Swedish snowmobiler Daniel Bodin has now added
record-breaker to his list of honors.
How's this for a rush? Bodin, who won X
Games gold in January, earlier this month rode a snowmobile down a vertiginous
ski jump in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The jump carried him just
short of the 70-meter (230-foot) mark, shattering the world record in the
process.
Bodin and a team of experienced freestyle
motocross and snowmobile riders have been planning this audacious record bid
for six months and together built the kicker that catapulted him 50 feet into the air.
"What a feeling! I spent such a long time
dreaming about this moment and waiting for it to finally happen," Bodin said
after the jump. "Flying is a unique sensation that is hard to describe. It
was quite intimidating at the top, but straight after take-off I felt I had
everything under control."
Bodin isn't new to breaking records. In 2008 he
set a new world record for the longest backflip on a snowmobile. But his most
recent record-breaking feat is something else altogether.
"For years I have passed ski-jumping hills in my
car, and every time I've thought that it should be possible to jump one of
those with a snowmobile," he said. "Half a year ago I felt it was time to go
from thought to action and just do it."
And so he did. Who knows what he'll do next with
his trusty snowmobile?
Click here to see the record-breaking jump.