Video: Pedro Burns Races a Solar Eclipse in 'Ride into Darkness'
Press Release: Red Bull
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 that the sun was covered by the moon.
On December 14, the career of Chilean enduro athlete Pedro Burns set a new milestone by running against an Eclipse and achieved an incredible backflip in the very same moment the sky of southern Chile darkened completely.
The astronomical phenomenon was accompanied by a heavy rain which gave an extra challenge to this crazy race against time starred by three-time Chilean Enduro national champion and top 20 on the last Enduro World Series.
Burns's challenge was recorded in a 3 minute action clip where you can experience the frantic race along a narrow path from the side of the volcano passing through a thick native forest to arrive just at the moment of the climax of the eclipse at a ramp on which he performed a back flip.
The video available on redbull.com is accompanied by a behind-the- scenes production where Burns details the main difficulty he had in accomplishing this challenge: the rain.
Besides the weather conditions Pedro Burns’s helmet was another novelty in this project. As the action was going to happen in the darkness. The Spanish company OneTech Media developed and luminic technique that mixes electroluminescent paint and a tiny battery inside the helmet. This provided the light that Burns needed to bright in the middle of a total eclipse.
After completing the challenge, Burns commented the difficulties of doing a backflip in the middle of darkness:
 | From the beginning I wanted to make a jump, but I never imagined that we would have so many complications. We arrived and it was all raining, the floor didn't allow us to reach the necessary speed and we thought we wouldn't achieve it. Finally, together with the team, we decided to try it and we began to dig and remove all the first layer of earth and we succeeded. It really is something that gives an incredible closure to my year. |
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