clearly shocked.

"Holy f*** bro, you okay?" he asks Oye.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Oye says calmly. "That was uh, that was a little scary," he then says, putting it lightly.

Another friend then comes through, also screaming "Holy f***!" as he realises Oye is okay.

"You okay?" the friend asks.

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright," Oye says.

The incredible helmet cam video has already gone viral, racking up more than one million views in less than a day.

But Oye's family is just glad he's okay.

Marlene Oye, Tom's grandmother, revealed the family gave the backpack to the boarder during his recent visit back home to Adelaide, Australia.

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"It was a lot of money, but, my God, it saved his life," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Inflatable backpacks tend to cost around $1,000, but Marlene said "it could have been a million dollars but it would have been worth it".

Marlene said she has seen her grandson pull all kinds of crazy stunts, but was still shook up when she saw the footage.

"Having seen him come off motorbikes and that sort of thing, you know, you're a bit prepared I guess," she said. "But it was a bit scary."

Marlene revealed that Oye used to be an Enduro bike rider, a type of mountain bike racing that she said gave the family "enough frights".

"He's been a very lucky young man," she added, noting that Oye broke his leg in the snow 18 months ago.

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"The gods smiled down upon him."

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