Jumping Journal: April 30, 2006

Summer at last.  Definitely not what I had expected.  I guess my plans for this summer may take one heck of a dramatic change.

 

After a couple of weeks off, the first two weeks that Lebanon hasn't seen jumping in over a year, the jumpers returned to Storrs Hill to begin summer jumping.  Little did I ever imagine what I was about to see happen.

 

First, after having the weekly streak come to an abrupt halt, both due to lack of enthusiasm and somewhat due to Mother Nature I had been seriously considering changing my plans for this summer quite dramatically.  With the rising gas prices and everything else I have that I'm hoping to get done this summer I had been thinking about just jumping one day a month this summer instead one day each week, if not a couple days each week.  Time shall tell what will end up being the reality of things, right now I don't even know what to expect.  Today was definitely quite a bit different from the normal world of ski jumping that I have got so used to over the past five years.

 

I arrived at the hill around 12:30PM to help get things ready for jumping.  There was some work that needed to be done to the jump prior to the kids jumping.

 

We have always stuck an extension, err kicker, on the takeoff to help lengthen the inrun to give a little more speed to help everyone get more distance.  Last year we started sticking a picnic table up top to also help give more speed coming down the inrun.  Both of these things needed done as well as some maintainance work on the plastic on the landing hill needed to be completed before the long summer jumping season got under way.

 

Now the first thing different about this year as compared to past year is the amount of jumping.  Normally we have only jumped one day in April and May, and then started jumping once a week, non holiday weeks, in mid June(Father's Day Weekend).  This schedule has always kept the start of the main summer jumping beginning at the end of the school year.  This year we are planning to jump every week, except the four holiday weeks now through the first Sunday in Novemeber.  Being able to jump each week in May and early June seems very different from the past.  Granted Dan and I was doing it last year, just on an unofficial basis, this year it we would be doing it on a scheduled basis.  Quite different from the past.

 

After getting to the hill I come to find out that there was going to be a few other differences this year.  Cannonball started talking about a a couple of kids from Germany that were planning on coming out to jump.  Instantly my mind went off the deep end.  I didn't know what to think.  Turns out the father is a professor at one of the universities in Germany and decided to take a savatical and come due some research at the University of New Hampshire.  He brought the family with him which includes a 14 year old son that has jumped quite a bit by the look of things, on a K60, and a 12 year son that just started jumping last spring.  The 14 year old, Thomas, is quite a good jumper.  I think he might be scared because of being used to the bigger jumps and now he is jumping on a K25.  The 12 year old, is also a good jumper, considering he has only been jumping one year.

 

As we were getting ready to go for a warm up run I found out that we had a few other jumpers showing up that normally aren't out jumping with us, three or four kids from Hopkinton High School.  Hearing of high school kids coming out jumping is very unusual unless they also jump on the eastern circuit on the bigger jumps.

 

By the time everyone was accounted for we had 15 kids and adults jumping this afternoon in Lebanon.  I have never seen this many jumpers jumping on the 25 unless there has been a jump meet going on.  I definitely haven't seen this many kids out jumping during the summer months.  Normally if you get five or six jumpers out for practice you have quite a nice crowd.  To have 15 jumpers out was unreal.

 

The other big surprise of the day was the weather.  Normally for April jumping the temps are in the low to mid 50s.  Normally you can expect to find some snow laying around the ski runs between the 50 and 25 meter jumps.  Today...well no snow anywhere to be found.  Today...mid 70s and brilliant sunshine.  It truly felt more like mid to late June jumping rather than end of April jumping.

 

While the kids were riding the landing hill getting used to the idea of jumping on plastic, about half of them have never jumped on plastic before, I and several of the veteran summer jumpers headed up the inrun to get started jumping, skipping riding the landing hill altogether.

 

My first jump wasn't the greatest but better than the last three jumps I took, granted those were under extreme conditions back at the beginning of the month.  I wasn't even making it to the trap door that is used by the newbies to get them used to jumping on plastic.  It sits at around the 15 meter mark and allows them to jump off a small bump jump and get the feel of jumping on plastic.  It's just a small board, covered in plastic, that is lifted up and a block is put underneath to serve as it's support.  The kids line up with the trap door and go for a nice jump.  It is also used to help someone learn to do a telemark landing.

 

My second jump was a little more relaxed but I was still jumping to only around 13 meters or so.  It did seem short compared to what I figured I would be jumping.

 

On the third jump I decided to follow the crowd and put some soap on the bottom of my skis.  We found last summer that this helped to give more speed on the inrun.  By just rubbing regular bar soap on the bottom of the skis worked some big time magic.  It would almost turn plastic into snow, at least when comparing speeds on the inrun.  On this third jump I was closer to 16-17 meters, quite a nice pick up between jumps.  The technique was a little better but the soap gave the extra speed to help things along.

 

The fourth and fifth jumps were about the same.  On the fifth jump I was starting to jump late which would end up haunting me on the sixth jump.  On the sixth jump I jumped and I knew I was late.  I complained about it, outloud, in the air, and I crashed upon landing.  Like a crazy fool I let the late jump get to me.

 

I went up for the seventh and final jump of the day, another very strange thing.  Normally in warm weather, 65 and above, I'll take five jumps and call it quits, not today...  The seventh jump was better, probably still a little bit late on tke takeoff but at least this time I didn't worry about being late and instead just carried the jump through to the end, nice and smooth like.

 

All in all it was a great day for jumping.  Even though it was, the extra kids helped to make it longer between jumps which allowed more time for us to cool down between jumps so we didn't get so hot.  If their is going to be this many kids out jumping this summer it could end up being a fun summer of jumping.  I heard that their are several more kids that couldn't make it today that do want to come out and jump this summer.  This could be one crazy summer to say the least.

 

Now if I could just figure out what I'm going to do this summer...to jump or not jump, that is the question...

 

Crash