In just three minutes and during a total solar eclipse, Pedro Burns descended from Villarrica volcano at full speed to perform a backflip at the exact moment the sun was covered by the moon.
On December 14, the career of Chilean enduro athlete Pedro Burns marked a new milestone running against an Eclipse and achieved an incredible setback at the same time as the sky in southern Chile was completely darkened.
The astronomical phenomenon was accompanied by heavy rain that posed an additional challenge to this crazy race against time starring the three-time Chilean national Enduro champion and the top 20 of the last Enduro World Series.
The Burns challenge was recorded in a 3-minute action clip where you can experience the frantic race down a narrow path from the side of the volcano that passes through a thick native forest to arrive just in time for the climax of the eclipse a made a throw back.
The video available at redbull.com is accompanied by a behind-the-scenes production where Burns details the main difficulty he had in meeting this challenge: the rain.
In addition to the weather conditions, the helmet of Pedro Burns was another novelty in this project. As the action would go into darkness. The Spanish company OneTech Media developed a light technique that mixes electroluminescent paint and a small battery inside the helmet. This provided the light Burns needed to shine in the midst of a total eclipse.
After completing the challenge, Burns commented on the difficulties of backfliping in the dark:
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From the beginning I wanted to make a leap, but I never imagined we would have so many complications. We arrived and it was raining, the ground did not allow us to reach the required speed and we thought we would not get it.
Finally, together with the team, we decided to try it out and started digging and removing the entire first layer of soil and we got it. It really is something that gives an amazing closure to my year. |