Jumping Journal: February 16, 2006

Day 39.  A perfect game.  Okay, so this is ski jumping not bowling.  Would tonight be the night that I would hit 300 jumps for the winter, I only needed eight to make it.

 

I started the evening by changing ski after changing boots this morning, unexpectedly.  I had sent out an email last night after getting home to ask Ron if I could swap out the boots for the bigger boots that I would have to change bindings to be able to use.  Cannonball had adjustable bindings that would work with the boots that fit much better than the ones I wore last night.  I figured I would end up grabbing the boots tomorrow night when I see at the high school state meet.  He stopped by the house this morning to drop them off on his way to Mount Sunapee for the high school alpine state meet.  Mount Sunapee is around 1.5 miles from my house.

 

I ended up changing skis for the evening to a pair of 258 Elans than already had the adjustable bindings on them.  After adjusting the bindings and putting on the bibs I headed on up the jump.  I knew I was going to be a little cautious on the first jump since I didn't know how long it had been since the skis had any wax put on them.

 

I started down the inrun on the warm, around 50 degree, evening.  I did stick in one spot about a quarter of the way down the inrun.  The first jump was otherwise smooth.  It wasn't the greatest since I was still being cautious.

 

I headed up for jump two and it went much better.  Jump three was better yet.  By jump four I was starting to really notice the ski tips while jumping, rather unusual for me to notice to the tips.  They never come up that much.

 

Jump five seemed like I might have actually been a lot less bent at the waist compared to normal.  It wasn't videoed though like the last three jumps would be videoed.  I actually was thinking that I would be lucky to get five jumps in since I started halfways late due to the equipment changes.

 

I got lucky and headed on up for jump six.  It didn't seem quite as nice as the one before it.  I could even feel that it wasn't as good.  Jump seven was better and I still wasn't being pulled off the hill so I said the heck with it and headed on up for jump eight, the 300th jump of the winter.  It was pretty decent as well.  I keep stopping the forward motion though.

 

After jumping I got talking with Sam Burke, former World Junior Olympic participant and he helped me to better understand what I was doing.  Now I will work with the psychological side of what he was suggesting and see if I can't stop myself from stopping the forward motion once I jump.  I shall be reporting on this in the next several days.  I'll see if my idea works or not.  I tend to think I will know if it works.

 

Crash