Jumping Journal: February 03, 2010

Not what I was expecting by a long shot.

 

I remember sometime in the past couple of years when I went to jump at Andover, it may have been last year in fact, that I got to the takeoff and found an extra pile of snow not as high as the takeoff but within plane view.  It caught me off guard as I had never seen it there before in all the times over the previous eight or nine years that I had jumped there.

 

I also remember a time several years back, probably Feb/March 2003 or 2004 I jumped at the takeoff and had a very weird feeling.  It felt like I was jumping into a vacuum.  I have seen some rather unusual conditions exist at Andover for the few times that I have actually jumped there.

 

One thing Andover has been known for over the years is having a higher takeoff angle that sends jumpers high into the air.  For a small 38 meter jump it doesn't seem like you should feel like you are on a big hill but you do because of how much height you get on the jump.

 

Well tonight...decided I would take the skis with me and jump Andover once again before the next to last high school jump meet of the season.  Normally I try to take three jumps with the kids as they practice before the meet.

 

I met up with the Sunapee High School team and rode over to Andover with them on the bus.  I've been joining them going to high school meets since right before I started jumping in 2001.  My first time seeing ski jumping in person was at the first high school meet of the season in January that year.  It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I started jumping myself.

 

We arrived at the ski jumps around 4:30PM.  I suited up and headed on up the poma lift to the area around the takeoff.  I noticed as I was getting on the poma lift that it appeared the transition was pretty much on the landing hill.  In the past at times it has had a nice dip to it that would throw you if you wasn't prepared for it.  The past two years or so I haven't noticed like I used to.

 

I walked up the trestle and waited behind some of the other kids.  Andrew, one of the former Concord High School jumper and an eastern jumper for many years, came up the jump with a tracolator and some other tools.  He did a little inrun work and since we have both known and joked with each other for years now he made the statement to me that he had completely iced down the bottom part of the track.  I figured he was just kidding.  He continued do some improvement work to the top of the inrun where kids had managed to knock the track out while getting out onto the bars.

 

I put on my skis and got the signal from the takeoff.  I started down the inrun and found the inrun in about the best condition I have seen the inrun at Andover...ever.  I jumped at the takeoff and then the usual Andover effect took control.  I found myself WAY high in the air.  I felt like I was jumping on a big hill instead of on a small 38 meter jump.  I didn't think much about until I started noticing how far down the hill I was going.  I ended up backing out since I wasn't used to make it to the blue line.  I ended up landing no higher than 30 meters and maybe even further down the hill than that.  Once again I had been caught off guard by the jump.  I ended up landing behind on the jump and went over backwards and slid on my elbows until I came to a stop.  I was VERY surprised by the jump I just took.  I found myself commenting I didn't know I was in Salisbury.  The jump meet on the K64 in Salisbury, CT is this weekend and it seemed like I was jumping down there instead of Andover, NH.

 

My goggles came off during the slide and after one of the other kids brought them to me I headed back up the jump.  There ended up being a bit of a pause in the jumping when a kid fell and broke his wrist.  He couldn't have much worse luck.  He got a concussion earlier this year and today happened to be his birthday.  Talk about the rotten luck.

 

I finally made my way back up top for another jump.  I pretty much knew with the line forming and since I was getting cold that it would end up being my last jump of the day.  I was hoping for a repeat of the previous jump only not letting myself get psyched out by going so far and backing out.  I probably could have had another two meters or more on the previous jump if I would have just stayed with it.

 

I got the signal from the takeoff and headed down the inrun.  I jumped at the takeoff but chickened out right from there.  I was trying to backout from the start to keep myself from getting so high.  I ended up landing much shorter than the previous.  More in the range of where I normally land on the hill, around 25-27 meters.

 

Two nights in a row of real strange conditions.  It hasn't been my jumping had changed any it's definitely been the conditions have just been top notch and tonight I still think the takeoff angle was on the high side.  The kids were flying away from the hill versus following the shape of the hill.  I know that is what happened on my first jump

 

The forecast right now, other than maybe some snow on Saturday, really questionable as to the track of the storm system right now, looks like nothing but sunshine and cool weather, highs in the low 20s and lows upper single digits to teens.  I don't think conditions are going to change much anytime soon the way it sounds.  It would be nice if we could get a nice snow storm to come through sometime in the next week and half to allow Ron and me to get the Newport jump in shape in time for Newport Winter Carnival but this forecast seems pretty much stuck right now on being very consistent.

 

Crash