What do you get when professional speedrider Valentin Delluc dresses up as Santa and rips through the Avoriaz mountains with an Insta360 X3 camera? Santa on the Slopes!
Valentin Delluc's collaboration last year with Red Bull, From Avoriaz With Love, racked up 1.2 million views. Now he's back, donning a Santa suit and flying through the mountains, delivering presents. It’s a stunning display of skill and daring—plus a lot of fun. We sat down with Delluc as he finished up the run to chat about all things speedriding, and how X3 captures some insane angles.
What motivates you to take on a challenge like this?
Speedriding is a new sport that's not exactly known to the public right now. For those of you who don't know, speedriding is a discipline that combines freeskiing and paragliding, where you fly through mountains with a small paraglider wing and skis.
Exploring the possibilities and limits of my sport motivates me a lot. Some ideas for a run come from my freestyle skiing experience, and ultimately, 99% of the time when you land after a speedride, you're smiling!
How did you prepare for the shoot?
Mainly by focusing on special tricks I will pull off in the video. Many, many practice rounds! But tricks like sliding off the chairlift, you can't really train before as you need a special approval by the ski resort. That's why it's important to never stop training, you never know what opportunities you'll get!
What was most challenging about this project?
Tricking off the chairlift for sure! It's not something that's done very easily to be honest, and you need to keep enough speed to jump over the clamps and not hit them, but not too much to slide off the cable... It's all about balance.
Also riding with a Santa beard! It's sketchy during barrel rolls…
What do you like about using Insta360 X3?
Simple and powerful! Now waterproof too, Insta360 X3 is just what we needed! High quality, small and light, with an easy-to-use app.
Using the Insta360 Invisible Selfie Stick in my backpack you get some insane third-person angles. I use it in all my different sports: skiing, speedriding, speedflying, base jumping... You name it! It really helps capture the fun I have in the air!
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