“That was a little scary.”
Those wouldn’t really be the words we would choose, but that’s exactly how Adelaide snowboarder Tom Oye described his trip down a mountain in Whistler, Canada to his snow companion. Only, he didn’t quite snowboard the whole way down—he was dragged down by a fast moving avalanche. Strangely enough, he didn’t get hurt at all. And because he filmed the whole thing, we can now all experience what it’s like to be right smack in the middle of this frightening phenomenon.
Throughout the video, you’ll hear a strange buzzing sound, and that’s probably what saved Oye’s life. It’s a gift he got from friends back home in Southern Australia: an avalanche airbag backpack. As demonstrated in this Ten Eyewitness News coverage, it inflates when it senses that its wearer is in trouble. Some ten seconds into his descent, Oye is fully buried in snow, but before you know it, he emerges to the shining sun again.
Not how I planned on starting the morning,” Oye writes on Facebook. We can surely believe that. Thankfully, all is well with the snowboarder.
Thanks to Oye’s GoPro, everyone can relive his experiences.
A gift from his friends, just might have saved Oye’s life.
“That was a little scary,” Oye concludes when his friend comes to the rescue.
“