Jumping Journal: April 24, 2008
WOW! What a long time since I last jumped. What an unbelievable warm, dry spell and fast snow melt. What more could I say.
It was a winter of well over 86.5 inches of snow I measured this winter at my house. Several snows I didn't check since I missed the first couple of storms and the smaller ones, under an inch, I didn't even bother to try to measure. I feel quite positive I saw over 100 inches of snow this winter. In Concord, where the official record for the state of New Hampshire is kept they came in 4.1 inches shy of the all time record. Admittedly, their is a hint of possible snow coming up next Wednesday. I don't think it will pan out.
April arrived and with it came a very big change in the weather pattern. Instead of seeing one to two snow storms per week every week from the beginning of December through the end of February instead we have seen pretty much drought conditions in April. We had our first rainfall in almost two weeks last night. Typically, April is rainy, hence the phrase "April shower bring May flowers."
Instead of the April rain we have had very dry and sunny weather this month. It reminds me so much of April 2001 which came as the drought of 2001 was beginning. All that came after another 100 inch plus snowfall winter. Gee, it's kinda seeming like a pattern here. I must admit we finally did have a small bit of rain last night/early this morning. Not enough to get my hopes up but a long shot.
Instead of the usual rainy, cool weather we see this time of the year it has been quite mild. The average high temperature for late April is 57 degrees. I have not seen one day except maybe today where the temperature hasn't been over 70 in the past eight days. Everyday has been very sunny as well. Even yesterday leading into the rain last night and then again by mid to late morning today the sun was out shining brightly. It really does seem like we are heading for a drought this summer. I have been suggesting it now for over two weeks to people. Everybody thinks I'm crazy.
The snow melt happened rather quick this year thanks to the warm temperatures. Last year it took only a couple of weeks to lose all the snow. Then again, last year we didn't have all that much snow on the ground once the melt down began. This year I had two feet or more on the ground around April 1st. Even the shaded areas of my yard were all melted by April 21st. Back in 2001 when the weather seemed to be running the same as now I didn't lose all the snow in my yard until May 3rd. That year I had piles of snow 6-8 feet tall. I ended up jumping on snow in my backyard until mid April. There was far more snow that year at the outset of snow melt than this year.
It all led to today, the 128th consectutive month of ski jumping on the K25 in Lebanon, New Hampshire. As far as I know the other jumpsite that jumped in April, possibly in the world has be the new Olympic jumps at Whistler Mountain in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They were jumping on snow there on the, I believe, the K90 on April 6th-7th time frame. The high elevation sure does help them out for jump on snow late.
This would also mark my own 88th consectutive month of ski jumping. Boy it sure doesn't seem like it has been 7+ years since I started jumping but it has been a long run. I'm still loving every minute of it.
I arrived at Storrs Hill on a very sunny mild afternoon. It looks like this might be the first day in over a week that the temperature hasn't hit 70, granted it did make it up to 69 in Lebanon earlier in the day. The snow at the hill is pretty much all gone. This is about the barest I have ever seen the hill this early in the spring. Amazingly with the K25 totally bare and most all the alpine hill totally bare the K50 still had a very small sliver of snow left on the farside between 50&58 meters. It will probably all be melted in the next day or so.
It looked as if I might be the only one to jump this evening until Esky showed up and decided he would try out plastic for the first time on jumping skis. Dan was there but decided not to jump. I think he may have lost his own consectutive month streak. I think he may be close to 30-36 months in a row himself.
Good old Fred poked his head in from North Carolina for a visit as well. He would end up playing a vital role later on after jumping. Why didn't I think of that(more later). Fred has two kids that jumped and while he lived just a couple of minutes, by foot, from the hill when his kids jumped he always came out and helped out at the hill. He made for a fantastic announcer at the jump meets. He is sorely missed around these parts anymore.
Esky and I got ready and headed up the jump. Cannonball wanted to poke fun, as usual, at me for wearing blue jeans and a long sleeve shirt as my jump suit. It's what I've worn for the past several years now. After tiding up a couple last minute details on the jump I headed on up for the first jump of the summer. Nah, I wasn't about to ride the landing hill. I never ride the landing hill on the K25, on snow or on plastic. Admittedly, I might do if conditions are really questionable but it has to be transition season before I will ever ride the landing hill on the K25.
Supposedly there was soap up toop for me. I couldn't find it so I put on the skis and pretty much knew to expect a short jump. I got the signal from Cannonball and started to head down the inrun. I noticed that I grabbed right away and then it let me go and I did everything but yell SLOW all the way down the inrun. I knew it would be slow but that was slower than what I was expecting. I jumped and it seemed like it was the first jump of the season on plastic. It wasn't the best BY FAR. It did feel like it was a bit chesty. At least it didn't feel normal like the jumps I took on the K25 at the end of the winter.
I went up for jump two and Cannonball handed me the soap bottle. What a swell guy. I bet he was just hoping to see me land on the knoll. Heck him and Esky were both trying to get me to jump from the bar. They really wanted me to land on the knoll.
I soaped up the skis and put them on. I got the signal and headed down for the second jump. Once again I noticed the same sticky spot up top. Actually I noticed it on just about every jump I took this evening. I got to the takeoff and definitely jumped chesty. I landed and rode it out smoothly. I was still going nothing more the 13-14 meters at the best. I have to take another look next time. I forget where the trap door is at, 13 or 15 meters. I landed just about on top of the trap door.
I realized that I jumped chesty so I spent the next several jumps on keeping the chest down. Jumps three through five seemed to get better than the one before it. It was starting to feel more like normal ski jumping once again. The only thing missing was anyone else to jump with. Esky was trying to figure out the skis on the landing hill and seemed to be having some luck a couple of times but on his fourth or fifth ride down the landing hill ended up somersaulting to a stop and called it quits before he could ever get a chance to head up the inrun to jump.
On my sixth jump I decided to work on the timing. I would say my sixth jump ended up being the best of the evening. Gee, doesn't that sound familiar to this past winter. Take seven jumps and jump six is always the best of the session, LOL!!! I hit the takeoff beautifully and managed to keep the chest down. I went down below 15 meters and the picnic table isn't back up top yet. There are talks of it not going back up and instead putting something else up there instead. Time shall tell.
I headed up for one last jump, already thinking about the previous jump being number six. I found myself chuckling about it as I walked up the steps. After soaping up and getting the signal I headed down the inrun and the timing seemed slightly later than before but it seemed like I still jumped in the right direction. The jump seemed maybe 1-1.5 meters shorted than the one before it but that may have just been me.
After changing clothes I headed out to my car and took out my new ski jumping training device I have been designing and building for the past couple of months now. I have most everything with the device setup the way I want it. Their are a few things I have thought of in the past week or so as well as their had been one stumbling block that had me stumped as to how I could ever make one particular part of the device adjustable. I setup it up for the guys and they took a look at it and loved the device. When I mentioned a couple of the ideas I was still thinking of incorporating Fred made a couple of suggestions. The one was so simplistic...I should have thought of that idea a long time ago. Now back to the drawing board and do a bit more work on the device this weekend to take care of one if not both of the problems and then hopefully get a few more questions answered next weekend at the Eastern Division Spring Meeting. Once I have a decent working version of it in its entirety, or very close to it entirety I will posts post quite a few photos and the whole story behind the device. It is a rather unique concept brought to ski jump training.
Keep the ski tips up,
Crash
posted by Ryan Crawford at 10:22 PM
0 comments
