Jumping Journal: February 26, 2009

Only 19 days.  Gee...no wonder I was nervous.

 

After warmer temperatures today than forecasted, forecast in the mid 30s in reality it hit the mid 40s, this evening started cooling off and had made its way back down to the freezing mark by the time I got up to Lebanon tonight.  The talk was that Dan was going to do packing work on the inrun and then run the tracolator down the inrun and set the track this afternoon so we could show up and jump tonight.

 

He managed to get the inrun pack down but hadn't gotten the track set.  When I showed up at the hill I walked to the jump inn and got the first scare of the night.  I opened the door and there sitting on the couch changing into his jump suit was an old timer I hadn't seen jump in two or three years.  Turns out Tom had brought one his high school kids over to see if  they could jump the K50 tonight.  Tom had been out of jumping for a couple of years thanks to hip replacement.  He said he had taken a few jumps on the K20 at Hanover and he was going to grab a couple of jumps on the K25 with his high school jumper and then they were hoping to jump the K50.

 

Dan showed up and I found out he got the inrun pack but didn't set a track on it.  We decided to go ahead and just be real ski jumpers and ski the track in.  Heck this would be the first time since the end of last winter I had jumped with a skied in track on the K50.  It would be the first time in an even longer time frame since I had been the first one down the K50 without a track on the inrun.

 

I went back out to my car and grabbed my equipment and suited up and waited for Dan and Nick to finish up raking out a windrow on the landing hill left behind by the groomer.  As Dan was suiting up I walked on up the side of the hill and was noticing the snow.  It was soft but it seemed like it was trying to harden/ice over.  I was thinking this might create a rather interesting situation on the inrun.

 

As I got up to the knoll I saw Tom and his school kid walking over from the K25.  I asked Tom how the conditions were on the K25.  I was mostly interested in how much it has started to freeze over more than anything else.  I was guessing if it had started to freeze over it could make it very tricky trying to set any kind of track at all.  Tom made it sound like it shouldn't be an issue.

 

I walked up the jump and was noticing what you would normally think of being death cookies on the inrun...all over the inrun.  It was looking VERY interesting.  My mind was going off at me big time.  The only times I've had my mind act up like this ever since I started jumping was both the first time jumping the K48, winter and summer, in Lake Placid.  Otherwise I haven't experienced any real kind of nervousness about jumping.

 

I got up top and was debating starting from a bar or starting from house.  I put my skis on up in the house.  The more I looked down the inrun the more I thought if you want to make sure you set a nice straight track than you should go from a bar so your skis are already straight when you leave the bar.  I grabbed the bar(4 inch PVC pipe) and stepped down to the top bar.  I hopped on the bar and got the signal from Nick.  I stood up and got into my inrun position and the ride down the inrun I was kinda surprised I wasn't noticing any of the death cookies.  In hindsight they hadn't frozen over yet so they was nothing more than soft fluff.  I pretty much only slid off the end of the inrun and landed just on the downhill side of the knoll.

 

I definitely was much more worried about the jump than what I needed to be.  I guess when it has been 19 days since I last jumped the K50 it what I can expect, LOL!!!  A couple of jumpers later and it was Tom jumping the K50 for the first time in three years.  He made Dan and I's first jump look like crap.  Ahhhhh, the benefits of ski jumping as a kid.

 

I went up for the second jump and it went better than the first jump.  I went from house the rest of the night.  It was quite noticable to me that I didn't cock my right ankle.  I still wasn't going anywhere down the hill but given the conditions I wasn't complaining.  I was having good, safe jumps.

 

The third jump was rather strange.  Nick said I jumped way late and I thought I jumped way early.  Normally if I think I jump early on the K50 than I have actually jumped on time.  I know I definitely had movement in the air as a result of thinking I jumped early.  I wasn't nice and quite like I am most of the time anymore.

 

The fourth jump was much better.  I was starting to get back down the hill toward 30-32 meters.  I was much more comfortable on the inrun and was jumping at the takeoff.

 

The fifth jump was the best of the night. I managed 32-34 meters and it really started to feel like I was ski jumping instead of just slidding off the end of the inrun like the first couple of jumps.  As usual it would happen to be my next to last jump of the evening.

 

I wasn't going to take another jump until I saw Dan walk up the landing hill stairs and I thought okay I'll take another one, why not.  The sixth and final jump and of course I manage to screw it up so it doesn't go as well as the jump before it.  What else is knew?  I still had 30-32 meters on the jump but it wasn't as nice as the one before it.

 

As February is winding down it kinda is obvious this isn't going to be a normal winter for me.  No 300+ jumps on the K50 like I have had the past couple of years and definitely no 50-50+ days of jumping like the past 5-6 years.  Definitely has been one strange winter.

 

Forecast now is for rain and mid to upper 40s tomorrow...upper 30s and sunny on Saturday with snow Saturday night into early Sunday before turning sunny for the first half of next week.  The K50 inrun will definitely hold up.  It may take some work to repair it but their is so much snow packed up on the trestle it ain't funny.  I'm not sure what the conditions are like down further south.  Their is supppose to be a jump meet Saturday.  I think it will happen but I'm not sure how much breathing, err melting, room is built into the jumps.  I'm not sure if I'm going to go to the meet or not.  If not it'll probably won't be until next week sometime before I see anymore jumping.  Hopefully it'll be either at Newport or on the K50.

 

Crash