Myth #2 Debunked, Part 4
Some people have to tendency to think that all media publicity is good. And they are right to a certain extent. I have spent a lot of my time over the past several summers, this past summer being a major exception, going to hot air balloon shows. The pilots love it when the news of a hot air balloon crash hits the news. It sends paying customers their way. The paying customers think that the sport is dangerous and it brings all the crazies out to go fly in a balloon.
Not all publicity that you get can be good though. Essentially all the media I have seen for the sport of ski jumping over the past 15 years has been negative. All of the media coverage tries to dissuade people from jumping instead of encouraging them to jump. I'll focus on this again tomorrow.
Tonight has been an interesting evening. I started the evening off watching the first high school jump meet of the year. Yes, New Hampshire is still the only state in the United States that has high school ski jumping. Now most people are settled back in their seats right now, 9:45PM EST, watching the Rose Bowl game, the end of another college football season.
Oh yes, college sports...I can just hear it now.
The NCAA killed the sport of ski jumping
Don't you just love these excuses, they fly around like a chicken with it's head chopped off. Remember the exercise from day one...how many fingers were pointing back at you when you was pointing at someone else.
Here's a link to an interesting article about a, err, college sport. The link will only show part of the article, but it's the part that is the most important. I have also copied that part of the article below the link.
| Published on November 7, 2003, Article 1 of 1 found. |
| DWC student has a passion for jumping from airplanes Publication: New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, NH) Page Number: c1 |
| DRAG RACING I could handle, but I'm drawing the line at leaping from a small airplane. It's not the glorious free-fall that concerns me. Just the sudden stop. So you'll have to take the word of Erin Donovan, a Daniel Webster College student who has logged more than 400 jumps and is preparing for the U.S. Parachute Association's National Collegiate Skydiving Competition. The 22-year-old is majoring in aviation management and part of a |
This article brings up a very big question. When the NCAA dropped the sport of ski jumping, I believe it was at the end of the 1980 season, why didn't the USSA start hosting a National Collegiate Ski Jumping Championships?
If the college ranks were so important to this sport why didn't the USSA step up to the call and start hosting a national championships for the college kids, and for the college age kids only? Yes, I'm talking beyond the current National Championship that are hosted each year out west. I'm talking about a championships for college students only.
I know of many sports, like skydiving, rock climbing, ice climbing, mountain biking, white water kayaking, etc, that don't have college participation that are managing to hold their own if not growing by leaps and bounds. Take a look at whitewater kayaking sometime. It has a very nice growth rate, and it doesn't have an NCAA Championships. Why is it ski jumping wants to blame it's downfall on the NCAA? You don't need NCAA to have a strong healthy sport, other sports prove that fact.
Oh and by the way, as I write this on Christmas '05 I notice by looking at www.uspa.org/news/events.htm that the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships will be starting on December 27 down in Lake Wales, FL.
Again, how many fingers did you have pointing back at yourself.
Tomorrow I'll have more bad media publicity and start showing why it is so bad to dissuade people from jumping.
Until next time
Keep the ski tips up,
Crash
posted by Ryan Crawford at 9:41 PM
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