Jumping Journal: June 01, 2009

BRRRRR!!!!   WOW!!! The nickname finally didn't stick.

 

It has definitely been one of the coldest springs I can remember .  March seemed like it was going to be an early spring after the snow melted off the earliest I have seen in the nine years I have lived up here.  April came and brought a bit of continuation of the nice warm weather at least until mid month when it did seem like things started to return a bit more normal.  May arrived and things kept getting more normal until mid month when the rain started falling and the colder weather set in.  Each of the past couple of weeks I have seen overnight temperature drop into the lower 30s.  I heard rumor floating around tonight that their was flurries falling in Lake Placid this morning.  The overnight low in Lebanon last night was 33.  It has definitely been a cold mid May in early June.  Every time is seems like summer is going to finally arrive then another blast of late winter temperatures sets in.  The temperature has only hit 70 degrees once in the past week.

 

I arrived at the hill this evening under cloudy skies and cool temps.  The temperature was around 60 degrees.  I found a few old faces and a few new faces had already arrived.  After a brief warm up we stretched and did immos.  All of us, 1 adult, 4 high school kids, 4 juniors and 2 under 10 years old jumpers were all out for the evening.  A couple of adults made their presence known at the hill but had decided not to jump.  I knew one of the high school kids was going to be there, he has been to each of the summer practices thus far but the other three really surprised.  It was great to see I believe that whole high school team come out to jump on plastic.  I guess the only week I have missed since summer jumping began one of the same kids had shown up to jump but the other two were getting their first tastes of summer jumping.

 

I must say I'm not used to seeing this big of a turn out come the first of June.  Normally by now the numbers start to drift downward.  They don't totally shut off until later in the summer and as school starts back up in the fall but to see eleven jumpers on a nice sprign evening out jumping was a nice treat.

 

I headed up the jump and was hoping that I might actually be able to pull off what I hadn't been able to pull off so far this spring...a nice, clean first jump without it ending up being a yard sale in the outrun.  After soaping up I put on the skis and get the signal from Cannonball.  I start down the inrun and jump at the takeoff.  Not too bad of a jump.  I landed around 16-17 meters and actually managed to ride it through the end of the outrun without creating a big yard sale.  LOL!!!  It actually was the best jump so far this summer.

 

I took off the skis and headed back up the landing hill.  Everyone was commenting about how I had managed to finally to take my first jump of the evening without crashing.  I walked up the inrun and waited for the newer jumpers to get a ride in on the landing hill.  Finally it was the older boys turn to go.  After a couple of jumpers had taken their turn I had my skis on and waited for the signal.  I headed down the inrun and jump.  Once again not a bad jump, and a nice smooth ride out through the outrun as well.

 

Jump three would be a rather strange jump.  It went fine and I didn't fall or anything but I did find myself actually having enough time to think about trying to put in a telemark landing.  The thought did come awful late though so I stuck with a regular landing.  It did make me think a bit about before I even started down the inrun for the fourth jump.  Heck on the third jump I managed to get around 18 meters as well.  The jumps seem to keep on getting better, jump by jump.  After the rocky start to the spring I can only hope they continue to get better.

 

Jump four and five were about the same, maybe half a meter less than the third jump but they were still decent jumps.  I didn't have the thought/urge to go for a telemark landing on either jump unfortunately.

 

I called it night after the usual round of five jumps and left as the kids were still up top the inrun getting ready to come down.  It isn't very often that happens.  I guess when you have a nice night and the bugs are out biting nice like you kinda know when to call it quits.  I don't think I can remember a time in the nine years I've been jumping when I have had the bugs biting when I have been out to jump.  Tonight was the first time.

 

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash