Nitro Snowboards came up with the idea to let a group of riders jump through a cloud of helium balloons. Besides organizing enough balloons, helium and covering material for storing the filled balloons, we also had to find the right location.
After some brainstorming we came up with Kitzsteinhorn, where they built us a special gap-kicker. A bowl in the middle allowed us to hide the balloons and the crew who had to lift them.
The hardest part of this project was finding the right timing to lift the balloons and have the snowboarders jump through them simultaneously. After each try we needed to fill up new balloons and get the whole crew ready again, taking almost an hour of preparation each time. The next challenge was the weather. Conditions are always unpredictable on glaciers and often we had to wait for the sun to come out or for the wind to decrease or change direction. Unfortunately, this caused us a couple of failed attempts where balloons just flew in the wrong direction or the athletes lost control when they got hit by a gust of wind.
After a couple of tries and analyzing the timing and perspectives, we were able to get the right moment and all the effort we put in paid off.