X Games- Sled Double Back Flip

[DTro]

I can't believe this guy is attempting a double back flip on a sled!

Should be interesting

[ccarlson]

I was relieved to see he didn't get hurt. Too bad he couldn't stay on the sled during the landing though so it didn't qualify.

I didn't think he had enough speed heading into the ramp but he actually went long on the landing ramp which is why the landing was too hard to stay on the sled.

ccarlson

[chasineyes]

Agree with you on the speed. Looked way, way slow but he/they pulled it off!!! Simply Awesome

[DTro]

I really thought he was going to kill himself. It's not so much not being able to do it, but having 500lbs out of control is insane.

Having a bike fall on you is a little different than a sled.

[fishuhalik]

What?! One a sled? Someone needs to post that video ASAP!! I remember when travis pastrana did it for the first time on a bike, that was quite possibly the most groundbreaking moment in extreme sports.

[DTro]

It's funny because he didn't qualify to get votes for the medal because he needed to ride away.

Still pretty cool!

[dan z]

Thats cool. Its to bad he did not land it.

[fishuhalik]

oh....my....gosh. Thanks for posting that video, that's one of the most amazing things i've ever seen!!!!!!!

[s2h]

Yeah that was sweet! I also thought he would get hurt doing it.

[Central Bassman]

I watch this live and on DVR about 10 times, He hit so hard!!! I give the man props for trying it!!

[kilkercal615]

He is a hometown boy to...Born and raised in Longville.

[FasterThanYou23]

Hope he can stick it next year

[hanson]

I really don't know how anyone is going to be able to ride away from that unless they have a 45 degree landing hill a heck of a lot longer than the one Levi had.

He practiced the flip over and over and over again into a foam pit but I don't think anyone calculated the force of that sled hitting that kind of landing hill. From what I understand, that was his first attempt on snow without the foam pit.

Guess if I was Levi, I'd leave well enough alone. I have no idea how he found the nerve to do that.

[pisces]

Yea, as was said above, it was practiced into a foam pit. This can be seen on youtube. Search "snowmobile flip levi" and find one called : smowmobile flipping is not easy. It's a good watch.

[hanson]

Article from the Star Tribune the other day...

Minnesota snowmobiler scores a first

Levi LaVallee of Longville, with help from a sizable support team, pulled off a double backflip on his machine.

By RACHEL BLOUNT, Star Tribune

Last update: January 27, 2009 - 10:20 PM

Levi LaVallee understands why people might think he's a bit unhinged. The snowmobile racer from Longville, Minn., drove his sled off a steep ramp last Friday at the X Games and flipped backward twice, soaring through the sky upside down on a 450-pound machine. On purpose.

Such tricks do require a certain willingness to suspend the survival instinct. Yet, LaVallee argues, they also take a scientific, disciplined approach -- and a posse of mechanics, engineers and fellow dreamers. After months of planning for a trick that had never been done in snowmobile competition, LaVallee hit everything but the landing at the X Games, as his sled came down so hard it knocked him out of the seat.

That kept the three-time X Games gold medalist from winning the Next Trick competition. After a couple of months back on the snocross racing circuit, he will go home to his practice ramp and foam pit -- as well as the computer -- to work toward perfection on the stunt that's become an obsession.

"The double flip is by far the scariest thing I've ever put my mind to,'' said LaVallee, 26. "I'd seen a dirt-bike rider do it in the X Games a couple of years ago, and I thought, 'I can do one [backflip]. Why not two?' Pretty soon, it stuck in my head, and I had to figure it out.

"A lot of people think it's pure craziness that goes through your head. But there is a lot of preparation involved. I'm not going to put it away until I land one.''

LaVallee began racing snowmobiles when he was 10, but he didn't get into freestyle trick riding until last year. In the evolving sport, which has been around for about a decade, riders perform stunts such as flipping their sleds or doing handstands on the seat or handlebars.

Two victories in the 2008 X Games solidified the legend of Launchin' Levi and extended his stardom within the extreme-sports crowd. Soon after, he began pondering how to do the double backflip. Though he admits to being something less than an A student in physics and mathematics, LaVallee used those concepts to map out the stunt long before he considered trying it.

"It was more of a science project,'' he said. "When we started, the ramp wasn't high enough and the sled didn't have the power to get enough rotation. We had to come up with a game plan.''

One of his sponsors, Red Bull, already had built a practice ramp at his home, with a 10-foot-deep landing pit filled with foam cubes. His crew built a high-powered Polaris snowmobile with a special suspension and modified weight distribution that would help the sled spin around. LaVallee figured out how high and steep the ramp should be, how to tuck his body to create a pivot point, when to crank the throttle to power the flip and at what point to pull the handlebars to start the rotation.

The first time he tried it, he made one other calculation: a bailout point, so he could jump off the sled to avoid being crushed by it if he landed upside down. He misjudged it and found himself flying 20 feet in the air above his snowmobile. LaVallee kept at it, jumping every bitterly cold day in December with the help of friends who came by after work and on weekends.

Once he could reliably do the stunt into the foam pit, he tried it on the snow. The second rotation was short, and the sled crashed on top of him. "Some people said they weren't sure I was alive,'' LaVallee said. "But I only had a bloody nose. And I knew I could do two flips and what I had to do on the landing.''

He would not try the trick again until the X Games competition. Even though he didn't stay on the sled to earn a score, LaVallee -- who injured his knee and ankle -- sprinted to the top of the snow hill and waved his arms to a wildly cheering crowd. He plans to be back on his home ramp in March, calculating and analyzing and risking his health all over again.

"It is unbelievably scary, because you're so high in the air,'' he said. "When you tuck in for the second rotation, you don't know if you're going to make it. It's like you're falling out of the sky.

"For a little kid to high-five me, for someone to ask for an autograph, that is the coolest thing. That's why I do this.''

[wastewaterguru]

He had some big orbs to try that......but he probably doesn't have them any more after that landing.