Jumping Journal: April 7, 2006

Week 69, err 29 for me in a row.  Pretty much the same as last week.  Last year it didn't take this long to get rid of all the snow but for some reason this year it is taking longer.  Granted the only snow right now is on the landing hill between about 22 meters and the midpoint of the transition curve.  All the rest of the snow is gone.  Now if the water would disappear with the snow that would be real sweet.

 

I stopped by the hill on Wednesday afternoon and saw that most of the snow was gone but the water was still laying on the sawdust just where it had been back on Saturday when I last jumped.  I redug the trench and let quite a bit of the water move on away from the outrun.  I tried to get rid of some of the biggest pile of water.  It isn't really an issue unless you really try to move away from where the fall line naturally wants to take you.  It sits far enough to the left that you would have to really try to move over that way to ever be able to get yourself over there in the first place.  I was mostly just hoping to get rid of the water where it did count and by the time I left the pile was significantly smaller and it was still draining away.

 

I arrived this afternoon after the rain had started falling, talk about luck.  I found the standing water hadn't really changed much.  It was still pretty much about the same size as it was on Wednesday when I left.  I tried to help get rid of some more of the water but I don't think it really helped all that much.  I finally gave up and covered everything over and prepped it to jump once Dan and Esky arrived.

 

I decided to take an outrun to see if the snowpack really was better than it was last week.  It looked like the pack had smoothed itself out and wasn't so bumpy like on Saturday.  This time, looks weren't deceiving, it had smooth out quite nicely.  The outrun went great.  It was starting to seem like summer jumping, with a little snow left over to still give that winter feel.

 

I headed up for the first of what would end up being two jumps for the day.  I started down the inrun and just like most of the winter, the inrun seemed so slow.  For all the moisture the top really seemed slow.  It seemed like I wasn't gaining speed as quickly as I remember in the past, maybe it's just my memory.  I jumped at the takeoff.  It wasn't a very good jump to put it modestly.  I landed and things seemed fine.  When I got to the snow I found myself quickly falling behind and then falling on my behind.  I end up taking a rather beautiful crash and come to stop in a position that probably didn't look the prettiest to say the least.

 

I headed up for a second jump after cleaning off the ski in some nearby water.  It ends up going pretty much the same exact way as the previous jump.  I come to realize on this jump about how the sawdust is creating for a rather dangerous situation(see below).  I decided to be smart and call it quits for the day.  Hopefully by next week the water will finally be off the outrun completely and things will have a nice chance to dry out.  The weather forecast between now and next Thursday is for sunny skies each day with temps climbing from the low 40's tomorrow to the low 60's by Tuesday with the next rain, and hopefully the last rain we will need until fall or next spring, coming on Thursday.  Typically by around the 20th of April the pipes have thawed out and we don't have to worry about not having water to wet the plastic for the rest of the summer, right now we need the water due to the frozen pipes, hence why I have been jumping while it is raining, or right after it has rained.

 

I noticed two problems with both of the jumps today, and thinking back to last Saturday I remember that the same two problems existed then as well:

1. Snow is faster than plastic, not necessarily by much but by enough that when you are dealing with both surfaces on the same part of the jump you will notice a difference in speed.  I lost it on the jump last Saturday and on both jumps today because I fell behind and ended up getting my weight too far back while on the snow.  I now remember back to Mud Season jumping last year and at that point the only snow on the inrun was in the transition.  I remember noticing a pick up in speed while on the snow.  Again it wasn't much of a pick up of speed but it was a definite increase.

 

2. As I said last week, wet, saturated sawdust can be your worst enemy if you go down above or in the sawdust.  The difference between standing on dry sawdust and wet, saturated sawdust is that you will make footprints in the wet sawdust and you won't in the dry sawdust.  Wet, saturated sawdust does create for a more dangerous scenario when you crash than it does when you crash on dried out sawdust.  I do overemphasize the word "saturated", as to the point of water laying on top and down in the sawdust.  I've never noticed this situation with damp sawdust, just when the sawdust is saturated with water.

 

Hopefully the wet sawdust will be dried out by next week.  I would love to still have the snow on the landing hill.  I wouldn't mind trying it again before it disappears.  I would love to get to the point where I can keep up with the skis when I hit the snow.  I may very well have to wait until next spring to try it again though, unfortunately.

 

Crash