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)

Monday, May 04, 2009

Jumping Journal: May 04, 2009

Gee, I thought winter was over.  Guess anyone can be wrong can't they.
 
Okay, so maybe winter is over.  Tonight sure seemed a lot like winter.  At least I didn't get home from ski jumping until 9PM.  Normally during the winter months I get home from jumping by 8:30PM.
 
Late this afternoon I headed up to Lebanon to do some jumping.  I was hoping/figuring everything would be back to normal and their would be no problems.  I had one objective in mind and other than the first jump I never even thought about the idea the rest of the night.
 
After a warm up run around the parking lot and doing some stretching everyone suited up.  Their was 5 juniors, two 'pre' juniors and myself out to jump this evening.  The weather was cloudy and in the low 70s by 6PM when we met up.  It has been cloudy for the most part ever since Saturday and it sounds like its going to remain that way for a well with rain forecast for tomorrow.
 
Most of the kids headed straight for the landing hill of the K25.  The two newbies to jumping, neither one has jumped before on anything more than tele equipment, both of them headed for the K10 landing hill.  The girl has XC skied since she was a baby but has never alpine skied.  Her younger brother did ride the landing hill on the K25 once after getting used to the K10.  His sister wouldn't ride it though.
 
I went up for my first jump of the evening.  I was wondering if I would have the same fun I had last Sunday or not on the first jump.  I knew last Sunday was a bit strange.  To find myself sticking on the inrun, whether I had put soap on my skis or not, it hadn't occured before.  I had soaped up my skis down at the takeoff and after waiting around for ten minutes or so for the kids to ride the landing hill and the telebump I finally had my skis on and noticed that the soap may have dried on the bottom of the skis a bit as it seemed like I was sticking a bit on the top of the inrun.  I got the signal from Cannonball and started to head down the inrun.  Yes, at least before I dropped over the edge onto the steep part of the inrun it seemed like I was sticking again.  Once I got onto the down hill side of the inrun I was fine.  I jumped at the takeoff and had a decent jump.  I landed and made my way down the rest the landing hill.  I dropped down to stop and once I hit the sawdust...I hit the sawdust.  I startled tumbling all over the place.
 
Once I stopped moving/tumbling I grabbed my skis.  I was irritated.  I hadn't been having any problems like this since the summer of 2002 and some into 2003.  I shook the sawdust off me before I headed back up.  I was almost ready to call it a night with just the one jump.
 
Cannonball mentioned that I was abruptly getting down to slow down/stop and as a result I was also getting my weight too far to one side or the other and that was causing me to fall over.
 
I soaped up and headed back up the stairs.  After another wait I got the skis on and Cannonball gave me the signal.  I started down the inrun and had another nice jump.  This time though I waited a bit longer and didn't rush getting into the position.  Gee, it ended up being the best outrun of the summer thus far.
 
Jumps three, four and five all were pretty much the same.  I think I did jump a bit early on the final jump of the evening but at least I wasn't rolling around in the sawdust like I was last time I was out or more so like the first jump I took tongiht.
 
Now hopefully things will start to act more normal than how they have been behaving so far this summer.
 
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