Myth #1(Mother Nature killed the sport of ski jumping) Debunked

Myth #2(NCAA killed the sport of ski jumping) Debunked Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Myth #3(The US doesn't have the talent) Debunked Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Mind Of A Ski Jumper Part 1, 2, 3, 4

The Ultimate Coach - Ski Jump Training Device

Jumping Season Digest: (see bottom of this page)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Jumping Journal: January 23, 2008

A long time coming/returning.  Can you say WHAT?
 
Yeah, definitely a night to watch the old classic movie "Back To The Future".  It has been a while since I've had a night like tonight.  Last year I just kept on getting lucky with the jumping opportunities on the K50 so I never ended up with the chance to jump much with the high school teams during the regular Wednesday night jump meets during the beginning of the winter.  I finally did hook up with them for the last three meets of the year one on the K30 in Newport and the ore-state and state meet which were on the K38 at Andover.  I didn't jump with them in Hanover, Lebanon, Plymouth or North Conway last year.
 
With all the seasoned masters in the east now on their way out to Chicago I had a couple of opportunities for jumping tonight, one in Lebanon with the high school kids and the Ford Sayre program has their normal practice at the jump in Hanover on Monday and Wednesday night.  I figured why not join the boys in Lebanon and actually jump the K25 before Mud Meet this winter.  Yeah...a smart move...kinda.
 
I met up with the Sunapee coach and his three jumpers and we headed on up to the Lebanon.  It used to always be a tradition that I would go to the jump meet with the team.  The past year or so it has lost its touch and I have generally only joined the team on the bus once or twice a winter.  It used to be I knew when winter had arrived...I would find myself sitting on a school bus on Wednesday evenings going to and from high school ski jump meets.
 
We arrived at Storrs Hill under mostly cloudy skies with temps hanging just below the freezing mark, right where they had been most of the day.  During practice and even some during the meet we had a FEW real light flurries fall.  If you wasn't paying attention you would have missed them altogether.  Heck, even the moon was trying to poke its head out through the clouds while the meet was going on.  The weather just couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to do.
 
I suited up and after waiting for a few minutes for them to get the last minute prep work done on the hill I proceed on up the jump.  I hadn't jumped the K25 on snow when the picnic table was up on top.  We have been putting the picnic table up top for the past three summers to give a little more inrun speed.  We have always taken it back off before winter arrived.  This year we never got around to taking it off.  I knew it would make jumping interesting.  More speed on snow could mean much longer jumps.
 
For one jumper I knew it could make jumping very interesting tonight.  He is a real good jumper.  He has spent essentially all this winter jumping K90/K120s.  Since he didn't make the World Junior Olympic team he has decided to go ahead and jump high school in this his senior year.  I figured he would have fun with the hill/the hill would have fun with him since he isn't used to jumping the smaller hills.  He actually didn't do too terribly bad Monday night jumping on the K50. During the meet tonight he was having trouble, he was backing out of every jump he took.  He will have to get used to the smaller hill environment before mid February/state meet gets here.
 
Looking down the inrun before the first jump was one of the more interesting things I have did in quite a while.  Boy did the inrun look small, LOL!!!  The first jump didn't go too bad, not much of a jump at the takeoff.  I guess you could call it 'playing it safe'.  I did notice that it felt like the inrun was squirrelly, almost like you were riding on the inside edges of your skis to stay in the track.  It was one of the worst jumps I've had off the K25, in terms of distance, in a long, long time.
 
I got back up top and went for the second jump behind several of the high school kids.  This time I did get a little better set in my inrun, but still not spectacular.  I did managed to put in a little better of a jump but there still wasn't much there.  I did make it further down the hill, closer to where I would normally land on the K25.  It still seemed awfully small.  Where was the rest of the landing hill.
 
The third and final jump of the evening was the best of the jumps.  I actually did jump at the takeoff unlike the other two jumps that were much more like a slide off than a jump.  I would guess I didn't go anything over 18 meters on any of the jumps, probably not over 14 meters on the first, deplorable, excuse for a jump.
 
On the way home I found out that I shall get myself an extra unplanned on day of jumping this week.  I guess the high school meet scheduled for last Friday was postponed due to the weather and rescheduled for this Friday.  They typically have this particular meet on a Friday when most of the schools are having exams that way they can make it to the meet.  For most of the schools it's a 2-2+ hour long drive each way to get up to North Conway where the meet is going to be held.  This jump in itself is interesting.  It has a VERY, VERY short outrun.  I have heard rumors they brought in some backfill this summer and made the outrun steeper.  If you don't stop by the time you get to the top of the outrun you will find yourself sliding down toward the state highway on the back side of the outrun.  It's a jump you learn to respect BIG time.  I've only jumped there once on the K35, but was there a year earlier and watched the high school meet on the K25.  The meet Friday night will be on the K25.  I'm glad I have tonight as prep for Friday night.  Now if I could only find the short outrun to practice on before Friday night, LMAO!!!!!  I'm going to need it!
 
With tomorrow on the K50 and Friday at North Conway, hopefully I might get lucky and pull off Saturday and Sunday on K50 or even the K25 at Lebanon.  IF I can than I may very well be on the way to breaking a streak that I have been trying to break for years now, 18 days in a row of ski jumping.  I've alpine skied 18 days in a row and 29 out of 30, this was when I lived in the midwestern part of US about 1.5 hours each way from the nearest ski area.  So far I've only been able to pull off 13 days in a row of ski jumping, living in New Hampshire, only 8-10 minutes from the nearest ski jump.  Go figure.  Maybe this is the year.  I'll know by the end of the weekend.
 
Crash
Winter 2010
DateLeb 25Plymouth 25Leb 50And 38
Dec 121
Jan 056
Jan 063
Feb 024
Feb 032
Feb 046
Feb 073
Mar 063
Totals133102