Jumping Journal: March 1, 2006

Day 46.  Short, very short.  One jump ruled the day.  I think this is the shortest day of ski jumping that I've ever had.  I've had several days when I have only taken two jumps but I don't think I have ever only taken one jump in a day.

 

To say I didn't have much sleep last night would be an understatement.  I ended up getting to bed around 1:30AM and was back up around 5:10AM.  Very short night.  I made my way up to Lebanon and then quickly got things in gear and dug the trench on the inrun where the hoop of fire was going to be setup.  I setup the video cameras to tape the hoop of fire jump during opening ceremonies.  I had planned on using one camera as the recorder source for a mini-camera that I have owned for 7-8 years, but have never used.  I was going to stick the mini-cam on the end of the takeoff pointing up the inrun to catch the kids as they came through the hoop.  It seemed like everything was working fine when I started the camera taking but in reality right after I started recording the camera tilted upwards and all I got was the very top of the hoop.

 

By this time Esky and crowd was making their way up the steps and we proceed to get the hoop setup ready to be torched.  Toward the end I quickly run over and change into my jump suit and head back up the jump just in time to get both cameras started and to run on up the inrun and get ready to jump through the hoop myself as the last jumper through it.  I decided that I would have only the non-competitors jump the hoop of fire since I was in charge of opening ceremonies.  I also decided to let the sole Alaskan jumper to jump it as well since he hasn't had much time on skis this winter due to Mother Nature.  I kinda figured it would help to ease his mind more by having something "bigger" than the 50 to deal with before heading over to the 50 for Official Training.  He only rode the landing hill last night and didn't take any jumps on the 50.

 

I quickly made my way back up and retrieved the video equipment and headed back to change into warmer clothes since I'm Chief Starter for JOs.  I manage to make my way up to the top of the 50 just in time to hear the kids yelling, their tired of waiting on me already.  Darn kids they don't have any patience.

 

The three rounds of Official Training go smoothly and rather quickly.  I didn't think it would actually go quite as quick as what it did.  The long jump of the day was 52 meters by Will Schott of the Central Division.  The strange thing that I noticed though, was that there are four sibling rivalries that are taking place.  There are few others I believe but they both siblings aren't competing at JOs.  Their might be a fifth rivalry that I just thought off, I'll have to find out tomorrow about that one.  What is so unusual about these rivalries is that the better of the two jumpers is always the younger of the two jumpers, even when the younger jumper is a female and the older jumper is a male.

 

After lunch it was time for open training on the 50 or for cross country practice.  The cross country course hadn't yet been decided upon.  Mother Nature has provided us with great conditions for the jumping but the cross country hasn't been worth a crap.  Most of the eastern jumpers decided to head out and get some time in on the cross skis while the other divisions decided to stay behind and get some more training in on the jump.

 

I was invited to come and ski by the interm eastern coach, Sam Burke.  He was sitting in for Matt Cook who was taking the rest of the eastern squad out cross country skiing.  I ended up not taking Sam up on his offer.  I was doing about all I could do to stay on my feet without skis on, yet alone try to stay on my feet with skis attached, LOL!

 

Later in the afternoon it was decided during Team Captains Meeting to spending more time traveling , 1.75 - 2 hours, to get to a decent 5K cross country course on Friday over a shorter drive, 0.75 hours, for the course where the conditions wouldn't be nearly as nice.  It was also decided to use the shorter drive on Saturday for the 1K team event.

 

Tomorrow should see real nice competition among the kids as I did see afternoon opening training jumps getting down toward 51-52 meters.  Several kids were getting down that far mid afternoon.

 

Crash