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)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Jumping Journal: February 10, 2009

Sooo....you do that with a needle...what else is new, it is the winter of 2009 isn't it?
 
Once again the plans come unglued.  This has been the worst winter I've had since I started ski jumping.  Plans keep changing constantly and more often than not they changed against me getting any jumping in.
 
The plan, or so I thought, was to jump last night on the K50 in Lebanon.  I received an email from Dan mid afternoon yesterday that he wasn't going to be able to jump.  I did some checking around Bill and he wasn't going to jump either.  I tried to ge ahold of one of the junior jumpers but had no luck there.  I decided since I was planning on spending the rest of the week jumping around home/Newport I would go up and pick up my skis.
 
The plan...jump at Newport this afternoon.  Actually have a mid day jump session at Newport on a weekday.  It was going to be the first time I would ever pull off a daylight jump session, non weekend, at Newport.  Well...
 
I arrived at the hill around 3:30PM after running an errand nearby.  As I was parking my car I noticed the porta-john had been knocked over.  I took my equipment out of the car and walked to building which a couple of weeks ago had been spray painted with some graffiti(sp?).  As I got to the hillside of the building Ron said "You might as well put the skis back in your car".  I was a little surprised.  After setting the equipment down I walked on over to see what Ron was talking about.  Some kids had come since we last jumped the hill and slid down the inrun dragging their butt hard through the snow.  In a couple of spots you could see the cleats sticking up through the snow.  Someone had also rode down the landing hill on their snowmobile and left marks in the snow that had frozen over since we have seen some nice thawing/refreezing action over the past several days.  They rode into te outrun as well and did a couple of circles in the outrun.  Naturally that had frozen over nice and hard as well.
 
It was pretty much decided that jumping in Newport was done until hopefully the meet their this Sunday.  That's where the weather comes into the equation.  The forecast right now is for partly cloudy tomorrow with highs in the mid 40s.  Rain tomorrow night lows in the upper 30s and rain turning to snow and rain on Thursday with high in the lower 40s.  Cooling down finally on Friday through the weekend with sunny skies into early next week.
 
The jump at Newport only has natural snow so any rain could quickly be very detrimental to keeping the snow around.  It's questionable right now whether the jump meet this coming Sunday will happen or not.  It sounds like Saturday, if possible/needed  will be a long work day at the jump.
 
I drove on home after the cancelled practice and started thinking about going on up to Lebanon and jumping the K50 tonight.  I spent some time at home on the computer and then left for the unplanned drive up to Lebanon.  I arrived and found the lights were turned on on the K50 but no one was around the jump.  I did see Cannonball in the lodge as I walked by it.  I figured Dan or Bill would show up to jump, maybe even Tara would come over if she wasn't coaching on the K25.
 
I got there shortly after 6PM and practice doesn't normally start until 6:30PM.  After waiting around for 10 or 15 minutes Nick Burke showed up and we started chatting.  Still no one showed up.  We kept chatting, and still no one showed up.  I had already said that I was going to jump if anyone else showed up otherwise I would probably go over and join the kids on the K25.  Finally about 7PM we both gave up waiting and decided to call it a night.  I went up and shut off the lights before walking back to the lodge.  Right before I got to the lodge I saw Mike take a jump on the K25.  He came over around the lodge instead of heading back toward the steps.  I said "You quitting already?"  He said, "Just taking off a layer, I'm not use to jumping when it's this warm out."
 
I decided the heck with and suited up and headed on out to join him for the remainder of the evening.  I walked up behind and after watching his first jump I got the signal and headed down the inrun.  I wasn't planning anything special.  I figured it would be another run of the mill jump.  I jumped at the takeoff, nothing impressive.  I flew through the air...nothing impressive.  Then I landed.  I was a bit shocked by how far I made it down the hill.  It seemed to be much further down the hill than normal for me on the K25.  It seemed like it was below 20 meters somewhere.  I couldn't tell for sure but I knew I had much less landing hill left than normal.
 
I walked back up and Cannonball didn't say a word and neither did Nick, he had walked over to shoot the breeze with Cannonball after we gave up on jumping on the K50.  After Mike took his next jump I got the signal and started down the inrun.  I figured in typical fashion for me I would end up having to take several more jumps before I would get another one as nice as the first one.  I was wrong!  The second one ended up being even better and further down the hill.  I had to be getting down near 22 meters...maybe further.  It didn't seem like I did anything different.  The results were better though.
 
The next two jumps weren't quite as nice as the second one but I was still below 20 meters on the landing.  On the fifth jump I ended up getting way back on the landing and went down.  The jump had some nice power to it and I was looking to the bottom of the hill.  I was also finding myself watching the ski track mark right around 20 meters.  It was drawing my attention right to it as I was in the air.  I think my attention drawing to was causing me to sit back on landing which caused me to go down.
 
On the sixth and final jump I did pretty much the same thing as the previous jump except I managed to stand the jump instead of falling down.  I noticed on the jump the fact my attention was getting drawn to that one spot on the landing hill right I had landed a couple of times before.  It's a scenario I'm going to have to watch out for in the future.
 
RIght now I won't take a guess as to when I'll jump next.  I think I have given that concept up until next winter.  Depending on weather it could be Thursday night in Lebanon, it could be Friday afternoon before the state high school meet, it could be Sunday at McCrillis Cup or it could be some time next week, somewhere.  Too many variables to deal with right now.
 
Keep the ski tips up,
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