Jumping Journal: August 16, 2007

WOW!  It's been how long...

 

It doesn't seem like it has been this long since I last jumped but it has been.  The combination of the weather, either 95 and humid or rain and other commitments I haven't been jumping in a little over a month.

 

Today wasn't going to see much in the way of jumping either but I didn't manage to pull off month 80 in a row of jumping with the two jumps I saw this evening.

 

On the way to Storrs Hill I had to make a stop and while taking care of the errand I noticed that the sky was starting to cloud over rather nicely.  I was wondering how long before the forecasted rain would hit.  After getting the errand finished I drove on up to Lebanon and heard on the radio that there were at least two Severe Thunderstorm Warnings out on the west side of Vermont.  That should only take about an hour, at the most, to get to Lebanon.

 

As I got into town I noticed that it was really darkening up quite nicely.  I arrived at the hill to find Cannonball and Dan taking care of some business.

 

After suiting up I headed up the hill with thunder off in the distance.  This truly seemed like it was going to end up being the first time I would jump with thunderstorms in the area.  After getting up top the inrun I looked out over the jump and saw a nice streak of lightning.  Yes, I am crazy, don't ask.

 

I take the first jump and it goes pretty decent.  I had put soap on the skis before taking the jump so having the jump end up down around 18 meters or so didn't come as much of a surprise.  What did come as a surprise was that I forgot to stay sitting back until I was stopped.  I ended up falling forward/over as a result.  Gee, my first crash in quite a while.  Granted it was WAY after the fall line.  It did pull the screw out of the ski that held to cords to the skis, not much of a surprise to see that happen.

 

The second jump was even more interesting.  As I was rubbing wax on up top the inrun I felt the first drops of rain starting to fall.  Yes, I am crazy, LOL!!!  I hopped up on the inrun and started to put my skis on about the same time a nice flash of lightning brightened up the sky.  I knew that it would probably be the last jump of the day.  It went well and I played it cautiously thanks to having only one cord.  The jump still made it down around 17-18 meters.

 

I thought about taking another jump but decided not to due to the thunderstorm.  I ended up calling it quits and hopefully I may get some more jumping in this weekend.  Time shall tell, this could be a REAL interesting weekend.

 

Crash