Jumping Journal: August 27, 2008

Crash-a-paloosa.  Bing, bang, boom. OKAY!!!! Where did that come from.

 

The days are getting shorter and the sun is setting earlier.  I've really come to notice it in the past couple of days.  It seemed like I lost almost 15 minutes of evening sunlight between Monday and Tuesday this week alone.  Yes, both days were crystal clear sunny skies.  I guess what you have going on at the time makes all the difference in the world, err how rushed you are to get something finished before it gets to dark.

 

After several rather long days I headed up to Lebanon this afternoon to do some more ski jumping.  I didn't realize what I was getting myself into.  I definitely ended up with a bit more than what I bargained for.

 

After the short run and doing some stretching we all suited up.  Their was four of jumping tonight three adults and one junior jumper.  At least I would have some company on the hill tonight.

 

Since Dan hadn't jumped in a couple of months he decided to ride the landing hill first.  I headed on up the jump for my first jump.  I was going to go for a natural jump.  Their wasn't any soap at the top.  Dan carried some up with him when he went up to ride the landing hill.  I didn't bother to carry it on up as I wanted at least one natural jump tonight to see how far I would go without using any soap.

 

After spray down the top of the inrun and putting my skis on I finally get the signal and start down the inrun.  I jumped at the takeoff and I find myself once again looking to the bottom of the hill instead of looking in between the skis like I always use to.  I end up landing right on the trap door which is about 15 meters.  Not bad since I normally would end up around 13 meters without soap on the skis.

 

I head up for the second jump.  Dan is already up on the picnic table with his nicely soaped skis on ready for his first jump of the evening.  He takes his jump and then I hop up on the picnic table and put on my skis.  I get the signal and head down the inrun. At first I notice the increase in speed on the inrun but I don't think a thing about it.  I jump at the takeoff and as I'm flying through the air I still don't think a thing about it until instantly before I land and I realize I'm going down the hill much farther than before and much further than I have went on the hill in quite a long time.  I land very softly/weak kneed.  I end up falling over and slide out the rest of the landing hill before coming to stop on the sawdust.  I quickly roll over and the skis go into a 'X' raised just like you would see them on a regular ski trail that is closed.  I'm laughing.  I'm shocked at how much further I went on that jump even though I didn't soap my skis.  I was just seeing the residue from Dan's wax job.

 

After helping Cannonball put the pieces of plastic back in place which I ended up pulling down the hill with me as I slid down the landing hill, I head on back up the hill.

 

On my third jump I was expecting the increased speed and the increased distance quite a bit more than before.  It ended up not being as long as the one before it.

 

As I was putting on my skis for my fourth jump Tara yelled up and said if now we could get you to put in a V and a telemark landing.  I yelled back down and said you do want me to kill myself don't you.  I have landed in tele on the tele bump but otherwise I don't think I have did a tele on plastic.  I have did a tele several times on snow before.

 

I headed down the inrun and without thinking about I ended up spreading out into a bit of a V on the fourth jump.  I ended up going down 18-19 meters.  It was easily the furtherest jump I've has on the K25 on plastic in three or four years.  I still have to get used to landing that far down the hill.  Get rid of the blue and red line and it may help.  I was thinking the other sport I got myself into earlier this month might help out with the concept of landing down at the bottom of the hill.  Granted Mother Nature hasn't cooperated very well for me to see much in the way of action with the other sport in the past week plus.

 

I walked up for the fifth, and planned last, jump of the evening.  Walking up for the first jump I felt like I was dragging my heels almost...not much energy.  Now I wasn't noticing it any.  I put on the skis and get the signal.  I head down the inrun and jump.  I could tell the jump wasn't as good as the one before it.  I definitely landed shorter than before.  Esky marked me at 17.5 meters and he was also saying it wasn't as good as the one before it.

 

I decided the heck with it and went back up for one more jump.  This time I decided to put some soap on the bottom of the skis and made sure to spray down the top of the inrun as well.  I got the signal and as I started to head it almost seemed like I hit a small bit of sticky spot right at the tip over point.  I wasn't expecting it.  It caught me a little off guard.  I continued down the inrun still expecting to have the longest jump of the night.  I jumped at the takeoff and once again still had the V in place.  I landed even shorter than the jump before it.  I'm not sure what was different than the previous jump or two.  I don't know if the soap may have actually worked against me or what.

 

All in all it was an evening of one surprise after another.  It's nice to see the jumps getting back down toward the lower end of the hill again.  Now if I can only get used to the concept of landing that far down the hill.

 

Crash