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Speedriding is one of the craziest sports out there. Combining freeskiing and paragliding, you strap a parachute to your back, skis to your feet, and go full-send off of the side of a snowy mountain. As you navigate your way down at ridiculous speeds, part of the time is spent on the snow and the other in the air. It’s nuts.
Valentin Delluc is one of the most well-known in the sport and the Frenchman is known for pushing the limits of what is possible. His most recent video, ‘From Alvoriaz with Love,’ takes him out of the wilderness and into the deserted alpine resort Avoriaz. The incredible feat was only possible because of the country’s COVID-19 lockdown and chairlifts being closed, but Delluc took advantage of the opportunity and used the empty French Alps resort as his own personal playground. There is no added music or sound to the video, which makes it just that much better, providing a feeling that you’re on the journey with him. It doesn’t look real, but more like something you would see in a video game.
Beyond the requirement of an empty resort, there were many other technical challenges for the freeriding legend. The weather conditions had to be perfect, he and his team needed agreements and authorizations from the building owners for Delluc to touch his skis on roofs, as well as building the kickers and ramps throughout the village.
“The first challenge is to have good snow, no wind, no clouds,” Delluc said. “When you’re flying through the buildings, you need perfect wind conditions because the wind is much more turbulent and almost all the tricks I did need to be super precise. It was a completely new environment with new tricks so the production team and I had to adapt a lot and be aware of everything. Sliding on a chair lift cable without chairs on it was not easy because I had to keep some speed to jump above the clamps on the cable.
All of the pieces came together and the result is fantastic. The dream-like quality is a testament to his vision, and the shots that he and his film crew pulled off are surreal. As for his favorite, it’s all about the chairlift cables.
“If I have to choose only one favourite part – because I like a lot of parts in this video – I think my favourite is still the slide on the chairlift cable because I feel very lucky to be able to do this here and the feeling through the buildings is just incredible,” he said. “The chair lift slide and the wall ride was for me 2 very big actions I always wanted to do in a project. I also really like the Igloo part when I pack my wing.”
No matter which part is your favorite, every single second is captivating. Delluc does stuff like this all of the time and they’re all worth checking out. Give his name a Google and let your mind melt into the world of speedriding for hours, you’ll be the better for it.