Jumping Journal: February 03, 2007

OKAY??????  Definitely not the day I could have ever anticipated, by a LONG shot.

 

Last night the snow came, saw and stuck around for a while.  It made running errands last night quite interesting.  That's was nothing compared to the drive to Lake Placid this morning, though.

 

The weather forecast for overnight was for snow, 1-3 inches.  Today it was supposed to be partly sunny but very windy.  I knew the wind factor would pretty much do in my plans for this afternoon, but I knew this morning I could still get away with testing the stupid jumping demon that has been haunting me for years.

 

After getting to bed around midnight I woke up around 5AM.  I had planned on getting up at 5:30 so I just stayed up and finished packing up early.  I grabbed a very early breakfast and then headed outside to shovel the snow that had fallen overnight so I could get my car out of the driveway.  After loading up the car I took off for Lake Placid shortly after 6AM.  The normal drive time up to Lake Placid from my place is about 3-3.5 hours depending on traffic and how fast I drive.

 

I quickly saw that it could be a very interesting drive.  The roads were in horrible condition and there wasn't a snowplow to be seen anywhere the entire drive up.  On many occasions while still in New Hampshire I seriously thought about turning around and staying at home knowing that the wind was going to be a BIG issue this afternoon and that my main objective for heading up to Lake Placid wouldn't happen, by choice.

 

I crossed the Connecticut and entered Vermont.  The roads were even worse in Vermont than they were in New Hampshire.  Again, I almost turned around countless times but still kept heading west by northwest.  The further west I went in Vermont the worse the roads got.

 

I crossed the New York stateline around 8:30 and saw wet but snow free roads for the first time of the day.  New York had been out to plow and salt/sand the roads, Vermont and New Hampshire hadn't did a thing.  Congrats to the New York road crews, you get an A+.

 

I quickly picked up the pace and decided to see if I could make up some lost time.  I figured I would be getting to the jump about the time the competition on the K48 was to begin.  I was only planning on forejumping since I didn't figure any other masters would be there since they were all in Wisconsin for US Masters Championships.

 

I got to the jump about 10:15, 10 minutes before the trial round was to start.  I asked Matt, the coach at Lake Placid, if he minded if I forejumped.  He told me I better hurry and get changed.

 

I suited up and headed on out for the first jump.  This is where the story takes a BIG twist...  Ever since I took my first jump off the 48 back in 2002 I've never had much luck with jumping on the 48.  It has gotten to the point where I don't even like the 48.  It has always seemed to fly differently than the rest of the jumps, I think my imagination has just always run away with me.  I always choke when I jump the 48.  I can jump on the 50 one day and have plenty of nice jumps and then turn around the next day and my technique goes straight down the tube on the 48.

 

On the first day jumping the 48 I ended up taking a crash in the transition on the landing hill on the final jump.  It was an innocent looking crash that turned out not to be so innocent.  My mind fought me for the next year to keep me from jumping any of the 45-50 meter hills or to keep me from jumping any of the hills at Lake Placid, even the K18.  All I had to do was to think about jumping on one of them and I would start crashing out of control.  I spent most of the 2003 winter black and blue on the my right leg, from hip to heel.  I knew it was all a mean nasty head game.  All I could do was wait for the head game to give up the fight while I just kept on jumping.  It finally did give up the fight, or so I thought...

 

As it turns out it had just manipulated itself and now it was going to do everything it could in its power to make sure that I would never jump the 90.  The tricks it has pulled on me in this respect is unbelievable to say the least.  One of the best tests I have found for seeing what the mind was saying was to go to Lake Placid and jump the 48.  My jumping would never be worth a darn.  My longest jump off the 48 had been around 30.5 meters last year at the Lions Club meet in early March.

 

Back at the beginning of this winter I hadn't really thought much about jumping the 90 this winter.  I figured it was going to be the same old same old, "Once you've seen one jump you've seen them all."  Anotherwords it was going to be a season of plenty of jumping, but it would be wasted time as always.

 

The season started out though quite differently.  It surprised me all the way through December.  Over New Years weekend I went up to Lake Placid to watch the jump meet on the 90.  It was the first time I had seen anyone jump the 90 since mid March 2003.  I watch the head game play out in front me very nasty like.  I was mad to say the least.  I think I mostly mad because I knew what was going on but I just couldn't find a way to stop it.

 

Back in the fall of 2003 I asked myself a dumb question, "Should I or shouldn't I get a USSA card or not."  Without the USSA card I knew I wouldn't be allowed to jump the 90.  Well, this caused the mind to fight back in a mean cruel way and I ended up losing big time.  At least this time around I learnt from my mistake, I didn't ask the stupid question, I just sent in the form with the money and got the card.

 

2007 arrived and one evening after jumping on the 50 my fellow masters were sitting around talking and planning their road trip they are on right now out to Wisconsin.  I sat their listening and come to realize/remember the one thing that I have enjoyed about ski jumping is that their are a coulpe of things I don't have to put up with when it comes to jumping, hearing people talk all the time about drinking and hear people all the time talk about sex.  Since ski jumping is so much about kids they don't know much about either issue.  The master jumpers were talking about both ideas.  The one mentioned that he had a generator that they could hook up to the van that they were going to take out to Masters and by doing so they could cold ones all the way out and back.  The kids don't talk about these kinds of things like adults do.  The talk in the room that evening was about those things.  I had been very close to pulling the plug and going out to Wisconsin with them until the talk turned to those subjects.

 

I quickly started to realize that I should be smart and stay home.  Then I figured why not play it really smart and instead of driving 20 hours each way to go jump a K60 why not drive 3.5 hours each way and go jump a K90.  It made much more sense to me.  Hang around the kids instead of hanging around the adults.

 

A week or so passed and I finally bit the bullet and sent in the money for the USSA card.  About the same time I noticed my jumping started getting worse, by a wee bit of a degree.  I was already thinking that this was a sign of what was to come.  Everything happened simultaneously.

 

Today as I arrived at the hill I saw that the wind had already started to pick up so I knew pretty much that I would test the crazy demon no matter what and see what he was going to do but more than likely I wouldn't even consider jumping the 90.

 

After suiting up I headed out to the jump to find the trial round already in progress.  I waited until the start of the 1st round of competition to take my first jump.

 

Thanks to the usual head game crap that I have dealt with at Lake Placid over the past several years I was a little bit nervous before the first jump.  It wasn't bad but I did notice it.  This year has so much been a matter of expect the unexpected that I didn't really know what to think might occur.  I knew I was in a real wild position and I knew to expect, quite literally, anything to happen.  I think that is what made me the most nervous.  Would I choke at 30 meters as usual, would I go down crashing, would I sail away with my best jumps ever off the hill.  I knew to expect anything to happen.  I also realized that whatever would happen would be extreme more than likely.  I wouldn't just have a so-so day, it would be extreme one way or the other.

 

I go the flag and head down the inrun for the first jump.  Quickly, before I was even half way down the inrun, the nervousness left and it was just like I was on the 50 in Lebanon.  The track was in great shape considering the snow that had fallen yesterday/last night.  I jumped at the takeoff and as I went over the knoll I noticed something.  I was way high in the air compared to normal.  Quickly I found myself flying in a state of shock.  I was quickly realizing that I wasn't going to land anywhere near the 30 meter mark like I normally would.  I was going to be WAY beyond the 30 meter mark.  The wind was bringing a little of headwind up the hill at me that I noticed as well.  I was stunned.  As I landed the jump, if someone would have had a close up of me with a camera they would have had a priceless picture for their scrapbook.  The jump caught me WAY off guard.  I was speechless.  It still gives me shivers thinking about it.  I didn't know what to think other than it was obvious that the demon that has been haunting me for years had finally given up the fight.  I wasn't going to look like a klutz on skis like I have so many other times when jumping the 48.  Roughly guessing the jump was down around 35-38 meters.  I was surprised going through the transition that I wasn't fighting to try to keep my head up like I have been for the past week or so on the 50.  The head stayed in a nice upright position just like it should.  I was still bringing my arms up though in a defensive manner like I have been doing on the 50 when I drop my head.

 

I get back up top and the 1st round finishes up with the only other master present putting in a 44 meter jump.  It turns out he must have been playing hookie from work again as he normally can't make the jump meets because he works Tuesday through Saturday.  He used to jump as a kid back in the 1980s and came back out this past summer and started jumping again when he got the chance.  He lives down in the New York City area so he has quite a drive to make to any of the jump venues.

 

On the second jump I end up going 35 meters and still wasn't even jumping at the takeoff.  Pretty much I was just sliding off the end and moving into position.  I still was having trouble getting used to the idea of going this far on the 48.  It didn't feel right or look right.  Again, I had no trouble with keeping the head up.

 

I took two more jumps after the competition was over.  On the first one I ended up backing out of the jump, again simply because I was not used to going that far on the hill.  On the last jump of the day I ended up going down real close to the 38 meter mark, at least from what I could tell from the air.  It may have even been a bit further than that.  I did manage to grasp the idea of jumping 35+ on the hill by the fourth jump and was able to hold it nicely, both mentally and physically.  I did notice that I had dropped the head a little but was able to bring it back up like it should be quite easily.  I'm still not sure what the difference is but it does seem like it is something with the landing hill that makes it more natural to keep the head up.  I'm not sure if the landing hill might be a little steeper than the 50 in Lebanon or what.

 

The afternoon came and the winds were a howling.  The comp on the 90 went off with some delays to wait for the wind to die down in between jumpers.  I decided to play it smart and wait for later to jump the 90.  If the wind wouldn't have been a factor I would have jumped it without thinking a thing about it.

 

Right now I'm already seriously considering a midweek trip this week up back up to Lake Placid, depending on the temperatures which aren't suppose to be warm at all, and getting off the 90 for the first time.  Don West's days of being the only master in the east jumping the 90 are numbered.  He has company coming his way.

 

Crash