Jumping Journal: March 16, 2009

If it ain't one thing...than it's another.

 

Well, I figured Saturday was pretty much going to end up being the last day of the season unless we jumped early Sunday morning.  The forecast for Sunday was highs in the low to mid 50s.  Monday was to be in the 40s and Tuesday once again in the 50s.  Sunshine all three days.  No one wanted to jump on Sunday so I figured the season was done.  I didn't figure the K25 or K50 would last through the Sunday, yet alone Monday to be able to jump it anytime else unless we ended up getting a nice snow storm.

 

Late this morning/early this afternoon I got an email from Dan saying he checked the jump and the inrun looked great and was wanting to know if anyone was wanting to jump this evening or not.  I was fair game.  With only 29 jumps off the K50 so far this winter I knew I needed more.  I don't think in my first year of jumping of the K50, 2003, I had this few of jumps and I didn't start jumping on the jump until mid to late February.  It has been a pathetic winter.

 

I left for Storrs Hill around 5PM with the plan of making a stop to take care of an errand on the way up.  I ended up seeing Bill heading home from work, at least I think it was him.  I'm still wondering why the old timer was heading the wrong direction.  That's not the way to the hill, Bill, LOL!!!(Yeah, Bill reads the blog all the time so he'll see this).

 

I arrived and saw Dan's car already in the parking lot.  I wasn't sure if anyone else was going to show up or not.  I walked to the jump inn and I noticed the snow was already starting to setup quite nicely.  The high temperature was 53 degrees but it had dropped back down into the low to mid 40s by the time I arrived at the hill.

 

I walked into the jump inn and picked up my skis to take them and set them outside to cool off.  As I walked back in Dan said he had some wax if I wanted to wax them.  I decided why not rub some wax on real quick like, might as well.  I rubbed some wax on and them set them outside.  After talking a coulpe of minutes we were about to start suiting up when Nick walked in.  We both were happy to see we was going to have a flagger/coach on hand tonight instead of having to flag each other.

 

We suited up and proceed to head on up the landing hill.  Nick went to turn of the lights even though they wasn't necessary just yet.  He wasn't having any luck getting the lights to come on.  I guess last week they was having trouble as well one evening.  Dan and I both knew time was of the essence.  We both rode the landing hill and I was a bit surprised to see nothing on the outrun in terms of any slow spots.  I figured for sure I would find something, but there was nothing!  The only thing was the snow already starting to melt at the end of the outrun.  Normally the first place to melt is just on the far side of the bridge but this year is going to be different.  This year the first place to melt is out toward the top of the outrun.

 

We walk back up the to the knoll and start up the inrun.  Dan steps out onto the inrun does a quick bit of tracolating at th takeoff to make sure there is no water or slush right at the takeoff.  He picked up the piece of wood he sit up to act as his guide for running the tracolater down the track.  I walked on up thinking Dan also just made himself the last of the two of us in the round to jump.  DRATS!!!

 

I get my skis on and hop out onto the top bar, house was totally melted away so the highest option was top bar.  I get the signal from Nick and head down the inrun.  I was a bit cautious, not knowing if I was going to hit and slowness on the table or not.  Turns out things had setup REAL NICE.  The speed was great, the track itself was in great shape, the landing hill was in great shape and given all things considered the outrun was in great shape as well.  I was kinda mad at myself for pussfooting the first jump knowing daylight was wearing thin quickly and I would probably only be able to get three jumps, maybe four if I was real lucky.

 

I walked back up and knew this time I wasn't going to be so cautious, to say the least.  I started down the inrun and timed the takeoff quite nicely.  I jumped and got into position and knew I was having a decent jump.  I ended up landing down around 35 meters.  I was pleasantly surprised by the jump.

 

I walked back up and told Nick I wanted him to watch and see if he noticed any pause on the next jump.  I had been wanting ever since late last summer to try the outloud count on the K50 that I tried last summer on the K25.  I wanted to see if I would pause on count or anything like that.  I didn't do it on the K25 but I knew I had jumped way too much on the K25 over the past nine years.  Admittedly, it doesn't seem like I notice the 'blackout' much on the K50 either.

 

I headed up and put on my skis.  As I was up there Dan walked down into the judges tower and managed to get the tricky switch to work correctly and was able to get the lights on.  I get out onto the bar and get the signal from Nick.  I start down the inrun and then start counting.  I continue right on counting without any bit of a pause at all.  Also amazingly enough I managed to time the takeoff pretty decent and also managed to jump pretty decent.  I landed pretty much in the same area as before, maybe a meter or so back up the hill.

 

I jumped late on both the fourth and fifth jump.  I was still landing pretty much in the same area but I would have been going further if I was jumping on time.

 

Jump six and I started thinking more about jumping more aggressively.  That didn't seem to help much.

 

Jump seven ended up being the best jump of the night, distance-wise.  The power at the takeoff was the best of the night as well even though it did seem like I was still a bit late.  I ended up with a nice 38 meters jump roughly.  I was pretty much landing right around the windows on the jump inn.

 

I went up for the eighth jump, figuring Dan was going to come back up for another jump.  I watched him take his jump and then as he started back across the bridge he headed for the left side of the landing hill instead of the right side...the left side you walk up through the snow to the jump inn and the right side you walk up the stairs back to the trestle.  I was a bit upset.  I was hoping for another jump or two besides the one I was about to take.  Dan was ready to call it a night though.

 

I put on the skis, kinda thinking, if this is the last night for jumping the K50 this year, then I'm going to end up being the first person to jump the hill and the last person to jump the hill this year.  Heck, this would mark my fourth consectutive year of being the last person to jump the K50.  I headed down the inrun and jumped at the takeoff.  All the jumps tonight...except the last one, had been nice and very quiet in the air.  Some of the quietest jumping I've had in a long time.  The last jump I ended up jumping from the heels versus the whole foot and it through me off and I noticed my left arm swinging in the air as I flying along.  I landed around 34-35 meters and headed on over the left side and took the skis off.

 

I don't know if this was the last time I'll jump on snow this winter or not.  So far in the past week I've been wrong every darn day it seems like.  I guess time shall tell if this is the season finale or not.

 

Crash