Jumping Journal: February 23-25, 2007

CRASH!!!, err cock the ankles.  How a good weekend turned bad rather quickly and surprisingly like.

 

Friday,February 23, 2007 Lake Placid, NY

 

After very little sleep on Thursday evening I arrived at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid shortly before the kids did.  I knew as a result of not feeling the best that I would probably jump the best.  It has always seemed that the better I feel the worse I jump and the worse I feel the better I jump.  Due to the lack of sleep I wasn't feeling the most chipper to say the least.

 

After the warmup and stretching session we traveled on over to the jump site and suited up.  The weather forecast wasn't sounding all that good with winds forecast 20-35 mph.  When we arrived at the hill the winds hadn't picked up yet so we was on to jump the 90.  I decided to stick with bar 14 as usual.  I knew it would give me a good platform to work from since I knew where I was pretty much landing at when I went from bar 14.  Each of the six jumps during the the morning session was about the same those toward the end were slightly, but not much, better than the ones at the beginning of the session.  I was just riding it smooth and stable on each jump  Other than a lot more distance, what else could you ask for.  The final jump was held up slightly due to waiting on the winds that were picking up more and more as the morning progressed.

 

Just like Monday, only in reverse, Friday was aday of contrast in comparison.  The winds in the afternoon were definitely stronger so it was decided everyone would first head over to the 48 for a few jumps and wait for the wind to hopefully die down a little.  With the recent snow the inrun track speed had actually increased as well.

 

I get caught by surprise on my first jump as I didn't realize yet that the inrun speed was quicker than the last time I had jumped it a few days earlier.  I also get surprised, even though I knew to expect it, by the height over the knoll/the distance I was making it down the landing hill.  I ended up landing around 40-42 meters and rather quickly sit down and ride it out.

 

The second jump goes a little better.  I feel a little more prepared to be landing so far down the landing hill.  I end up standing the second jump.

 

The third jump, once again, catches me off guard.  I had decided to try to jump more forward and it worked.  I landed around 44 meters with yet another sit down landing.  The coach makes comment on the way back up the chairlift about something I should work on so on the fourth jump I decide to work on it.  It goes quite well, not as far as the previous jump but at least I stood it all the way through the end.

 

I was planning the fifth jump to be my last one on the 48 and then I was going to head over and grab one more on the 90 before calling it quits for the day.  On the fourth jump I had started from a bar to help control the inrun the speed and I started from an even lower bar on the fifth jump.  I managed to work on what the coach had made mention of and due to the lack of inrun speed I ended up going nowhere real fast.  At least it was a nice smooth landing and ride out.

 

Saturday, February 24, 2007

 

After a much better night of sleep I awoke to a cold morning, and I thought the day before was cold, YEAH RIGHT!  Today was the famed Empire State Games competition.  Many competitors in all different winter related events had converged on Lake Placid for the annual event.

 

The usual faces had gathered at the jump site by the time practice was set to begin.  A very strong master field was leading the way with seven masters all competing on the K48 and three of us would go on to compete on the K90 as well.  The K90 had been ruled over the past decade or so by Don West.  He had been the only master to jump the K90 until I came around earlier in the week and joined him on the big jump.

 

To say I was a bit skittish after the afternoon K48 session on Friday would be an understatement.  Their was a light dusting of fresh snow that had fallen Friday evening and some more that had fallen early in the morning.  I was kinda thinking that this might make the inrun on the 48 a little sticky, err slower.  I was right.

 

The plan with the masters class that was jumping both hills was to take two jumps on the 48 and then grab another one of the 90.  I was the only one of us to have jumped the 90 in roughly four years.  Matt McKenney had jumped the 90, while still a senior(late 20's) back in 2003.  Cannonball, the other 90 meter jumper had jumped 90s and 120s when he was a kid 20-30 years ago.

 

My original plan for the day was to forejump both the 48 and the 90.  Granted I had made a vow to myself several years ago that I would jump th 90 and the 120 but never on the day of a competition or in a competition.  I knew I was going to break one of those rules today for sure.  Last night  was starting to contemplate breaking both rules on the 90 at once.

 

The morning roles on and we each take two jumps on the 48.  My two jumps go quite well.  They were very smooth and I felt good in the air, unlike yesterday.  I guess having finished yesterday on the 48 vs the 90 must have helped some with being use to clearing the knoll versus landing on the knoll.  I did notice that my distances were quite short, down in the 35 meter range which seemed much shorter than I expected.  I figured that the fresh snow was doing the trick on slowing down the inrun.

 

The masters group is sitting around waiting for the one of the more experienced kids to go blow out the track for us on the 90.  Unfortunately, none of them decided to jump the 90 during the practice session so we decided that we would go up and blow out the track ourselves.  Matt and I walk up the stairs with the Cannonball behind us a short distance.  I decided that I would go ahead and be the first one down it.  I hop onto the bar and get the flag.  The jump went beautifully, the best/smoothest/most stable jump I've ever had on any hill size.  I watch as both Matt and Cannonball come down and I decided right away that it was going to be one heck of a dog fight between the two of us.

 

After a short break the 10:30AM competition on the K48 begins.  I was just forejumping so I was the first to go.  I decided I would try to find out which bar the masters class was going to go from and go from the same bar.  Fortunately, the bulk majority of the masters class was right behind.  The first jump was short, 36.5 meters.  Cannonball did manage to edge me out but not by much.  The second jump went better and I had a 38.5 meter jump while Cannonball was at 38 meters.  Upon landing the third jump I knew I had had a nice long jump.  I figured that ir was around 42 meters and surely enough that is exactly where they marked it, 42 meters.  Cannonball landed at 41.5.  By distance, once again like Salisubry a couple of weeks ago, I edged out the Cannonball by distance.  Granted since I was just forejumping and not competing I would never see style points to know which one of us would have been the better jumper during the competition.  Mark Breen once again ended up walking away with the masters class champion.

 

With 33 competitors on the 48 it made for a short lunch thanks to every class starting from the bars vs starting from house.  After the short lunch the competition moved over to the K90 meter jump.  Gee, I was about to break a promise to myself.

 

Since Matt and I was replacing a couple of other registered jumpers who had been unable to show up the entire masters group would be spread out in the starting order.  Cannonball was going to be the first one down the inrun and I would be several more behind with Matt shortly behind me.  Cannonball had decided that he would stick with bar 15 that he had used during practice.  Matt decided he wanted more speed and was going to go from bar 20.  I decided to break with tradition and go from bar 18.  I knew this would help to spread us out and give the officials a better idea of what bar to have us use during the two comp rounds.

 

Cannonball heads down and has a nice smooth trial round jump.  After several other jumpers take their trial round jump I put on my skis and hop on the bar.  The rest of the jump is nowhere to be found in my conscious memory.  From what I was told this morning I had a beautiful jump, more aggressive than those from before and while in the air I uncocked my right ankle letting my right ski tip to come down.  It ended up going all the way down and sent me tumbling on the ground.  I finally came to stop somewhere in the outrun, out cold.  I guess I was unconscious for a couple of minutes before they finally got me awake.  They loaded me up on a backboard and put me in the ambulance to go to the hospital.  As of this time frame I still don't remember any of it.  It wasn't until I was in the emergency room that I remembered anything that was going on realtime.

 

To put it modestly this brought an end to my weekend of jumping.  One of the EMTs from the hill had to make a stop by the hospital so she gave me a ride back to the hill once I had been cleared/released by the doctors.  I met up with Cannonball and Matt and Bill and they invited me to spend the night in their hotel room which I gladly accepted.

 

Sunday, February 25, 2007

 

After the best nights sleep I've had in weeks I woke up to a sore face, mostly mouth(tongue and lips) area.  I still can't figure out why that area is sore, even now late Sunday evening.  I still had no recollection of the crash at all.  I decided to go join the boys at the OTC and see if I could get a straight story as to what had actually happened.  I had been hearing anything from I jumped early to the ski tips came up really hard and I pushed them away.  I knew by talking with the coaches that were flagging at the coaches stand that they could give me a much better idea as to what had happened.  I also hoped by watching the kids jump that it might jog my memory and help me to recall any of the jump at all.  So far I can only remember getting on the bar and then everything else is completely gone.  Only one possible person may have got video of the crash until I went over the knoll.  He was going to have to look through the tapes and get back in touch with me.  I would love to see video of the cras to hopefully refresh my memory.  I can't believe I would act the way I was told that I acted(see above).  After watching the morning practice session I packed everything up and came home.

 

Now I'm figuring for safety sake to take a couple of weeks off and wait until Mud Meet on March 10th before I jump again.  Hopefully when the Lions Club meet is held in Lake Placid on the 17th the 90 will still be jumpable as I would love to get back off it before the snow melts.  I know the easiest way to avoid trouble is to get back on the horse that threw you as quickly as possible.

 

Crash