Nike’s epic snowboarding film Never Not Part One was a smash hit when it was first released in 2013. It eschewed snow park antics in favour of urban snowboarding, plus a healthy dose of pure backcountry shredding. But the stand-out moment for most people was surely Halldor Helgason’s career-defining stunt in his native Iceland involving a backflip to 360 over a double roof gap.
Some three years in the planning, the trick called on Halldor to jump from the roof of one commercial building to another, before dropping down onto the waiting snow-covered tarmac below. But there was even more to it than that – Halldor also incorporated a stunning backflip which he landed perfectly onto the strip of snow which had been spread across the opposing roof. He capped it all off with a flawless 360 as he returned to ground level, completing what has to be one of the most ambitious feats of snowboarding expertise to date.
Words could not possibly do a trick of this quality justice, so here is a video of the stunt plus a brief interview with the man himself in the immediate aftermath. Halldor is famous for his anarchic, full-throttle style, and this sequence is no exception. Unbelievably, he’s wearing a neck brace following a less successful attempt earlier in the day.
The final part included footage shot from an overhead remote controlled helicopter, and if you dig around a little, you can find point of view footage from Halldor’s head camera as he prepares for his first attempt. However it’s really all about the stunt itself, which unsurprisingly has already attained classic status. Expect it to crop up compilation videos for many years to come.