Myth #1(Mother Nature killed the sport of ski jumping) Debunked

Myth #2(NCAA killed the sport of ski jumping) Debunked Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Myth #3(The US doesn't have the talent) Debunked Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Mind Of A Ski Jumper Part 1, 2, 3, 4

The Ultimate Coach - Ski Jump Training Device

Jumping Season Digest: (see bottom of this page)

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Jumping Journal: March 18, 2006

Day 58.  Gee, it took a long time to get here.  Mud Meet 2006.
 
WOW, a week off.  I haven't seen this long a period without jumping since mid December.  The warm temps while I was jumping the 50 last week continued to haunt us right through the middle part of the day on Tuesday this week.  The cold front finally came through and dropped the temperatures down to below average.  The temps the last couple of days haven't even made it above freezing.
 
We spent Tuesday and Thursday evening in the middle of a Polish snowstorm, err bucketing snow up to the jump so we could snow the tressel back in.  Approximately 50% of the inrun was down to plastic and the landing hill was plastic until you got to around 13 meters or so.  The end of the outrun had changed over to grass and dirt as well.  It was really looking a lot like spring.  After spending two hours each on Tuesday and Thursday evening with a nice siize crowd helping out the jump looked much better, actually looked like it should be in real good condition once we got a track cut on Friday evening.
 
Today was the famous Mud Meet, the end of the season ski meister meet at Storrs Hill in Lebanon, New Hampshire.  It ends up bringing out a lot of the veteran jumpers and many firs time jumpers as well.  It's a full fledge skiing competition, including cross country, alpine and jumping coompetitions.  For me, like a fool, it started off with cross country comp first.  The cross country and alpine run simultaneously first thing in the morning and the jumping takes place in the afternoon.
 
I have always did the cross country comp in my alpine skis.  Normally its about a 1km course, this year it was going to be closer to .5km due to the lack of snow.  Last year one of adult jumpers that I jump with all the time gave me heck for using my alpine skis.  He offered to let me use his cross skis after he raced.  I turned him down.  This year after learning that he was on borrowed skis plus deciding the heck with it I decided to give it a whirl.  I had never been on cross skis before, much less skating skis.
 
I went up and took a quick run down the hill with the alpine skis and then Bill told me that he had taken off the boots and was going to head up to get the alpine run out of the way first.  I went in and got ready to try cross country skiing for the first time, the right way.  After getting on the skis I went ahead and got some practice in.  I quickly learned the balance is quite important with cross skis.  Being on the whole foot is of utmost importance.  Far more so than it is with ski jumping.  I did have a couple of falls simply due to getting my weight behind me and not staying on the whole foot.
 
After getting more comfortable and being able to "side step" with the skis pretty reliably in the corners I decided to it was time to get the cross comp over with.  I did pretty decent under the beginner circumstances, I did fall coming up the main climb on lap one.  Simply got too far back.  I ended up with a time of 3:37 and took 17th place overall out of the 40-41 competitors that participated in the cross portion of Mud Meet this year.  Look back at my old card it was the best placing that I have ever had in cross country.  The other three adult the I find myself competing with all the time in jumping end up in 9th, 10th, and 11th place.  All three were separated by 5 seconds.  Cannonball was the best of them with 2:40.
 
I went up and took my second alpine run of the year before doing the giant slalom run.  Pretty much the only time of the year that I put on alpine skis anymore is for Mud Meet and Lead Dog.  Lead Dog is another ski meister meet held in Lake Placid.  I will be heading for Lake Placid tomorrow for Lead Dog.  Obviously, I don't see much time anymore on alpine skis.  To make the long story short.  I ended up in 31st place in the alpine.  Each of the last two year I have ended up in 32nd place.  Naturally the other guys smoked me big time.
 
After putting the alpine equipment back in the car and changing clothes I headed up the 25 to start jumping.  I took four practice jumps before the competition started.  Each of them was getting down around the 20 meter mark.  It looked like it was going to end up being my best day of jumping on the 25 during a competition so far.  It's only taken six years to get to this point.
 
I ended up rubbing on some wax before the comp starts.  In hind sight I think it was a mistake.  The conditions were the best I've ever seen for Mud Meet in the past six years.  With the temps below freezing the conditions were unbelieveable for this time of the year.  Normally the highs during Mud Meet are around 40, not 25-30.  Dan and I both end up jumping 18.5 meters on our first jump.  Cannonball beats us with a jump around 20 or 20.5 meters.  He always beats us.  On the second jump it seemed like I was up in nosebleed territory.  It seemed like I was really high off the ground compared to normal.  I ended up around 19 meters on the second jump.  The third jump I went 20.5 meters.  It was the furthest jump I've had on the 25 during a competition.
 
As it turned out Dan came in 12th in the jumping, Bill came in 13th, and I came in 14th.  Good old Cannonball kick each of our butts by coming in 7th.
 
Overall I ended up coming in 19th out of 43 total competitors.  Not all competitors competed in each event.  I believe it was my best finish so far, thanks to the improved cross country finish.
 
After the jumping competition was over it was time to set up the mini camera on the end of the takeoff of the 25 and grab some nice video of jumping the hoop of fire looking straight up the inrun.  Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to have video up on the internet of the a couple of my jumps through the hoop.  I did end up with four jumps through the hoop, two more than I have ever had before.
 
Now to get prepared for that infamous K120 giant slalom course tomorrow.  Can I go 7 for 7, err 8 for 8.  I hope not, but something tells me it probably is going to happen.  At least I will ge two more jumps before the official end of the winter.  Granted jumping never ends around these parts, just the competition season ends.
 
Crash
Winter 2010
DateLeb 25Plymouth 25Leb 50And 38
Dec 121
Jan 056
Jan 063
Feb 024
Feb 032
Feb 046
Feb 073
Mar 063
Totals133102