Jumping Journal: July 13, 2009

Summer has arrived...or so it seems.

 

After missing the most recent jump session, two weeks ago, thanks to the weather forecast or something...I don't remember what the reason was for sure anymore I was hoping to make it out this evening for the jump session and get July under my belt.

 

To say the weather has been horrible this summer would be an understatement.  From June 21st through July 4th the only day it didn't rain in the area was June 25th.  Talk about a rather wet period of time.  It hasn't made for much fun trying to do anything outside other than remembering to take dry clothes with you when you leave cause your going to need them before you come back home.

 

After a decent weekend, only some sprinkles on Saturday and nice warm sunny skies yesterday today started out nice and sunny as well.  By 11AM some clouds were moving in but nothing that looked like it would amount to anything.  Since I had been doing some outside work I noticed some sprinkles fall around 3PM but they didn't last more than a minute or so.

 

I arrived at the hill about 6:15PM to find only one other jumper there.  I was shocked to see she was the only jumper to show up to jump other than myself.  I quickly started to realize that summer must be here.  Between vacation and starting to get into other things it seems like this is the time of the year when the numbers start to drop off.  This year appears to be no exception.

 

We suited up and headed up the hill.  She did some work on the landing hill and I headed on up the jump.  With no soap up top I knew it was going to be a slow night and a short night.  At least short, in terms of how far I would go on each jump.  I figured with only two jumpers I should actually be able to get quite a few jumps in.

 

I was hoping for a nice smooth first jump of the evening to help set the pace.  Turns out I ended up with one of the smoothest jumps I've had all summer.  Everything seemed to go like it always use to go versus the way it has been going.  I'm not going to complain any.  Sure I only ended up going 13-14 meters thanks to having no soap handy.  I definitely noticed the lack of speed on the inrun but at least it did seem like I didn't notice the trouble getting into a comfortable inrun position this evening that I have been noticing all summer so far.

 

I walked back up and took the second jump and it was another nice smooth jump.  The third jump would turn out to be the weird jump of the evening.  I started down the inrun and noticed it seem like my face was being hit by something.  It was rather unusual.  In the air I noticed the same thing and even riding the landing hill.  I couldn't figure it out until I was slowing to a stop and I noticed that it was sprinkling out again.  It has been quite a while since I last jumped with any rain falling.  It only feel for a minute or so but...WOW!!!, what a difference a minute or so makes.

 

I walked back up top and got the signal for the fourth jump.  I headed down the inrun and jumped at the takeoff.  Everything seemed like the previous three jumps until I got on the grass and quickly remembered, by force that it had sprinkeld.  Even with the lack of nothing more than sprinkles it had managed to decreasing the friction on the grass quite a bit.  I wasn't prepared for losing that much friction.

 

I walked back up and took the fifth jump.  As quickly as the sprinkles had moved in, they also moved out.  On the fifth jump the grass had dried out already and was back to being just as sticky as it had been prior to the rain.  I was finally making it down right the 15 meter mark but not any further.

 

The next two/last two jumps of the night were pretty much the same.  Nice smooth jumps going about 15 meters.  It ended up being one of the nicer jump session I've had all year.

 

Hopefully Mother Nature will continue to dry out, I doubt it but I can always hope.  I guess time shall tell.  Hopefully, I'll be out again next Monday evening.

 

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash