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A Whistler snowboarder has become an instant Internet star after posting a video of his 25-second avalanche ride down a steep back-country slope.

Tom Oye, 29, lived to post the video thanks to a pricey backpack that can inflate like a car’s airbag. His friends and family in Australia had chipped in to buy Oye the device on a recent trip back home.

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The video, apparently taken with a helmet-mounted camera, starts with Oye boarding across a steep slope. Suddenly, the snow gives way in chunks underneath him and Oye is carried down the slope into a narrow gully between two stands of trees.

A muttered “holy s—” can be heard before the whine of the airbag’s fan as it inflates. The sun vanishes as white takes over the screen, but Oye quickly bobs above the snow. After the snow has stopped moving, there’s another whine as the bag deflates.

A fellow boarder then appears and asks if Oye is alright.

“Yeah, I’m fine. That was, uh, that was a little scary,” Oye replies.