Does seem a little strange to be summer jumping on a Thursday evening, guess I better get use to it though. It has been a few years since we were engrossed by the 52 week challenge and we came out and was jumping on midweek afternoons. Otherwise during the summer months we have typically only jumped on Sunday afternoon. Today started a whole new tradition. It does make it nice to free up the entire weekend for other things and it makes it nice so that if I were to go away on the weekends this summer, doubtful, I wouldn't have to worry about missing any jumping. In the past I have had some close calls when it came to keeping the monthly streak alive during the summer months due to traveling a lot on the weekends.
The Lunatic Fringe group has been getting together for the past several Thursdays now and getting/staying in shape getting ready for summer jumping. It has made for a nice way to stay in face to face contact with each other during the normal downtime that we more often than not end up taking.
Since the water had finally been hooked back up last week and some repair work had been finished on the inrun it was time to start jumping the 25 for the summer. A few weeks ago we cut up a Big tree limb that came down on the inrun during the final snow storm of the winter, it had did some minor damage to the inrun but fortunately nothing serious.
I arrived at the hill and found Cannonball and Bill talking outside. We headed into the lodge and changed clothes and took off for a warm up run. After getting back and doing some stretching we suited up, err changed clothes. I still wear blue jeans and a long sleeve shirt during the summer months. I don't think I have ever worn a suit during the summer months, its just too darn hot.
Cannonball said he had told the kids about the plans to jump tonight and he was surprised to see no one was showing up. He figured with little league baseball and school that they may not be able to make it out. Shortly afterward one of the kids does show up. He is already dressed and ready to jump.
We head on out and Cannonball is explaining what the kid wants to do to stay upright as he goes through the sawdust at the bottom of the hill. We all decide for the kids benefit to go ahead ride the landing hill. This is the first time I have ridden the 25 landing hill, without questionable conditions, in years. Normally I would just head on up for the first jump. I decide to ride it for the kids benefit. He is only 7-8 years old.
I watch the kid go for his first summer landing hill and he ends up losing it right before hitting the sawdust. He gets back up and walks back up the landing hill. That was positive to see him willing to give it another go so quick, many kids that age, don't.
I and Bill head on up for our first jump. Their is no soap up top so I figure to plan on short jumps for the evening. Boy was I ever wrong. Bill takes his first jump of the summer and I follow down. I end up with a 15 meter jump right off the bat. I was surprised to say the least. I figured I would end up landing in the 12-13 meter range but I landed on the trap door, used for practicing telemark landings and used for the kids to get used to jumping on plastic. The trap door is at 15 meters. It makes for a real nice way of being able to tell how far you went by using it as a reference.
The next jump I end up landing below the door, roughly 16-16.5 meters. The third jump was slightly further but I didn't have the ankles cocked very well in the air.
Before the fourth jump I tell myself I will cock the ankles and land down at 18. Pretty much that is what I ended up doing as well. It has been amazing just how well the toxic vocabulary technique has worked. The fifth jump I pretty much do the same thing with the same results. All in all the evening was one of the best bits of summer jumping I have seen thus far. I didn't have soap on my skis to aid me just the natural summer plastic conditions that I have jumped with for five of the past six years.
There was one thing I was glad that I was doing, I'm not sure how much it might have helped the jumping tonight but I was keeping the shoulder up on the inrun like I had been working on back over the winter. I was surprised how instinctive and how easy it was to keeping them up. Normally something like that is hard for me to make it happen, at least until I have been working on it for quite a while.
It looks like summer is alive and well, and other than some other things I have planned for next week it looks like I will probably be out jumping mostly Thursday evenings this summer. That's quite a nice change from fighting to get out and jump on Sunday afternoons like I have did in the past.
Crash
