Jumping Journal: June 22, 2009

Breathless.

 

After the potential for rain last Monday I decided to skip the evening and stay home instead.  I watched radar and noticed what appeared to be a nice block of high pressure/dry air the rain couldn't penetrate sitting right over Lebanon.  The rain kept getting forced to the south or was dying out.  Turns out nothing much changed all evening long and the weather remained the same, no rain in Lebanon.

 

After a bit of sunny weather to start last week the clouds and rain came back in by late in the week and through the weekend and they have still stuck around.  This time instead of the precip moving from west to east as it normally would, now the precip is moving from northeast to southwest.  Yes, once again a nice block of 'high pressure' wouldn't let the moisture get into Lebanon.  I had sprinkles throughout the entire day at my house 35 minutes from Lebanon.  It didn't look like Lebanon got any of the light showers I saw earlier in the day.  The blocking dry air kept right on blocking.

 

I arrived in Lebanon to find a few new faces I hadn't seen so far this summer and plenty of old timers as well.  Bill, Mike and I were the experieneced adults out jumping, more on that later and then their was about five juniors and one high schooler out as well.  Again a nice size crowd for this point in the summer.  I did notice two other guys standing around and they got to talking to Cannonball right before I headed up the jump and it turned out they were planning on jumping.  I didn't recognize either of the two of them.  I asked Cannonball who they were and who the one girl was as I didn't recognize her right off the bat either.  Turns out the new guys, yes adults, know one of the other female nordic combiners and they decided to come out and give ski jumping a try for the first time.  Talking with them later they have been off the jumps in terrain parks but neither one of them has ever ski jumped until tonight.  This was the first time I saw anyone actually come to jump for the first time ever, and they would be doing it on plastic.  Rather unique.

 

I headed up for the first.  After soaping up I got the signal from Esky.  He was doing the usual of trying to remind me the simple basics.  I simply told myself to make sure I didn't rush trying to get down before getting onto the sawdust.  I headed down the inrun and jumped at the takeoff.  I had a nice 17.5-18 meter jump.  Esky afterwards said it was one if the best first jump of a session he has ever seen me take.  I landed and went through the transition.  I do remember feeling a bit off balance.  I kept trying to regain my balance.  As I hit the sawdust I still hadn't dropped down like I normally should/would have.  The sawdust caught me and sent me flying forward.  I tumbled quite nicely.  I noticed as I came to stop that my one ski was already off.  I started to take the other ski off and I was trying BIG TIME to catch my breath.  I had the wind knocked completely out of me.  I knew I couldn't say a word.  I couldn't even hope to try to answer anyone and say I was fine.  I got the ski off, quite quickly, compared to a normal crash.  I stood up and moved out of the way and started brushing the sawdust off myself.  I had sawdust covering me top to bottom.

 

As I finished cleaning myself off I was already starting to notice the bit of pain around my underarm.  I'm not sure if I 'stabbed' myself with a ski as I went down or what happened.  The rest of the arm feels fine but the armpit area is definitely sore, even now as I type this.

 

I decided to go back up and take another jump.  I was surprised as I got back up top that I was noticing the side effects of the crash.  I was definitely on the shaky side which made me think a little before taking the next jump.  I knew it was from the crash, not from nerves.

 

I got the signal from Esky and started down the inrun and jumped and once again had a pretty decent jump.  It wasn't quite as good as the one before it, probably closer to 17 meters.  I did manage to pull it off smoothly though which was a much needed psychological boost.  It still didn't feel natural though.

 

I walked back up for another jump.  I had thought about calling it quits after two jumps.  I knew I just wanted a nice recovery jump after taking  the crash.  Cannonball said on the second jump I had landed with my feet quite a bit apart and as a result I was trying to get my full balance instead of focusing so much so on getting down before hitting the sawdust.

 

I got the signal from Cannonball and started down the inrun.  The jump went about the same and this time I definitely landed with the feet nicely together.  As I was riding on the sawdust and into the outrun I still felt like I was trying to save it versus enjoying the ride.  I came to stop and said "I'm done."  I took off the ski and walked inside the lodge and changed clothes.

 

As I walked out I got to talking a bit with Bill and Mike before they headed back up the jump.  I also got talking with one of the other parents.  I was watching some of the other jumpers it turned out each of the three first timers on plastic were up top the K25 waiting to jump.  The girl came down and had a decent jump but got sitting way too far back and she went over.

 

She did jump last winter for Vermont Academy but the two guys that were coming down next hadn't ever jumped before in their life.  They were up top the K25 waiting for the signal.  The first guy comes down and has a very standard first jump.  He lands the jump probably 8-9 meters and you could tell looking at his face that he was scared/nervous as he made his way onto the sawdust.  He came to a stop and took off his skis.  It was at that point that I asked him if that was his first jump ever or not.

 

The second guys came down the inrun and jumped and landed 11.5-12 meters, maybe slightly further.  I was surprised how far he went for it being his first jump.  He looked even more scared right before getting onto the sawdust.

 

Who knows we may have two more adults out jumping with us now in the future.  I think I did hear the one was just visiting the area and decided to come on out with his buddy so we may only end up picking up one new jumper.  Time shall tell.  Both of them looked pretty decent for it being their first time ever jumping...and they was doing it on plastic too boot.

 

I have a strange feeling I may be sore for a while thanks to the crash.  It'll be interesting to see how bad things get.  Right now it feels like I'm stretching the muscles in my underarm just so I can lift my arm.  By the time morning gets here it could interesting.

 

Sagola,

Crash