Jumping Journal: January 27, 2007

The BIG day.  It comes once a year and today was the day to put the skis to the snow and see how many jumps I could take.

 

Okay, to explain...Back in 2004 I had decided not to compete in the Lebanon Winter Carnival ski jump meet on the K50.  I only had around twelve or thirteen jumps off it so far in the winter by the time the meet came around.  I made up my mind the night before the meet that I would take three or four jumps, hopefully.  Once Larry Stone arrived at the hill and the Lake Placid kids started jumping I would disappear and wait until the practice started on the 25 to anymore jumping.

 

Well...I started jumping just hoping to get the three or four jumps in.  About the time I got around to taking jump six or seven I start thinking "Where's Larry???????"  I took several more jumps and start thinking "Where the h--- is Larry?"  After I took several more jumps, everyone is starting to look at me because I have at least a dozen jumps so far(WAYYYYYY more than planned), and then I find myself thinking "Where the f--- is Larry?"  This continues on until I have around 17 or 18 jumps in on the 50.  At that point Larry finally shows up and his kids start jumping and I take a MUCH needed break.  Later in the afternoon I head over to the 25 and take another 18-20 jumps on the 25.  Every since that happened I have always been trying for the 20/20 challenge, 20 jumps on the 50 and 20 jumps on the 25 in the same day.  Yes, I know some kid out in the Minni/St Paul area a few years back took 68 or so jumps in one day, but he was lift(snowmobile, or whatever) supported.  Around Lebanon you learn how to walk up stairs and be a real ski jumper.  Yes, there are 137 stairs up the landing hill of the 50 and another 140 up the inrun.

 

Since 2004, the weather or the scheduling of the meet has made it difficult to impossible to try the challenge.  This year was looking to be the exception to the rule that I have seen over the past couple of years.  The weather was going to cooperate rather nice, subzero/single digit temps this morning with overcast skies.  I was hoping for a little friendlier temperatures but I guess I can't do anything about that.

 

I got to the hill and practice started up just before noon.  It had been snowing since around 9-10AM and kept snowing lightly much of the day.  It did seem to let up during the competition otherwise it was pretty consistent.  The strange thing of the day started right from the very beginning, I was jumping on time.  Out of all the jumps I took take, only a couple of them were late.  On one jump I was waiting to see the ski tips drop as I thought I had jumped quite a bit early but I must have been wrong.  At one point I joked saying that I was jumping on time because the fresh snow was slowing down track conditions, HA!!!

 

After the first or second jump this morning I already couldn't feel my feet.  I had put enough clothes on under the jumpsuit to keep my body warm from the ankles up but the feet were cold and getting MUCH colder.  By the time I was forced to stop jumping so they could rake the hill before the competition started, I couldn't feel my toes whatsoever, they were a solid block of ice.  My heels were nice and warm, strangely enough.

 

On jump two or three, they kinda all blend in together with each other after you have taken 18 jumps in one day, I did end up taking a crash.  I kinda figured that more than likely I better expect things to be quite rocky today.  I kinda figured for sure that I would end up crashing several times today, or at the best case scenario I would jump like crap all day long.  I ended up the day quite surprised with the results.  I still can't figure it out.

 

Midway through the practice I decided to start working on putting in a V.  The very first jump I put in a bit of a V and noticed immediate float.  I was a little surprised by how much air pressure I noticed and I ended up backing out of the jump early.  It was a bit disconcerting.  I wasn't use to itt to say the least.  From then on I kept on noticing the air, sometimes it was more noticable then others.  With the skis together I have hardly ever noticed the air but spreading the tips apart showed me why the V is such a powerful part of the jumping technique.  I have put in a V before or several occasions but have never noticed the float/lift like I noticed it several times today.

 

On the next to last practice jump one of the master jumpers decided to give me heck about not putting in any power at the takeoff.  I decided the heck with it and jumped at the takeoff.  He didn't say anything to me after that, LOL!!!

 

The competition started and I almost had decided to just forejump until 69 year old Don West showed up with his gear in hand.  I was quite surprised to see him.  I don't think I have ever seen him jump the 50 in Lebanon.  I have admired Don for ages.  To still be out here jumping, yet alone jumping K90s, at 69 years old is very impressive.

 

I got registered for the competition and warmed my feet back up.  Finally I was able to feel my toes for the first time in almost two hours.  I headed back up to the jump inn and changed back into my jump boots ready for jump 15, the trial round jump of the day.

 

The first jump of the comp ended up being the best of the three jumps.  Granted after having taking 14 jumps non stop, for the second time this week, I was surprised that I had anything left in me at all.  I believe I heard them say that I had went 36 meters.  I know I had a few jumps down that far earlier in the day as well.  I believe the second jump was the one that I thought I had jumped quite early.  I hesitated on the jump to make sure that I wasn't going to end up in trouble and ended up jumping to 33 meters on that jump.  The third and final comp round jump ended up being a little on the late side and I ended up with another 33 meter jump.  It was decided to go up for a longest standing jump.  That jump ended up short, supposedly, at 30.5 meters.

 

All in all I ended up coming in fourth place out of the six master jumpers today on the 50.  Bill Ryan, who beat me last week, got beat today, but somehow, Dan Brown ended up beating me today.  It looks like he was given better style points.

 

I think the 18 jumps today on the 50 either ties my personal best, err craziest, from 2004 or it may surpass it by one jump.  I did stick to my streak that I have so far this winter, I didn't go forward with the second half of the 20/20 challenge.  Yep, I still haven't jumped the 25 yet this winter.  It's starting to look like I may only jump the 25 at Mud Meet come the end of the season.

 

Crash