Jumping Journal: September 28, 2008

Rainy surprises.

 

After actually missing jumping last week, I had other things going on that I just wasn't willing to pull myself away from, I stumbled into a simple fact on Monday that would lead to an interesting surprise today.  Ever since before I started ski jumping I had heard this story about the launch time lapse, black out, twilight zone, etc, aka where you miss a beat at the takeoff.  The new sport I have gotten myself into this summer seems to also have this same oddity.  I hadn't thought about much and I haven't heard anybody mention it over the past year and a half that I have been around the sport.  I noticed it last Sunday and when I came to realize it on Monday I came up with a nifty little idea for testing out the concept on the other sport.  I figured it wouldn't be as easy to test it out with ski jumping, at least not with video proof that I could go back and watch.

 

Since I haven't had a chance to test things thanks to the rain that started back on Friday with the first wave of coastal moisture and has continued since then I decided I would try it out today while out ski jumping.  I knew I wouldn't have a video camera around to tape anything but I could see what would happen when I got to the takeoff.  I didn't know if I would be able to pull myself to even attempt it or not knowing how stupid the idea would sound to everyone around.

 

It ended up being dry most of the day, at least until we were jumping but it had been cloudy all merky looking all day long.  I decided to head on up and do some ski jumping.  Mike and I ended up being the only two people out jumping.  He had his dad with him who did a lot of cross country(running and skiing) when he was a kid and did a little ski jumping as well. Strangely enough their were no kids around.

 

I grabbed my gear and headed up the hill.  The first jump wasn't all that bad other than I landed quite stiff legged.  I knew I was stiff legged, that's how badly I how landed stiff legged.  Normally I don't realize I've landed stiff legged unless someone tells me or unless I end up losing it and crashing.

 

I went back up and soaped up before going on up the inrun.  The second jump naturally was much longer than the first since I didn't soap up on the first jump.  I ended up landing around 19-20 meters.  It was probably the second best summer jump I've had on the K25 over the years, only beat by the jump I had the last time I was out.  Once again I landed stiff legged.

 

The landing on the third jump was a little better, it seemed.  It didn't seem like it was as long as the one before it but I did notice it seemed like I was getting better about not landing stiff legged with each passing jump.

 

I walked back up for the fourth jump.  I looked off toward downtown Lebanon and noticed the sky.  So far it had been dry all day long.  Looking toward downtown, a .25 mile away, there was noticable rain coming from the sky and a darker colored cloud was heading straight for the hilll.  I told Mike before I took the jump that we was about to get hit.

 

The fourth jump was about the same as the third jump.  I walked back up and as I hit the takeoff and was rubbing soap on the skis I heard a rather intriguing sound.  It sounded like rain starting to fall.  I picked up the skis and started up the inrun as the rain started falling.  I decided it has been quite a while, maybe December 2006, since I last jumped while it was raining.  I figured why not, I feel like getting wet so go for it.

 

I walked up the inrun taking it two steps at a time and put on the skis.  After Mike crossed over and ducked into the coaches stand Cannonball gave me the signal and I took off for a nice rainy jump.  It was shorter than the either of the two previous jumps.  I believe I was just playing it safe and not pressing my luck.

 

I walked inside the lodge and waited out the rain.  I was only planning on taking five jumps for the day but the longer I waited the more I figured why not take a couple extra jumps and see if you can't get yourself to test out this crazy twilight zone concept.

 

After it stopped raining the sun was about to poke its head out, at least the sky was turning blue by the time I headed up for jump number six.  Since I had soaped up I decided not to press my luck since I didn't know what to expect out of my idea for testing the twilight zone.  I took the sixth jump and afterwards Cannonball mentioned my real problem had been I was trying to land one legged which was making it seem like I was landing stiff legged.

 

I told Cannonball about my crazy idea and I wanted him to watch, err listen, and see if I would stop counting and if so when would I pick back up/would I start counting again.  I've jumped the K25 so much over the past eight years that I have become quite accepting of the hill and I don't notice the effect of the twilight zone much unless it comes at the end of the winter after I have taken 300+ jumps off the K50 and I'm coming back down to jump the K25.  I knew from the couple of jumps earlier in the day that I wasn't noticing the effect, at least from a visual perspective.

 

I walked on up the hill, intentionally not soaping up...for safety sake, I put on the skis and I was thinking the whole time, "Will I even be able to get myself to count as I go down the inrun".  I started down the inrun and a second or so after I started down I started counting outloud.  The counting was going fine.  I got the takeoff about the count of 4.  It seemed like I jumped right between 4 & 5.  I never missed a beat.  I was shocked I didn't stop counting.  The rhythm was the same pace the whole way through the inrun and into the flight.  After five/I was in the air about to land, I stopped counting. and rode the rest of the landing hill to a stop.  The jump didn't seem like it was all that bad.  Since I hadn't put any soap on the skis I didn't really have a good measure of comparison to work with for measuring distance.  It still looked like I must have landed around 18 meters, give or take a little.

 

After changing clothes and helping put away the hoses I talked with Jon and he surprised when he said I jumped on 4.  I did seem to me like it was dabsmack in between 4 & 5.  He said the only difference he noticed was when I went to jump on four the pitch of my voice changed just like it normally would if you were count to four and jump standing in place.

 

It definitely was not the response I was expecting to see.  I kinda figured at the takeoff I would lose track of the count and either stop counting or have to start over again.  I do have admit I have taken so many jumps over the years on the K25 that may make the test completely irrelevant.  I'm going to try it again the next time I'm out with soap on the skis and I definitely plan on trying it out this winter on the K50 and maybe a few other hills to see what will happen.  I also plan on taking to the new sport I have been involved with and see what happens there.  This twilight zone concept may end up being nothing more than an excuse.  Further testing should provide some rather interesting results.

 

Crash