Sweden is a place where snowmobiles are as ubiquitous as bicycles in the U.S. When something like a snowmobile becomes an ordinary form of transport, there will be some, like Markus Nordin, who seek to expand what many think when they’re picturing the engine-propelled behemoths smoothly cresting along the top of the snow. Snowmobiles are the typical form of transport in these areas, where temperatures rarely go above freezing and cars are basically useless until the roads thaw. Northern Sweden, where Markus is from, is one of those places, but as a child he idolized the high-flying extreme sports stars on motor bikes. As he got older, he simply adapted his zest for thrills outside the pale with his country’s favorite way of getting around.

Recently, Nordin spoke with ABC‘s Australian Northcoast affliate during a visit earlier this month to the New South Wales north coast for an exhibition at the Lismore Speedway where he completed a backflip for amazed spectators. Nordin spoke about the unusual sport of snowcross, a hybrid of the motocross Nordin watched as a kid, but with snowmobiles. Markus specializes in the high flying freestyle snowcross that’s on the rise in Europe and America. Despite the itch to fly through the air, and his comfort on a snowmobile, it wasn’t always that easy for him.

“You want to be one of the top guys right away so you end up doing stuff that you shouldn’t be doing at that stage. […] So I’ve broken a lot of bones; I’ve broken my knees three times, my back, scaffold bones in both hands, wrists, feet,” says Nordin. His sights are set on the Winter X Games and he’s putting together a set of tricks for the competition, which is all about doing something new that hasn’t been seen or done before.

“It is fun to do stuff that no one has done before, that’s everybody’s main goal I think doing freestyle, you want to do something that no one has done before,” says Nordin. Keep an eye out for the rambunctious Swede soaring through the air on his snowmobile. He’s an Adrenalist you won’t want to miss.