Jumping Journal: August 13, 2008

UGH, it's so predictable. LOL!!!

 

You could say I'm getting use to the above phrase anymore.  The weather around here has been worse than predictable...to put it modestly.  If it's sunny first thing in the morning then it will start clouding over around 10-11AM and it will rain/storm in the afternoon.  If it's cloudy in the morning than it may very well start raining by 10-11AM.  No matter how you look at it...you can't win.  It's going to rain.

 

It has rained all but three days since July 19th, today was one of the three.  We have seen over a foot of rain, some places much, much more than that, since June 1st.  It has rain 10 of the past 12 weekends, including each and everyone of the past five weekends.  To say Mother Nature has been uncooperative this summer would be an understatement.

 

The rain has been stopping me from jumping about every other week and the other week it turns out to be pretty decent but I end up busy with other things going on that I can't quite get away from in time so I can jump.  I thought this was going to be the busy Wednesday but things changed and it ended up allowing me to get out and finally jump for the first time in a month.  Yes, the 92nd consecutive month of jumping for me.

 

On a sad note the eastern US lost a big time supporting parent over this past weekend.  Marianne Fairall the mother of Nick Fairall died Sunday after fighting with cancer for the past three or four years.  She was a major supporter of ski jumping and helped out tremendously with fund raising and organized the junior team for the eastern division.  She also was the person who would remind everyone through email about upcoming events in the eastern division.  She was one very busy person and a great supporter of eastern ski jumping.  She will truly be missed by everyone here in New England.

 

It's strange how one thing can lead to another can lead to another can lead to another and sooner or later before you know it has led you right back to where you started from.  A video I posted a couple of years ago of me suffering miserably on the K120 slalom course that was always set up each year for Lead Dog in Lake Placid ended up getting me into streetluge.  I almost got into it back in 1999.  I walked away from it back then after buying almost everything I needed to get into it.  Well, in a roundabout way, I ended up getting into the sport thanks to the videos of me sliding on my butt down the K120 landing hill.  If this was the only thing that results from those videos it would be grand...trust me VERY GRAND.  But!!!

 

As a result of getting into streetluge I stumbled into another sport last spring that I had wanted to get into since I was an early teenager, err 20+ years ago.  I actually came to realize I had the sport close to me several years back and in doing some investigating I walked away from the sport not wanting to get into it anymore.  I'm not the type that likes expensive sports, whether I have the money or not.  I would much rather spend $5000 and get into 5-6 different sports than to spend all that money to get into just one sport.

 

Last spring while out checking out a site I was hoping to ride I managed to find myself in the wrong place at the right time.  I didn't end up riding that day since the road hadn't been swept yet and it needed it desperately.  Instead I found myself out helping out some other guys involved in this nice expensive sport.  What I actually found myself doing was walking away from streetluge and spending most of my weekends last summer out helping them out.  Definitely it was part of my plan for the summer.

 

For quite a while I thought I was going to end up getting forced into the sport.  My thoughts through June and July was simple...I dread the thought of August getting here.  I was figuring for sure I was going to be forced to try out the sport before the summer was over.  It didn't happen.  I managed to dodge the bullet quite nicely.  This year came around and I knew I was going to out helping the guys out again this year...why not.  When the weather turned crappy it pretty much shut everything down with just a few exceptions.  Those few exceptions turned on me big time.  Turns out my idea of dreading August was right...I just had the wrong year.

 

Someone I have only met a couple of times now has a girlfriend that was getting started in the sport and she was wanting a training partner.  I came to mind since I was out around the sport a lot and knew quite a bit about it.  Right off the bat he made me an offer I was trying to refuse like the dickens but I couldn't refuse no matter how hard I tried.  Every excuse I came up with got shot down one way or another and left me a sitting duck...a sitting duck ready for takeoff.

 

The problem with this sport is it's just about as close to a fraternal twin to ski jumping as you could ever hope for.  There are so many similiarities between the two sports its mind numbing.  I wouldn't have ever thought about it but on day one last year a former participant and I got talking and turns out he has been to the Harris Hill Ski Jump Meet in Brattleboro, Vermont several times and has watched ski jumping.  He has noticed the similarities.  Now thanks to the incredible offer I'm noticing an incredible amount of similarities between the two sports.  Hence why tonight was a key evening of ski jumping for me.  After taking lesson one and two this past weekend I was really hoping to take one of the ideas from the other sport and see if I could bring it to jumping.

 

I arrived at the hill this evening under partly to mostly sunny skies with the temps a rather cool 70 or so degrees.  Yes, with all the cloudy/rainy weather the temperatures have been below normal as well.  Definitely hasn't seem much like summer this summer.  I found a chopped up tree sitting beside the outrun of the K25.  Turns out sometime shortly after I jumped the last time a storm came through and knocked down several trees and took down the pole and power line that feed the lights at the end of the outrun as well as the feed electricity to the pump that is used to pump water for hosing down the inrun/outrun on the jump.

 

It ended up only four jumpers took to the hill tonight.  Two adults, one female(rather surprising to see Tara jump the K25), and a junior jumper.

 

One of the annoying problems I have had for years, like ever since I started jumping was always looking down between the skis instead out toward where I want to land.  It has annoyed the heck out of me and I rarely have I been able to do anything but that.  With the new sport I just started taking up one of the keys early on is to always keep your eye on the target.  Strangely enough, for the most part I never had any trouble doing it.  Even though given the trouble I have in ski jumping I should have trouble otherwise.  I decided let's try taking the concept over to the ski jump and see if that might make change things around.

 

The first couple of jumps were just nice warm up jumps and getting use to the thought of being on a jump versus where I spent this past weekend.  Again, the similarities are incredible.  Jump three I decided to try the idea of keeping the eye on the target.  The problem was what to use as a target.  I didn't really think about the idea until I got up top  the inrun and had the skis on me feet.  I figured let's try it and see what might happen.

 

I head down the inrun and actually raise my eyes as I get out of the curve and just refuse to move my eyes.  I almost forgot to land on the jump.  My eyes were too high actually but as least they weren't looking between the skis like they normally have been.

 

Jump four, five and six were the same way.  Cannonball was trying to get me to work on jumping harder but I was just focusing on where my eyes were looking.

 

On the seventh and final jump of the evening I did get the eyes looking down more toward the bottom of the landing hill instead of so far out in front of me.  As I came down I landed stiff and Cannonball said I also landing on my heels.  I went down with a nice thud.  It was my first crash on plastic in a long time.

 

Already I've come to learn/experience a few things about ski jumping through the other sport that I haven't ever been able to grasp through ski jumping.  Even though I've only been participating hands-on with the other sport two days and I've been ski jumping for 8 years the other sport has given me the chance to see ski jumping in much finer detail.  Since the weather forecast for this weekend is looking great it should be another chance to get out and have a little fun with my feet off the ground.  I'll have to see what else I can pick up and bring back to ski jumping with me.

 

Crash