Ski Jumping With A Twist

Jumping Journal: February 13, 2013

2013-02-15T14:25:00.000-05:00

Gee has it really been that long. Almost 4 years since I last jumped. I guess I didn't quite make the 120 consecutive months of ski jumping. I did manage to pull off 111 months though. Not bad for an old fart like me. Guys my age aren't suppose to be out jumping, that's for the kids.

April 2010 saw my vehicle registration come due. I had already seen the stupid idea of driving was costing me a fortune each year and I was already thinking of giving up driving when the registration came due at the end of April 2010. On the day of the opening ceremonies to the Vancouver Winter Olympics I got the news the car was pretty much junk. I was leaking antifreeze through the head gasket and the transaxle bearing was going out. I knew come the end of April I was done driving. I knew this was going to pretty much put a crimp into any jumping.

Time passed by and I finally ended up losing the streak that I had had ever since I started jumping in January 2001. Bummer. I didn't really mind. Ever since 2006, 2007...somewhere in that time frame, long before the digger on the K90 in Lake Placid I had been getting 'cold feet' to jumping. I knew my mind was working on me and it didn't really bother me anymore.

Even by the end of the summer of 2010 I still was in shape to be biking back and forth to Lebanon to go ski jumping so I left it alone. Winter of 2011 was no better and by then the bike was starting to give me all kinds of fits so I was still left sittiing at home.

The summer of 2011 came around and I started doing a lot of biking. The original plan was to only be riding for errand running. The summer of 2011 changed that and I ended up riding 12,000 miles in 2011 as a results. A big chunk of the miles was purely pleasure riding. I did go up and watch Dion Cup in early September. It seemed a bit strange to be back around ski jumping again. I can't really say the motivation to jump was there though.

Last winter I thought about trying to drop in on some of the jump meets if the weather would cooperate. After the worst winter since I moved up here, weatherwise, I managed to keep myself away from the hills once again. I still managed to grab the start of what would end up being a 21,200 mile year for 2012. I was out in the midwest when Dion Cup came around so I didn't manage to get up to Lebanon for the meet.

During the late fall and on into New Years Eve it seemed like once a week or once every two weeks I was riding up to the Lebanon/Hanover area. I knew I was easily in shape but I also knew I didn't have any lighting equipment for riding home after dark.

Shortly after the start of the new year winter started to turn on and I also found myself having a shopping bag hanging off my mailbox. In that shopping bag was a headlight. I knew I was in trouble, many more ways than one, biking related and otherwise. I knew if I didn't want to find myself out riding all the time after dark the simplest secret was to not start riding after dark in the first place. I kept avoiding it. I also kept managing to talk myself out of going up to Lebanon or over to Andover for any of the jump meets. I had thought about it but I always managed to talk myself out of it generally letting the weather make me a whimp.

Shortly after the start of new year I also received an email announcing that Master Championships was going to come back to the Eastern Division for the first time since 1995. I was now thinking about definitely putting the skis back on and hitting the jumps again.

I kept waiting and waiting look for decent weather. I knew the competition was coming sooner and sooner. I kept watching the current and the extended forecast and I was seeing the forecast for the week leading into the competition was looking awfully nice. It would all depend on if it stayed that way or if it ended up changing.

Well the week in question...Wednesday through Saturday looks gorgeous. Maybe a bit on the warm but for winds and for riding the bike back and forth to Lebanon the forecast was looking the best of the season.

This afternoon I took off and rode on up to Lebanon. I knew talking with Dan that he knew where my skis and jump suit was at but he didn't know where my boots were. I knew where they were the last I was up there back for Dion Cup 1.5 years ago. After getting up to Storrs Hill I walked up the stairs and found both my boots and helmet weren't where I last knew them to be. I had the skis and took off and walked over to the jump inn to see if I could find a pair of boots that I might be able to wear. After trying on several pairs I managed to find something that I figured would work okay. I walked back over to the lodge to see if I might be able to scrounge up a helmet or not. I got lucky finally.

I suited up and headed out the door. I was already running late but that didn't bother me any. I figured if I got three or four jumps in I would be fine. I knew to expect the first couple to be a bit hairy thanks to not having jumped in four years.

I put the skis on at the top of the landing hill and after Jared took his first jump of the evening I rode the landing hill. It wasn't pretty. I haven't been on skis for a while and it showed. I walked back up and grabbed several more landing hill rides before I went up for the first jump. The last two landing hill rides felt half ways decent. I won't say they were great but they were definitely better than the second one. I couldn't get/keep the skis under me on the second one to save my soul.

I walked up the trestle and put on the skis. I was looking down the inrun and I yelled down to Jared "I don't think I should be up here". After another minute or so I finally decided to go for it. I was hoping I could remember how to land, err keep the knees bent instead of trying to stiff leg the landing.

I rode down the inrun and barely jumped at the takeoff. It was definitely one of the shorter jumps I've had in a very long time...like since the first week or so of jumping. I landed it smoothly and came to stop at the end of the outrun fine and jim dandy like. I walked back up for the second and after Jared took his next jump I walked on up the inrun.

I put on the skis and was feeling much more comfortable than before the first jump. I got the signal from Jared and headed on down the inrun. Much better inrun position. Jumped at the takeoff. I hadn't even landed yet and I was shocked. I wasn't expecting that nice/far of a jump all night long. I landed smoothly and started down the remainder of the landing hill. Right before the transition I must have gotten my weight forward and I went down. At first everything seemed fine but then right before coming to a stop I could feel it. I was already wandering how this was going to turn out.

I came to a stop and went to reach back to take off the left ski. I knew that ankle was hurting. I wasn't sure if it was sprained/twisted or if it was worse than that. I knew I wasn't going be able to take the ski off myself. Not a chance. Someone came out and took the ski off for me. I already had taken the right one off. I decided to try to see if I could stand up and walk it off or if I was screwed. I knew before my foot could even touch the ground that their was no way I was going to be able to walk on the left foot.

After a bit of thinking it through I grabbed a couple of shoulders from the ski patrollers and managed to hobble into the ski patrol room. They took off the boot and it seemed to come off smoothly. When they took the sock off and I saw the ankle I pretty much knew that didn't look quite right. It was swollen but I had bad feelings about it.

After some discussion and some time spent chatting in the ski patrol room they boxed the leg up and Dan said he would take me to the hospital. I knew I wasn't even going to press my luck and skip the hospital. I pretty much knew it was broken. I hadn't broken any bones before but I knew this was worse than a couple of the twisted ankles I had as a kid.

I got to the hospital and after getting the xrays it was found I had both a broken ankle and tibia. I also had a dislocated ankle as well. So much for jumping in the Masters Championships this weekend. Dan came back and picked me up after they had the leg set and casted and I went back to his place and spent the night there before he gave me a ride home in the morning.

Oh well, I guess I'll have two jumps in this winter...two more than I've had in either of the past three winters.

Crash(the name just never dies)

Jumping Journal: March 06, 2010

2010-03-06T23:34:00.001-05:00

What a stretch, almost one entire month without ski jumping during the winter months, WOW!!

Yes, it's been a while. Between hurting my arm on the last jump back in February and Mother Nature here the past two or three weeks there hasn't been much of a decent chance for flying. It took a week plus for the arm to come back around to normal and then the weather decided to start acting VERY strange. While Washington D.C. was getting two or three times their annual snowfall per storm I wasn't getting much of anything around here except for VERY sunny skies. Once the sunny started to disappear then the temperatures rose to very strange/unseasonal levels. Right now since the first of March the 20 day average temperature in Lebanon has been above the freezing mark. I figure this by taking the hourly record temperature in Lebanon and adding them up each day for 20 days. It sits roughly at around 35 degrees right now. Most of the past week, until last night hadn't seen temperature get below freezing anytime, day or night. This on top of VERY wet heavy snow for this part of the country and a nice wind storm that swept through the area a week or so ago and left many in the area without electricity. I was without power for at least 12 hours and some were without power for a couple of days. The weather just hasn't been cooperative at all and the forecast for the next week is sounding the same, no snow/precipitation and 40+ degrees everyday and lows in the mid and upper 20s if not warmer. One night MAY drop down into the teens.

I woke up this morning to the coldest morning in...it seemed, a month. The overnight low was 21 degrees. I knew Mud Meet was going to be interesting. It was going to come down to getting on the alpine and xc courses early before they got to rutted up by the other competitors and then the jumping was going to be REAL interesting given the forecast high in the upper 40s. It actually ended up reaching 53 for a high today in Lebanon.

I made my way up to Storrs Hill for the end of season tradition that normally wouldn't be held for another week or two but due to a conflicting event at the hill on the day it was originally scheduled the comp got moved to today. I was helping with the scoring and registration for the event so it kinda kept me tied up for a while. I finally did get around to heading out and do the xc courses in my alpine gear as I always do and saw while doing the xc course just how soft the conditions were. I can't ever remember in the past decade having Mud Meet be that soft, not even in mid March.

Watching some of the practice jumps on the 25 in between the morning alpine/xc and the afternoon jumping competition I was questioning if I was even going to bother jumping or not. Seeing one kid do a beautiful butt bump, err agony of defeat, off the 25 and watching a few of the other kids having trouble stopping made me a bit leery given all the trouble I've had this year jumping.

After finishin off the computer work and getting the morning scores posted and the sheets printed out for the jumping I suited up and headed out to get ready for the competition on the K25. It wasn't going to be the usual competition for me. No practice whatsoever. The competition had been cut back from trial and two to count to just two to count to try and save the inrun for the hoop of fire.

I joined the rest of the gang up on the inrun after rubbing some wax on the skis to see if that might help keep me from sticking. As it came my turn I headed down the inrun and jumped rather cautiously at the takeoff. The first nice thing was I didnt stick. I was a bit surprised. Just like the last jumps I took back a month ago I noticed it seemed like I was awfully darn high in the air. I backed out of the jump and still went 18 meters.

I walked up for the second jump and when I got the signal I started down the inrun. I didn't get into my inrun position quite a quickly as normal. I finally got myself settled in a jumped at the takeoff and managed to hold the position pretty well into the hill. My mind was still trying to fight back and tell me to pull out but I was trying my darnedest to fight the mindset. I landed at 20 meters and ended up falling over after I crossed the fall line.

After the competition was over I got some of the scoring work for the jumping done while Cannonball and the boys set up the Hoop of Fire. I heard the call from everyone that the hoop was ready. I pulled myself away from the computer and headed up the hill with the hoop already on fire. After waiting in line I got my skis on behind Todd and we ended up doing a rapid fire through the Hoop of Fire. The jump wasn't all that bad but once again I did manage to lose it after I landed down near the transition.

I called it quits and finished up the calculations that saw Bill finish first and Cannonball finish second. I was, quite naturally, WAY down the list thanks to my alpine and xc times as well as my jumping.

With the current weather forecast I don't if I'll get anymore jumping in before spring gets here or not. This is going to be my smallest winter of ski jumping no matter how you look at it. I don't think I have ever had a summer where I have had this few of jumps. It's just been a luck of enthusiasm, the weather...pretty much everything combined together into one has taken the steam right out of the ship. I guess my main goal anymore is to see if I can still pull off 120 consecutive months. I've got to get through December of this year without missing a month to accomplish it. Under the circumstances that could get VERY interesting by the time late fall into December gets here.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: February 07, 2010

2010-02-07T18:49:00.001-05:00

Not what I had expected or what I was thinking.

The talk after jumping Thursday evening was of possibly jumping the 50 sometime this weekend. The weekend has come and gone and haven't heard a thing more about it. Instead I got an email last night from Dr. John asking about the state high school jump meet coming up this coming Friday and he also made mention that he was in Concord and was hoping to jump the K25 in Lebanon today. I told him I didn't know for sure but I should by the time late morning came around.

I managed to make nice progress on the project I was working on so I decided I would go on up and do some jumping with him on the 25. I arrived at the hill around 1:30PM and very shortly thereafter he pulled in. After chatting a few minutes we grabbed our gear and headed inside to suit up.

We walked out and after taking a look at the landing hill we decided it would be best to do a little raking as it looked like right where the left ski would be going down the landing hill there was some ruts and chunks of snow/ice. After getting the raking done Dr. John went on to ride the landing hill and I walked on up the inrun.

Other than a small little curve about 1/3 the way down the inrun the rest of it looked pretty decent. I knew given everything it would be fast. The weather is still being very consistent. Their has been some more clouds the past couple of days but no snow and the temperatures haven't risen about freezing in a week or more now. We managed to miss the snow storm that hit the Washington D.C. area with two feet of snow earlier in the weekend. It does sound like, at least as of last night, that the area might get some snow on Wednesday into Thursday but the temperatures are to remain below freezing for highs.

As I put on my skis I noticed the inrun needed a little work right up in house. The ski tracks up on top were anything but level and the backside of the right ski actually needed snow to make it nice and level throughout. With the hardpack snow/ice I knew their wasn't anything I could do about it.

I got the signal from John and started down the inrun. I was playing it a bit on the casual side. I didn't sink right into my usual inrun position instead I lollygagged until I was all the way down. I got the takeoff and did a half hearted jump. Once I was in the air I quickly realized I was quite high in the air compared to what I had ever been before while jumping on the K25. The next thing I notice is I'm about to land on P, aka 20 meters, or even further down the hill than that. I was shocked and started pulling back. I'm not use to landing that far down the hill. I've only jumped that far once or twice in the 10 years I've been jumping. I landing and quickly find myself sitting back. I also finding myself saying, "I thought I was in Lebanon not Andover."

I walk up and flag Dr. John for his first jump of the day and then walk on up the inrun. This time I decided I was just going to slide off the end of the takeoff and not even trying to jump any at all. I put on the skis and got the signal. I headed down the inrun and pretty much slid off the end and moved into position. I ended up landing around 18 meters and I was still a bit more height than normal.

I walked up and flagged Dr. John once again. I made my way up the inrun thinking I knew I had to figure out what I had to do to get myself use to landing so far down the hill. I figured I would do the smart thing and bite it off a little at a time. I would add a little more into the takeoff each jump. I got the signal and headed down the inrun. I didn't think I really jumped at the takeoff but I must have. I got in the air and was high again. I saw myself heading straight for the blue line and I just kept holding the position until it was too late and I couldn't put in a landing. I ended up falling forward and naturally stuck one of my arms out to brace me, like a fool. I managed to catch one of my skis, that came off, with the other arm so it wouldn't get away from me. I came to a stop and knew I had managed to bang myself up yet once again this winter. This time I did the same thing, whatever that was, that I did back in 2007 when I crashed on the K90 in Lake Placid. This time it was to the opposite arm. It seems like its muscle related damage versus anything major. It just takes time for the pain to go away. I also managed to ding up the right knee as well. It has already started to swell up a little. I think I hit it with one of skis. I figure it will probably turn black and blue in a day or so.

I called it quits and kept flagging Dr John for a few more jumps before he called it a day as well.

I'm still not sure what the real culprit has been. Dr. John said on the last jump it looked like I was a big hill jumper moving out over the skis. I'm not noticing any difference in the move at the takeoff or the flight position in the air. I do know the inrun speeds have been faster and I think both Andover, back on Wednesday, and the K25 today had a bit of kicker on the takeoff. In well over a thousand jumps on the 25 in the past ten years I have never had that much height going through the air as I noticed on the first jump and again on the third jump. Ditto in the 50-75, roughly jumps I've taken on the K38 in Andover. Maybe its a combination of both the speed and the higher takeoff angle that is making way for me to get so high in the air. I didn't notice the height on the K50 Tuesday or Thursday evening. I was jumping further down the hill than I normally would given my lack of jumping on the hill since last winter. The speed and track are both in real good condition right now though so that would naturally help me get further down the hill.

I am starting to question whether I finally have jumped over the barrier and if I'm starting to make the move out over the skis finally or if its just the inrun conditions that are creating the effect. It's been the same way now all week long on three different jumps, both the conditions and the jumping.

I guess I'll have to wait until crappy conditions return and then go jump and see what happens. Right now I have a feeling I'll probably end up missing the rest of this nice streak unless the arm starts feeling a lot better, quickly. I don't think I want to risk it.

Crash

Jumping Journal: February 04, 2010

2010-02-05T03:47:00.003-05:00

Gee, is that what happens when you don't jump very often...or can you order up anymore sunshine in the forecast.

Woke up this morning to clouds and sun that gave away to wall to wall sunshine by 9AM. The forecast for the next week is for more of the same. The last time I remember this much during the winter months was in 2001 as New Hampshire was getting ready for a two year drought. We did get a light dusting of snow yesterday so the conditions tonight at the start of the evening wasn't surprising.

I wasn't planning on jumping tonight but looking at the forecast and knowing what the conditions have been like the past two days made me say the heck with it. If I'm going to be seeing this much consistent conditions I figure why not make the most of it and jump the crap out of it. Conditions like these, that last more than one day, don't come around very often, essentially never.

I arrived at Storrs Hill and made my way up the jump inn to find several skis already sitting outside the building. I noticed the name written on one of them, Sasha. I knew who it was, she's one of the high school jumpers from Hanover High School. I was surprised to see that she was thinking of jumping the K50. I figured I probably knew who the other skis belonged to as well. I opened to the door to find out I was right on one individual but wrong on another.

Dan, Sam and Chris was also joining the ranks of those planning for some nice jumps off the 50 tonight. I suited up and headed up the hill behind everyone else. I walked up the inrun and waited my turn in line. I decided to stick with bar three once again tonight for all but the last jump where I went on up to bar four, the top bar.

I put on the skis and got the signal from Nick. I started down the inrun and had a smooth ride down the inrun. It felt more like the end of the winter rather than the beginning. I normally don't have that solid of inrun position until later in the winter. Since I have hardly did any jumping this winter I really am surprised by how well my inrun position has been. I jumped at the nicely at the takeoff and had the ski tips come up quite nicely. I haven't had that kind of a reaction from the ski tips in quite a while. I had a solid stable quiet flight and landed around 32-33 meters. I knew right away the inrun couldn't be as fast as it was back on Tuesday afternoon.

I walked back up and waited my turn. I got the signal from Nick and had a repeat jump only adding an extra couple of meters before I landed. Again everything felt like it was the end of the season rather than the beginning.

The third jump again was a repeat of the previous jump. The fourth jump another repeat. The fourth jump I did find myself with a platform underneath for the first time. I haven't had the feeling a platform underneath until tonight. I've heard it talked about for a long time but I've never even come close to being able to stay I experienced it until tonight. I didn't take to the tips as there just wasn't enough time to think about it and make the move before I was going to land. I held the fourth jump into the hill the longest of any jump I've taken as well. It didn't make the jump go any further than the ones before it but I think it helped with the effect of having the platform underneath me.

I walked up for the fifth jump and once again it was another solid jump down to 35-37 meters. I essentially never have jumps back to back like this going that far down the hill. I believe it was on this jump I almost lost it when I hit a rut going across the bridge in the outrun. I can't say I've ever had that experience before even when jump under spring conditions when you would most expect it.

I took one more jump for the evening and went up one bar higher. I ended up jumping a bit late at the takeoff but I still managed another repeat performance landing real close to 37 meters maybe even a little extra. It was the longest jump of the night.

It does seem strange other than the last jump tonight and maybe a bit on the first jump, my timing was actually pretty decent all night. Normally it should take quite a few more jumps than I've had this winter to get the timing down and then it normally doesn't last long.

This has been a real strange start to the winter. Where it will go next is anybody's guess. I know this is the weekend that sets the rest of the winter in motion or kills the rest of the winter. My plan is to kill it. I keep wondering if that is why I'm having the jumps I've been having.

The mind is a terrible thing to play with..

Keep the ski tips up,
Crash

Jumping Journal: February 03, 2010

2010-02-03T21:47:00.000-05:00

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

Jumping Journal: February 02, 2010

2010-02-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

Will there be six more weeks of winter or not? By the forecast of that sly little groundhog there should be six more weeks of winter left here in the Upper Valley. The sun has been shining and the snow sure hasn't been falling much this winter. During the month of January there was really only three storm fronts that came through. Each of the three storms seemed the linger on for quite a few days. The New Years Day storm never seemed to go away and all it produced was flurries most of the time. Only 1-1.5 inches during the day and another 4 inches overnight eavh night. It stuck around three or four days before finally moving out. Two weeks later another storm, this time on Martin Luther King Holiday. It stuck around for two whole days before moving out. The all day rain storm hit last Monday and lasted all day long.

I've been spending the past month babying my left ankle. I guess you could more so say trying to get any kind of enthusiasm built up to jump. After the crash on January 5th my ankle finally did swell up about 24 hours later and to this day it still has a built of swelling left. It never has had any kind of pain but the swelling has been there the whole time. I think the swelling has mostly been a psychological thing more than physical. Like I said the enthusiasm to jump hasn't been there.

I've been out around the hills three or four days a week helping out at the Newport jump or going to high school meets or even going to the weekend competitions but I haven't been doing any jumping. I just haven't had the motivation to even want to jump.

Today I saw the plan was to jump the K50 at Storrs Hill before the send off party for Nick Alexander who is leaving tomorrow to head for Vancouver to represent the U.S. in ski jumping. I decided since I knew I was going to go up for the send off I might as well see if I couldn't manage to get the month of February off my list as well while the month is still young.

February 2010 marks the 150th consecutive month of ski jumping on the K25 at Storrs Hill. As far as it's known there is no other ski jumping in the world that has ever managed to make that accomplishment. Heck the K25 started jumping year round about the same time Nick Alexander started ski jumping. February would also mark my 110th consecutive month.

I arrived at Storrs Hill a bit late due to running several errands in the process of heading up to Lebanon. I found preparations were well underway for the send off party. The satellite TV trucks were already there getting equipment setup to send out live feeds during their newscasts. I walked over to the jump inn and saw a Dan take a jump. I knew something seemed a bit strange. I don't think I had ever seen Dan jump that far on the 50 before. It told me one of two things...either Dan was finally starting to get the idea or the inrun was fast. I didn't know which.

I suited up and headed up the hill. I was a bit surprised to Nick Burke flagging so early in the day. Normally he isn't around until the usual 6:30PM practice time and it was only 4:15PM. Given his occupation I figured he would have still been at the office.

As I got to the top of the knoll I saw someone was up getting ready to get on the bar. It looked like Bill. I rode the landing hill and it felt a bit strange. As I got back to the stairs I took a look and sure enough I noticed the toe of the right boots was trying to come up out of the binding. I had the same thing happen to me before heading down the inrun last summer on K25.

As I started up the inrun the jumper yelled for the signal and than started down the inrun. It wasn't Bill's voice. I didn't know who this masked man was. After I got up top Dan took his next jump and Sam was getting ready for his next jump. I asked Sam who the other jumper was. He said it was Walter. Gee, as it turns out Walter ended up grabbing his first two jumping in 23 years off a K50 this afternoon. It wasn't to be the end of the day a long shot...not yet.

I got the skis on and got the signal from Nick. I started down the inrun. I was playing it safe to put it mildly. I just wanted a rebuilder jump after all the jumps I had had so far this winter. I jumped at the takeoff and didn't go for the most convining jump. It was kind of a mix between jumping and sliding off the end. I found myself trying to back out in the air, not surprising given the first time off the jump in roughly 10 months. Again I needed a nice, clean, safe jump...nothing more. It seemed like a typical jump. I didn't really pay all that much attention to how far down the hill I went but it seemed like all the rest I've had over thepast six or seven year of jumping on the 50.

I walked back up for the second jump. This time I was feeling better on the inrun. I wasn't fully tucked but I was getting down much nicer. This time I jumped nicely at the takeoff. I did back out slightly in the air but not as much as before. This time as I landed I noticed I was way the heck down the hill. I was landing around 35-37 meters. The jump wsn't that good of a jump. I quickly figured out the inrun had to be awful darn fast. I knew the reason why Dan was jumping so far and it wasn't his technique had improved.

I walked back up for the third and what I had planned to be the final jump of the day. I got the signal from Nick and made my way down the inrun. I was getting set real nice in my inrun position. I jumped at the takeoff and managed to keep the arms under better control but still had a little arm movement in the air. I ended up a little short of the previous jump.

Instead of heading for the walk back up the jump inn I decided instead to ride the landing hill back to the stairs. I was going to wait and see what Sam was going to do. I started walking up the stairs figuring he would go for another jump. He decided to call it quits so I was going to the last jump to myself.

It was the best inrun position I've had in a LONG time. I ot nicely set. I didn't have the upper body up slightly like I normally do on the K25 during the summer months and like I did on the previous jump. Instead the chest was resting on the knees. I jumped at the takeoff and was smooth and clean through the air. The arms stayed at my sides nicely and I just rode it out until I landed. I was still in the 36-37 meter area but it was the nicest feeling jump I've had since sometime last winter and maybe even before then.

I changed clothes and headed on over for the send off party. It was good getting to see Nick again. I saw him back in the late summer but otherwise I haven't seen him in probably a year or more. As the send off party was winding down several kids and adults took to the K25 to do some jumping. I had thought about joining them but I didn't. As I was getting ready to leave I knew I had to go back over to the jump inn to pick up my jump suit. I had forgotten to take it with me after I finished jumping. As I walked over I saw someone go flying through the air. I decided to investigate and find out who was jumping on the K50. It turned out a couple of high school kids and one of the juniors was jumping.

I stuck around and talked with Tara and Kathleen on the coaches stand while they jumped. As they finished up Bill came over and said to keep the lights on as Mike and Colin were coming over to ride the landing hill. As it turns out Colin is the only jumper out of the whole clan of new jumpers that came out last summer that is still in the Upper Valley. The rest of them head out west for the winter months. Mike and Colin rode the landing hill and then Dan and Bill managed to talk Colin into jumping it for the first time. I stuck around and had to watch his first jump off the 50. Knowing how quickly he took to ski jumping I had to see his first jump. I was quite highly impressed but not highly surprised. He came back up and took a second jump before calling it a night. He was getting down 30+ meters right from the very first jump. Nice job Colin.

What jumping holds next who knows. I may practice with the high school kids tomorrow night before their next to last meet of the high school season. If not it may be a week or so before I jump again. Like I said the lack of enthusiasm isn't giving me any kind of a push to go jump.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: January 06, 2010

2010-01-06T22:57:00.001-05:00

It has taken how many years??? I can't believe I actually jumped that. It's easy to forget a few details when you haven't been around a particular ski jump in four or five years.

Well, I went to bed last night still feeling it quite nicely in my left ankle. The right knee had quieted down to real dull whisper. The ankle was still trying to let me know that it didn't like the tumble I took on the last jump last night.

I woke up and went to the bathroom a couple of times overnight and I was noticing a rather nice drop in the level of the pain/discomfort. I was pleased but I knew anything could happen between 3AM and 4:30PM.

By morning I could walk...for the most part with any kind of real limping/favoritism to the left ankle. The knee wasn't even present anymore. Later on in the morning I did a bit of shopping which seemed to help the ankle and I wasn't noticing it much at all. I was getting a bit more optimistic but I knew I hadn't put the ski boot on and tried to move in the ski boot to see what that might feel like.

After I got home I decided to put the ski boot on but first I decided to pull down the sock and see if their was any black and blue or swelling around the ankle. I was surprised given all the pain last night how nothing had come up. It seemed so unnatural to have pain that noticeable and to not have any swelling. When I pulled the sock down I did notice their was a small bit of swelling on the left side of the ankle. At this juncture I didn't know whether I would be able to get my ski boot on or not or if the swelling would be too much. It wasn't much swelling but I didn't know. I pulled the sock back up and went to put the boot on. No trouble getting it on. I walked across the kitchen. I got down in an inrun position and did a bit of a hop to simulate landing a jump. Nothing.

Now I was even in a bit more of quandry. I knew I was going to take everything with me to the school but I didn't know if I would end up leaving it behind in my car or not.

I got to the school and walked/jogged across the street to the local pizza joint to join the other guys who were over there eating before the meet. I knew by the way it felt during the small jog across the street in snow boots that I was going to take everything with me on the bus.

Plymouth has a rather unique jump in its own fashion. If you don't jump far enough you'll end up getting an extra bunny hop going down the landing hill. I heard two stories tonight from two different coaches about the reasoning behind it. One said the knoll is ledge rock and they can't do anything with it and the other was saying he heard it was unstable ground and as a result they could do anything with it.

Another interesting feature that it took me until right after my first jump to realize was the transition on the landing hill is also a bit on the sharp side. It took me a bit to remember that I had seen jumpers have trouble with it in the past. Tonight was only the third time I've been to Plymouth in the nine years I've been jumping and its the first time I've been there in four or five years. I think five years, actually.

The Sunapee team and I arrived to find we weren't the first team there like we were the last time I was at Plymouth, skiless like a crazy idiot, back four or five years ago. Kennett, John Stark, Hopkinton and Plymouth were already there. I think the only jumpers on the hill when we arrived were the Kennett kids. Everyone else was still trying to get changed and get their skis off the bus.

I had suited up mostly on the last bit of the drive there so I was pretty much ready to get off the bus when we parked. I grabbed my skis and a couple of the other Sunapee jumpers followed me back to the jump. I took a first look and said WOW! I didn't remember the trestle standing quite that tall the last time I was there. I had also forgotten the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the inrun was natural without any trestle. I definitely didn't forget the takeoff. The takeoff sits only about 6-10 inches above the knoll. I figured for sure it would make for a hard time telling where the takeoff was at. I had problems at Vermont Academy the first time I jumped there, several years back, telling where the takeoff was at. I jumped late every jump. Vermont Academy has quite a bit more vertical distance between the takeoff and knoll. Quite a bit more, but it still was less than normal.

After watching one of the Kennett newbie females take her first jump of the evening I walked up the inrun and waited my turn in line. I got the skis on and stepped over into the track. I was nervous to say the least. Thanks to the ankle I didn't know fully what to expect. I knew I wanted to play it cautiously and try to keep from crashing and maybe doing a lot more harm to the ankle.

I got the signal from one of the coaches and headed down the inrun. It seemed smooth. Compared to Lebanon last night it was really smooth. I put in a bit of a jump at the takeoff. I think I was somewhat late but not as bad as I figured I would be. I ended up landing on the knoll as the knoll sticks out quite far down the landing hill before the hill drops away. I rode the landing hill and about the time I got into the transition I lost it. I found my sliding nicely across the outrun. I was a bit surprised and even more so relieved at the same time. I got up and the next jumper came behind me and then the next one. I noticed the second one bounce quite nicely going through the transition. That's when I remembered the previous two visits I had made to Plymouth. I remembered seeing the kids getting worked in the transition and quite often going down as a result.

I walked back up and waited my turn in line and got the signal. This time I started down nice and comfortably. It was the smoothest feeling ride down the inrun I'd had so far this winter. I jumped at the takeoff. I was probably late more than likely but not noticeably late to me unlike Vermont Academy several years back. I landed and rode the landing hill, transition and outrun nice and smooth. It was a jump I needed real bad tonight.

I walked back up for what I normally end up making the third and final jump before a high school meet. This time everything seemed fine just like before. I had better timing and a bit more effort at the takeoff and went a little further. I still wasn't going much past 11-12 meters. During the comp most of the kids were either going 8-12 meters or they were going 17-22 meters. I saw only a handful of the 50-60 jumper during the three rounds of competition land between 12.5 and 16.5 meters. I rode the landing hill and then got nailed big time by the transition. I went down with a solid plop right to the left outer butt cheek, right where your wallet would normally sit if you had it in your left rear pocket. It would be the crash I would feel the rest of the night.

I walked back up the stairs rather slowly. After stopping to talk with one of the parents I met at the Newport Winter Carnival last year I walked on back to the bus and changed clothes before walking on back to the jump to watch the competition.

I'm hoping I don't end up with a nice black and blue butt cheek come tomorrow morning but it wouldn't surprise if I did. I think I'll probably stick around Newport tomorrow and help Ron and the kids get the Newport jump ready to jump come next week. I guess about the only thing that needs work is the bag snow and take it to the top of the inrun. I guess the lower 2/3rds of the inrun is okay but above there is bare so we're going to have to put snow into bag and take it up the inrun and pack out the inrun. Gee, this might end up being the second year in a row of jumping at Newport on all natural snow.

Until next time,

Crash

Jumping Journal: January 05, 2010

2010-01-05T22:14:00.000-05:00

A new decade. Oh yeah, same old jumping.

After the shortest December in history of ski jumping...one jump that I didn't even complete without falling. The rest of the month saw cold weather, not normal for December around here since I moved up here in the fall of 2000. January gets cold but December never drops below zero...at least not until 2009. Their wasn't much natural snow but the cold temperatures let the snow guns run like a mad man for days on end without stopping. The hills just never got put into shape. I think today was the second time anyone had jumped in Lebanon so far this winter. From what I heard afterwards it sounds like the 50 is in okay shape, I've also heard it needs some more snow on the landing hill between 33 and 43 meters. Not sure who to believe. Given the way we used to jump the 50 it is more than likely okay to jump now. I guess they are planning on jumping it Thursday evening. Not sure what I'll be doing yet.

I went for the wild trip tonight. It's been a long time since I joined the Sunapee High School ski jumping team for a trip up to Lebanon for practice. I don't think I have did that since 2001. Sunapee had typically been jumping either at the 'home hill' in Newport or at Andover. Ron wanted to get the boys off the K25 before the high school jump meet tomorrow night on a, roughly, K22 in Plymouth.

Ihey had moved my skis at the start of the regular ski season. Normally I just keep them in the entry way out by the back deck. They like to keep that area clean during the ski season so they had moved them elsewhere. I first tried the jump inn to find my key to the jump inn didn't work anymore. After I got back down to the lodge I thought they might have put them upstairs where some of the kids store their skis between jump sessions. I walked upstairs and sure enough their they were.

I suited up and made my way out to the hill. The kids were starting to ride the landing hill. I decided to wait and just head up when they headed up.

It was going to be the fun night of skiing in a track. Gee, kinda like summer jumping with snow, HA! After one of the kids set track I walked up and put my skis on. I notice most of his track was pretty decent except for right up top he didn't get into his inrun position very quickly and as a result one leg went out to the side and then came back in to where it should be. I decided to not follow his exact track up top and instead see what I could do to straighten things out.

I got the signal from Ron and headed down the inrun. Everything seemed fine until I was about 2/3rds of the way down. I didn't realize it until a jump or two later what was going on. Turns out there was a bit of a divot on one of the ski tracks. This was throwing quite a few jumpers off including me. From the 2/3rds mark on down I was trying to get back some symbolance of normallacy. I jumped at the takeoff and had a so-so jump, nothing spectacular by a long shot. I landed and did notice I was trying to drop the head and managed to pull it back up and ride out the outrun without any trouble.

I went up for the second jump, still not knowing about the divot. It ended up pretty much the same way. It was a small bit better but I was still losing it at the divot and letting the hands drops on the inrun. Ron commented about the divot and Nick commented dropping the hands. It was a bit of a surprise to see Nick coaching on the 25, normally he coaches on the 50.

Each of the remaining jumps the rest of the evening got slightly better when it came to getting used to the divot. I was still getting thrown by it and it causing me to lose a small amount of control over the skis. Right before my sixth and final jump of the evening one of the former Sunapee jumpers, Andrew, took the rake to the divot area. I do think he did help it out some.

I headed down the inrun and didn't notice it quite as much as before. I jumped at the takeoff and landed fine but somewhere around the transition I lost it BIG TIME. I ended up tumbling two or three times. At one point I could feel both legs on the verge of giving in. The only thought going through my mind was, "Will I be able to get up, yet alone walk, once I stop tumbling." I would have to say it was the second worst crash I've taken in the nine years I've been jumping. After I stopped moving I got up quickly but I wasn't moving quickly as I could feel it rather nicely behind my right knee and also even more so in the left ankle. Even now 3 hours later the ankle still hasn't swollen one little bit but I still feel it quite nicely. The knee is a dull roar right now to say the least. It still seems like it isn't in the ankle as much as around the the ankle, especially in front of the ankle.

I'm hoping I didn't get stuffed out again. I've been wanting to jump the Plymouth jump for years. I've had one goal to try jump all the currently, since I started jumping in January 2001, active jump towns in the northeastern US. The only two that I haven't jumped yet are Plymouth and Brattleboro. Brattleboro is mostly known for the K87 it has. That one doesn't bother me as much by a long shot as Plymouth does. I may miss it again this year. I'll have to wait and see how the foot feels tomorrow to decide whether I will try to jump it or not. As of right now, I wouldn't. Hopefully that will change overnight tonight. Time shall tell.

Crash

Jumping Journal: December 12, 2009

2009-12-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

BOY was I wrong! Talk about a rapid change.

Well, November passed by with only a few flurries back on November 4-5. Otherwise November quite frankly was WAY too warm for snow. Decemeber started even crazier. December 1st saw a high of 40, the 2nd 48 and December 3rd it hit 61 degrees. Seeing the forecast, BOY DID IT CHANGE!, I sent Dan and Bill an email asking them if they wanted to jumping on plastic on the 4th. I was looking at trying to save the streak on the K25 and it sure seemed like winter wasn't trying to arrive quickly. My thoughts were getting to the point that I'm going to have to jump this darn thing in the rain right before Christmas again this year to save the streak. There was no snow making weather in the forecast for the foreseeable future. I was even suggesting to someone that Storrs Hill might not be able to open the day after Christmas likes it always tries to.

December 4th the high hit 50. On the 5th the forecast caved in turned drastically wrong. High temperature was 37 and snow began falling around 2PM. December 6th saw 3 inches fall. It melted over the next couple of days cause it got into the mid to upper 30s for highs. Talk a stark contrast. Then December 9th hit. It brought 10 inches of snow and much colder weather. MUCH COLDER!

Guess I didn't know what I was talking about did I. We met up today at the hill and Dan had did some work earlier in the week getting the hill ready after the snow storm. The snow guns were running in full force. They were making snow in the outrun on the 50. It always sees the snowmaking first and then it comes over to the 25. Normally we jump on the 50 first and the 25 gets jumped on snow around Christmas. Only in 2005 did we jump the 25 before the 50. That is until today.

I woke up this morning and noticed I was having the usual effects from a fast I'm on. I never had these symptoms in a couple of previous fast. This one is feeling lighthead/fuzzy. I picked up the symptom back around day three or four. I've been on two other fast a 14 day fast in November 2008 and a 10 day fast back in early April this year. I never had the lightheadness like I've had this time. From what I've read up on fasting it isn't something unusual. Actually Dr. J explained today that it's simply low blood sugar caused by not eating. It made total sense after he said that. I know someone that has had low blood sugar for several years.

I also knew one of the problems with long term fasting is the possibility of going to stand up and getting so lighthead you end up fainting. Any sudden movement can trigger a fainting episode. I knew this could be a problem...a BIG problem when it came to ski jumping. The thoughts of passing out on the takeoff because of making the move forward and kicking could cause a fainting spell especially since I'm having the lightheadness anyways. The past day or two I thought I was actually getting away from the lightheadness. It had been getting weaker with each passing day and yesterday it hardly even noticeable all day long.

I was worried about jumping to say the least. Terrified might be more like it. After doing some hill work at the bottom of the landing hill Dan, Dr. John and I suited up for a late morning session of jumping, yes on snow.

Gee, it felt kinda strange putting a jumping suit on. I haven't did that since...March.

Before we headed up the landing hill we ski packed the area we had just finished raking and shoveling. I was surprised how well it packed down. The snow was quite soft and fluffy but it pack down nicely. We decided to help pack the landing hill a little and all three of us took and outrun. This is when I knew I was in trouble. Yeah, I had been noticing the effects all day, ever since I woke up. I put on my skis and was actually nervous about riding the landing hill. I stepped over to the spot where I was going to ride down. Well the extension that is put on for summer jumping and the leg underneath it were still in place. Cannonball jumped. He wanted me to make a jump turn. I knew not to. I knew that would turn out ugly. Talk about embarassing. He stepped over and gave me hand. I ended up knocking a ski off that hadn't set in the telemark binding correctly. Fortunately he caught the ski before it made its way downhill. I got the ski back on and turned around with Cannonball's and Dr John's help. I rode the landing hill. I manged to do it safely and not crash but I knew was in for the jump of my life.

To say I was worried at the top of the inrun would be putting it mildly. I knew the run down the landing hill was fuzzy most of the way down. I'm not sure how I stopped at the end of the outrun. Oh yeah, I slowed to a stop. There was no hockey stopping or anything like that. I don't think I could have reacted fast enough to. I didn't even think about. Admittedly, after jumping all summer and never having to try to stop does help some as well.

I put on my skis and after talking to Dr. John while getting the flag from Cannonball a couple of times. I finally headed down the inrun. I didn't move into my inrun position fast at all. I was probably 1/3 to 1/2 the way down the inrun before I was in a tuck position. That isn't normal for me, even on the 25, especially on snow. I noticed the lightheadnes slightly. It was there but it wasn't bad. I got to the takeoff and jumped. I went through the air and about the time I landed I knew I was going down. I actually landed on my feet but fell immediately afterwards. Dan commented later that it looked like I landed and then passed out. I was sliding on the snow while saving...this isn't safe. I'm done for the day.

I grabbed the skis that came off and called it quits. Both Dan and Dr. John continued to jump. Not sure what the future holds. Not sure how long I'm going to stay on the fast for sure. If I could get rid of the lightheadness I know I would stay the whole 40 days I have been planning on. I'm on Day 22 right now. I'm not sure if I want to even think about trying to jump again until after I start eating. It'll all depend on how the head is feeling. This could go down as one of the smallest months of ski jumping on snow for me in the nine years I've been jumping.

Crash

Summer 2009 Totals

2009-12-12T16:37:00.001-05:00

Summer 2009 Totals

Date                      Leb 25
Apr 26                    5
May 04                    5
May 18                    5
June 01                   5
June 08                   5
June 22                   3
July 13                   7
July 20                   4
July 27                   7
August 03                 6
August 10                 5
August 24                 5
August 31                 6
September 14              5
September 21              5
October 04                7
October 19                5
October 26                6
November 01               5
November 07               7
November 09               5

Totals 113

My second biggest summer of jumping in nine years.

Crash

Jumping Journal: November 09, 2009

2009-11-09T21:03:00.000-05:00

Not quite a normal finish to the summer jumping season.

After a fantastic weekend weatherwise today was only suppose to be better. Highs on Saturday were in the upper 50s and then the sunny skies helped to push the temperatures into the mid to upper 60s Sunday and today started out clear before high clouds moved in during the late morning. A strange wind hit the area around 9AM and I could feel the temperature rise very quickly with the wind. It was the eeriest thing I have ever noticed. From being cool one minute to down right warm the next isn't normal. It sure did happen today though.

The day continued to warm up into the mid 60s even though the skies had clouded over. I arrived at Storrs Hill for the final jump session of the summer to find Cannonball already doing an interview with the TV crew. A couple of kids were already there and by the time we suited up to jump there were two high schoolers, three juniors, Walter and myself out jumping. It seemed really strange to only have two adults out jumping. It's been a while since their has been so few adults jumping at a jump session. It must mean winter is coming quickly.

Everyone headed up the hill and I let the kids go first since they were all in jump suits I was jumping in blue jeans and a long sleeve shirt as usual. I decided to continue with the idea of working on the move at the takeoff like I had finished off the Saturday session with. The first jump seemed pretty decent. It didn't have much power which isn't unusual but it does seem like the body position is better compared to what I had been doing most of the summer.

Between continuing to work on the takeoff position and trying to toss in a V I continued on with the next four jumps of the session. They all seemed pretty much the same. The only thing different I really noticed came on the last two or so jumps. I was noticing that it seemed like my left leg was not only opening out for the V but it was also turning 'upward' like I was actually trying aerial stunt like you would see freestyle aerialist do off of moguls. My feet felt like they were actually turning to a 45 degree angle to the ground. I can't say I've ever had that feeling before. Other than that problem the final jumps of the season went uneventful.

It wasn't a bad summer season. It has to have been the second most jumped summer I've had since I started jumping in 2001. 113 jumps in over 20 session. Not shabby to say the least. Considering I normally end up with 80-85 jumps on plastic to finally see over 100 is a nice treat.

Now for the long wait until winter arrives. Hopefully it will be an early start to the winter and I'll be able to start jumping in around a month. Hopefully all the problems from last year won't come back this year and it will make way for a nice long winter of ski jumping.

Until snow flies,

Crash

Jumping Journal: November 07, 2009

2009-11-07T21:40:00.001-05:00

The Northeast Slopes crowd has shrunk in size but also increased by one.

Little did I expect another day just like the last time I was out jumping. At least I wasn't expecting it to occur until next summer but Mother Nature provided yet another opportunity to extend two season at once.

After what turned out to be a real nice morning/afternoon out having some fun I arrived at Storrs Hill around 4PM for the jump session prior to the fundraiser for Nick Alexander who is getting ready to leave in a couple of weeks for Europe to compete on the World Cup circuit.

Upon arrival I saw quite a few cars were already there. Jonathan was walking up to the lodge and Walter was outside starting to stretch with the lone high school jumper who showed up for the evening. I walked inside and changed my clothes and got ready to jump. I walked back outside and found Colin(1) was there as well. All of a sudden a new face had popped up on the scene. I didn't think I recoginized the face but I couldn't tell for sure. Turns out another of the Northeast Slope skiers had been talked into coming out and try ski jumping. Now I can add Tony to the list of the late 20/early 30 year old ski jumpers here in Lebanon. Yes, I can add another name to the list of people who have come out to try ski jumping for the first time ever and do it for the first time on plastic.

In discussion throughout the evening it seems several of the guys have already left for their winter getaways. In fact Jonathan was leaving out tonight after the fundraiser to head out to Utah for the winter. He is planning on coming back sometime, probably in February, to do some jumping on snow. It sounds like Colin and Tony will be the only ones left in the area come winter. They are all planning on being back out next summer though.

Walter started making his way up the landing hill and I quickly followed. In all their was one high schooler, two juniors, Walter, Jonathan, Colin, Tony and myself out jumping this evening. Several other faces like Bill, Dan and Mike were around during the evening but didn't jump.

After watering down the inrun I was the first person to go. I got the signal from Cannonball and headed down the inrun. I was just planning on spending the evening working on the telemark landing. The first jump seemed to go pretty smooth. I did manage to put in a bit of a telemark, not much of one though. Nothing unusual.

The second jump caught me off guard and I ended up with a nice jump and manged to get the arms swinging trying to back out of the jump. I would have went real close to 20 meters if I wouldn't have back out.

As could be expected I didn't repeat the same thing on the third jump, unfortunately. Instead I ended up landing a bit crooked and a quite a bit stiff. Tara took over coaching for Cannonball as he had to go inside to help get ready for the fundraiser. After my fourth jump she mentioned about how I was jumping a bit with the upper body so I ended up spending the rest of the evening working on it.

Jump five I had too much chest. Jump six I had lost the power at the takeoff even though I kept the chest down. On the seventh and final jump it seemed like I kept the chest the down and may have managed to split up the jump at the takeoff. Tara had mentioned that maybe I should try to make an initial move before giving to jump the full power. The takeoff on the seventh jump did seem a bit different. More than likely it wasn't, knowing my luck.

I decided to call it quits. I was going to to no more than five jumps this afternoon. Boy, how plans change. After changing clothes I walked on back out to the main room in the lodge and I was almost ready to leave when I thought I saw someone I knew that I hadn't seen in several years. I walked over and lo and behold if it wasn't who I thought it was. I haven't seen Ken in probably four years. Andrew graduated from high school four years ago and I don't think I have seen his dad since then. Turns out both Ken and Andrew were there. Next thing I know I start seeing quite a few faces I haven't seen in years. All people/former jumpers turning out to help Nick. I spent a couple of hours at the fundraiser talking with several folks I haven't seen in quite a while.

All in all it was one of the nicest days I've had in a long time. Now to get ready for the last ski jumping session of the summer coming up on Monday afternoon. WOW, another summer come and gone. It doesn't seem possible.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: November 01, 2009

2009-11-01T20:25:00.001-05:00

Expect the unexpected. Stranger things have happened before.

This year is starting to remind me quite a bit of the year that lead me into starting to keep this jumping journal. The year was 2005 and the boys at Storrs Hill were on a jumping binge. Jumping every week for 68 consecutive weeks. The strange time came in November. Each year prior to and since we had jumped normally on the first Sunday of November and called it quits until snow arrived. In 2005 we were jumping each and every week, right through November. 2005 led the way into moving jumping off of Sunday's and instead jumping during the week to keep the weekends open for everyone to do other things, including giving the better jumpers the chance to make a trip to Lake Placid to jump on the K48.

Last year we jumped midweek until early September. The lighting system got knocked down by a storm in mid July and with the sun setting earlier each night we switched back over to Sunday afternoons. This year everything has went much smoother and has allowed us to continue jumping into the wee early evening hours under the lights.

Due to the first of two fundraisers for one of the local ski jumpers that is travelling a lot in Europe on the World Cup circuit being this evening it was decided to jump in the afternoon before the fundraiser got underway. At first when the decision was made it seemed like it was going to be the last jump session of the summer as usual...until...

After a rather nice morning/early afternoon that I wasn't expecting to have I made my way on up to Storrs Hill and found myself following Dan into the parking lot. As I walked up to the lodge I didn't see all that many jumpers around. It was a rather unusual site. I was there right at 4PM so I figured I would see more jumpers. I was really surprised to see Walter wasn't there. Something didn't sound quite right for Walter to miss a session. Sorry Walter, can't help myself, LOL!!! :)

In the next 10-15 minutes several more jumpers showed up including Walter. All in all there was 2 juniors, 1 high schooler, and Walter, Dan, Kevin, Jonathan and myself out jumping this afternoon. Since today was the day we moved the clocks back one hour it did seem rather strange still jumping under lights at 4PM. Winter must be coming on fast.

Everyone suited up and headed up the hill. I decided I would see if I couldn't be crazy enough to pick up where I left off Monday evening...working on the telemark landing. I jumped about five feet late on the first jump but to my surprise it did seem like I had a small separation in the skis on the landing. I don't know if I really do have any separation when I think I do or not but it did seem like I should have.

The second jump was worse and it also felt like I was trying to land on my heels versus landing on the hole foot. I was surprised I didn't end up falling on the landing given how bad the landing felt.

Before the third jump Walter came up the trestle and made the joke that he would buy a beer for the guy who rode the furthest in the outrun. I was still managing to go right out to the light pole which is normally unheard of. Heck on my third or fourth jump I ended up putting in a bit of a hockey stop even to slow myself down. It hadn't rained all day long and the temperatures were still well into the 40s while we were jumping. I think the leaves must be providing the lack of friction that is allowing everyone to make it so far out the outrun before stopping.

My fourth jump had a real small separtion and I thought about calling it quits after number four but I decided to stick it out and take one more. The fifth and final jump of the evening gave me the best feel of separation I had all evening long. I'm not doing bent knee telemarks by any stretch of the imagination just a small separation of the skis.

I called it quits with 101 jumps so far for the summer. This is the second most jumped summer I've had since I started jumping in 2001.

Now for what I believe is going to be the final two jump sessions of the summer. Saturday is going to be a fundraiser at Storrs Hill for Nick and once again we are going to be jumping before the dinner gets underway. A couple of days later one of the television stations in the area wants to shoot some video of summer ski jumping. I think Nick has managed to stir the pot on getting them to come in and shoot the footage. Gee, more jumping than I planned this fall. I won't complain any.

Sagola,

Crash

Jumping Journal: October 26, 2009

2009-10-26T22:34:00.001-04:00

Final evening session until winter.

What was initially planned to be the next to last jump session of the summer of 2009 has now turned into just the last evening session with three more sessions being planned for the early November. Amazing how things change when you least expect it.

I arrived at Storrs Hill tonight to find a smaller than usual group of jumpers ready to hit the hill for the final after dark jumping session of the summer. Walter, Kevin, Colin and Jonathan joining one high schooler and one junior jumper. It was rather strange to not have a bigger crowd. Admittedly, this was a big crowd compared to what I normally would see this time of the year. I guess my reference point has changed thanks to all the jumpers that have showed up at the hill this summer.

As I was suiting up Nick Alexander walked in with his dad. Nick is pretty much on a shoe-in to be going to the Olympics in Vancouver this winter. He won at US Nationals earlier this month and he did quite well in Europe this summer earning himself World Cup points in the process. Nick first started jumping at Storrs Hill either the same year I started or the year before me, aka 2000 or 2001. Since the US Ski Team doesn't support the ski jumping program anymore any of the top ski jumpers in the country have to support themselves. Their are a couple of fundraiser coming up in the next couple of weeks to help fund Nick's jumping. He was also coming to inform some of the news media wants to come in and do a segment on summer ski jumping. Between the two fundraiser, one at Storrs Hill and the news media, the one jump session we normally do in November has turned into three jump sessions.

After suiting up we all headed up the hill and got ready to show Nick the way us lowly jumpers do it, HA!

My first jump was a nice solid jump. The past couple of weeks have definitely seemed much better than the entire rest of the sumer. It was around 16-16.5 meters. It felt quite solid.

The past two weeks has also found the outrun much faster than I can ever remember it being without it being wet. I'm not sure if it's the leaves on the outrun or if it by us jumping so late into the evening the dew is already starting to form and it's taking away friction from the ground that would normally be there. I was making it clear out to the lightpole tonight on most my jumps. I don't ever remember making it that far out before.

My second jump was the same maybe a closer to 16.5 than 16. The third jump was about the same. On the fourth jump I did a little work on the inrun position to see if I could get the upper body down a bit more and make myself have to jump harder at the takeoff as a result. It didn't seem to work the way I wanted it to. I also tried it out on the fifth jump. The jumps were still hanging out around 16-16.5 meters.

I had only planned on taking five jumps but after jump five I felt pretty decent and it still seemed 'early'. I thought if Walter goes back up for another jump than I will as well. Walter came down and it didn't look like he was too pleased with his jump so I figured he was going to be done for the evening. I was wrong. He walked toward the steps and I caught up with him and joined him back up top for one final jump.

He said he had to put in a decent landing tonight. He does such a nice telemark landing, at least at times, and he hadn't put in a decent landing all night long. I decide to join him and see if I could get myself to put in any kind of a tele at all. I got the signal from Cannonball and headed down the inrun. I thought to myself 'I will land in a telemark'. I jumped at the takeoff and had another nice flight around 16 meters. It did seem like I had a bit of a separation in the skis when I landed. Not a big separation by any means but more than I normally have. I was pleased. Given I normally don't bother even trying a telemark landing to have even the slightest hint of one is better than nothing at all.

Now for a couple of weekend sessions coming up over the next two weeks. First one is this Sunday before the first of two fundraiser for Nick and then the following Saturday before the fundraiser at the hill. Gee, only once have I ever jumped more than once in November... in 2005 when we were in the process of jumping 68 consecutive weeks. Between those two afternoon session and another on November 9th for the news media, hopefully I'll make that one, I may end up with three jump sessions this year in November. Time shall tell.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: October 19, 2009

2009-10-19T22:10:00.001-04:00

Brrrrrr. It's getting dark awfully early these days.

After having cloudy weather and much cooler than what I remember being normal temperatures for this time of the year for the past couple of weeks now the sun broke out big time today and I never saw a cloud in the sky the whole day. The temperature warmed up slightly at least they did get up to 55. That's about the warmest its been now in a couple of weeks.

I arrived at the hill shortly before 6PM and walked in right behind Walter. At first their wasn't many jumpers around. I was wondering if the cold weather scared everyone off. As the sun was setting the crowd started to show up and their still managed to be close nine jumpers in all, 1 junior, 2 high school kids, and Walter, Dan, Jonathan, Colin, Kevin and myself. I guess Kevin had tried out jumping a few weeks ago and it must have been one of the days I missed. I didn't recoginize him at all. I guess I missed another adult jumper at some point earlier this season as well named MJ. More adults keep coming out every single week. It really has gotten to be the craziest thing I have witnessed since I started jumping.

After doing a bit of stretching and talking I changed clothes and began to realize winter is on the way. It was a bit cold out. Even though I was dressed in a long sleeve shirt and had a pair of blue jeans on I was chilly the whole evening. Thankfully I had the steps to walk up on both the landing hill and the inrun. By the time everyone was getting up top for the first jump the sun had set and the sky was already getting quite dark. I'm not sure if I had ever jumped on plastic that late into evening before. I've jumped with the lights on and jumped after the sun has set, but I don't think I've jumped that late after the sun has set. It was getting quite dark by the time I took my first jump.

With no soap up top everyone was thinking it was going to be slow. Walter went first and it didn't look like he was going all that slow down the inrun. I stepped up on top with my skis already on and Dan found some soap. I knew the next time around it should be faster so I wasn't too worried about the speed. I got the signal from Cannonball and headed down the inrun. It actually seemed like their was quite a bit of speed compared to what I'm normally use to when we jump without soap. I jumped into the darkness and I was starting to think it was winter. I'm so use to jumping on snow under lights but I'm not use to jumping on plastic under lights. The jump went surprisingly nice. It seemed like I was down around 17 meters. It was one of the better jumps I'd had all summer long.

I walked back up for the second and after waiting my turn and chatting with the guys I finally get the signal from Cannonball. I head down the inrun and jump at the takeoff. Once again it seemed like one of the better jumps of the whole summer. It looked like I was in the 17-17.5 meter area again. The difference this time was in the outrun I noticed my skis starting to swing sideways on me...like I was trying to do a hockey stop. I've never had that experience before. The only thing I can figure is the leaves are helping to reduce friction more than the grass does. It seemed like I was going way further out on the outrun tonight than I ever have when the grass has been dry. The main difference is the leaves.

Jumps three and four were pretty decent as well. I did notice on jump three that I either jumped one legged or managed to pull up one of my legs in the air. It really felt weird. I haven't had a feeling like that in quite a while.

On the fifth and final jump of the evening. I ended up putting in a bit of V and also noticed the ski tips came up nicely compared to normal. I was quite pleased with the jump. Overall the entire evening had to be the best jump session of the summer.

Hopefully things will continue the way they went tonight. With two more jump session left before the break for winter sets in I'm still hoping to make 100 jumps for the summer. I only need ten more jumps and since I normally end up taking five jumps per session that shuld set me up to reach number 100 on the final day of jumping this summer. I think the only other time I've managed to get 100 or more jumps in during the summer was back in 2005 while Dan and I was keeping the consecutive weekly streak alive at Storrs Hill. Granted that summer I had close to 225 jumps on plastic. We was normally jumping two or three days per week. It was that summer that changed everything around and got us started on weekday jumping. Prior to that we only jumped in Lebanon on Sunday afternoons during the summer months.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: October 04, 2009

2009-10-04T21:25:00.000-04:00

September is over, why is this happening now. At least the weather improved quite dramatically from what it forecast last weekend.

Well, I managed to miss the usual Monday evening jump session this past week thanks in part to the weather and also being out doing other things. Granted I could have made it Lebanon for the regular session if it wouldn't have been for the sky looking like it was ready to rain and the radar was showing rain knocking on the door as well. I decided not to make the trip and wait until the jump session yesterday.

Yesterday came and my plans changed quite BIG time, very abruptly. Not only did it rain off and on most of the day but I was busy helping someone out as well all day long. Yesterday was going to be the practice before the competition today. A couple of master jumpers from Wisconsin contacted me earlier this summer and was wondering when we had a jump meet as they were wanting to get away from home and do some jumping in the eastern part of the U.S.

Due to competition schedules having two meets on the same weekend, one in Ishpeming, Michigan and then our meet in Lebanon on the second Sunday of September they asked us if it would be possible to move the meet. We decided to let them pick a date. They chose this weekend. Next weekend is going to the National Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championship in Lake Placid, New York. They figured they could come and hit out meet and then go over and do some jumping in Lake Placid and watch US Nationals next weekend.

Late last weekend I get an email from one of the masters that was going to make the trip and he decided due to travel problems that had come up that he wasn't going to be making the trip. It still sounded like the other individual was going to come but I didn't know for sure. The new glitch in the whole scene was the weather forecast. After having nice sunny skies for the past couple of weeks the forecast was changing to clouds and rain most everyday, including both Saturday and Sunday. It looked like both days were going to be a rainout, roughly one inch of rain forecast for each day.

I woke up this morning to mostly cloudy skies but it was dry. It fortunately would stay that way all day long. In fact by the time the competition was done the sun was out shining beautifully.

I arrived at the hill around 1PM and found several cars already in the parking lot. Quite a few of the regulars was already there, Walter, Bill, Cannonball, as well as several of the junior and high school jumpers. Slowly but surely 15 jumpers managed to show up for the annual Dion Cup/New England Summer Ski Jumping Championships. Included in the mix but deciding not to jump was Tom Moore, one of the two Tom's that was planning on coming from Wisconsin.

In all their was 9 masters, Dan, Bill, Cannonball, Walter, Brad, Colin(1), Jonathan, Todd and myself. Turns out Todd finally put the skis on the first time this summer...yesterday. Also their were 3 juniors and 3 high school jumpers to round out the field of competitors.

After spending some time chatting with Tom I suited up and made my way up the jump to grab a few practice jumps before the competition started. Each of the four jumps during practice were landing around 15-16 meter mark. I still can figure out why I'm jumping 2-3 meters shorter this summer than I was last summer. It has been consistent most of the summer with just a few exceptions. The technique hasn't changed but the distance sure has.

Once the competition started things pretty much continued the same. My first jump was 15.5 meters. Totally unbelievable. My second jump landed at 16.5 meters. It was a bit of an improvement but still left a lot to be desired. My third and final jump of the competition landed at 16 meters. The other guys that typically end up competiting against were jumping 17.5-18.0 meters. Normally I would be jumping the same distance as them but for some reason I keep on coming up short this year. I don't know why.

After the ski jumping results were calculated, the foot race was ready to get underway. For every point behind the leader in your age group that you finished you were given a 2 second penalty. My penalty 1:50. Turns out I had the worst penalty of anybody. Other jumpers finished with fewer points than me but so did their age group leader. I was going to bring up the back of the pack in the 1.4 mile foot race. Gee last year I think I was the third or fourth person off the start line, this year I was going to be dead last.

Turns out I managed to pass several of the people that started in front of me including the mighty Cannonball and I was on the verge of catching Walter before I lost it. I was making up nice ground on him but I just couldn't finish it off. The back of my calves still feel the tight. They were really tight from shortly after the start of the run. I ended up doing the run in 9:11 with an average of just a little over a 6.5 minute mile. Not bad for someone who has only run two maybe three miles in the past year.

Now to take tomorrow off and instead of taking Columbus Day off as has always been the case, other than just once back in 2005, it looks like I should probably be jumping next Monday. Hopefully I'll be able to get another 15 jumps in on plastic before snow flies. It would be nice to get another 100 jump summer in. I think 2005 is the only other time I've managed to get 100 jumps in during the summer.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: September 21, 2009

2009-09-21T22:55:00.000-04:00

Gee, only four jumpers tonight. OOPS! Try again.

After a long day yesterday and an even longer...unplanned day today I arrived at Storrs Hill this evening right about 6PM. As I pulled into the parking I saw very few cars and no cars with Vermont license plates. My initial response was "Where's Walter?" Mr. Enthusiastic surely isn't going to miss a night of ski jumping. I know he is from Vermont so not seeing any Vermont license plates gave me a pretty good idea that he wasn't there...YET!

I walked around to the hill side of lodge and found Dan and Cannonball there with a couple of kids gear sitting around. Cannonball made a quick count and only came up with four jumpers at the hill...SO FAR! Cannonball made the joke "You remember back when having four jumpers to a jump session was a big thing." Yeah, just a couple of years ago we would only have three or four jumpers out for a summer session most of the summer. Not anymore.

As I was about to walk into the lodge to change I saw a couple of the kids that he had already counted. I changed clothes and Dan was also changing clothes as Dan said Cannonball had his suit on. I looked out the window and sure enough Cannonball had his jump suit on. I knew he was going to have to get himself in a few jumps before Dion Cup in a couple of weeks. I just wasn't sure how soon he was going to start jumping.

As I was putting on my boots I looked out of the window and saw a rather familiar face...Walter. I knew he wouldn't let me down, LOL!!! This was going to be the beginning of the crowd showing up. Normally I'm the one showing up late not everyone else.

After a bit of chatting I headed up the hill with Cannonball, Dan, Walter, Colin, Jonathan and Brad as well as three high school kids and one junior jumper. Gee, this trend of having so many adults out jumping every session is starting to get monotonous...and quite predictible.

I wasn't expecting much from the evening as I was pretty much tired out from the day and didn't have all that much energy left for jumping. I knew I had to jump though. I had been waiting for this day for almost a year.

My first jump did surprise me a little as to how well it went. It didn't make it very far down the hill, 15-16 meters but it did seem to go pretty nice. The walk back up top afterwards showed I was dragging my heels due to lack of energy.

The second jump also surprised me by how high I got off takeoff. I haven't been that high above the ground while jumping the K25 in a long time. The jump still only took me down around 16 meters or so but I did have nice height above the takeoff.

The third and fourth jumps were pretty much the same. They were only going around 15-16 meters and nothing really spectacular happened with either jump.

The fifth and final jump was the nicest of the night...at least in terms of the move at the takeoff. I did have a much more distance but I did have the nicest move at the takeoff I have had in a long time. My inrun position was the best it had been in quite a while as well. I definitely was jumping more out than I typically do.

I decided long before hand that I was only going to take five jumps tonight and call it quits. I had thought about taking a couple of extra jumps but I decided to be smart and stop while I was still ahead.

Crash

Jumping Journal: September 14, 2009

2009-09-14T22:03:00.001-04:00

A nice evening for for flying.

Yeah, it was a real nice evening fro ski jumping tonight. The temperature was in the upper 60s with partly cloudy skies. You couldn't ask for much more from a late summer session of ski jumping. If you wanted a lot of guys to jump with, you had that as well. This doesn't seem quite right to have this many jumpers out at this time of the year. This is definitely one strange summer.

I showed up to Storrs Hill around 6:15PM after a rather dismal afternoon. You could say things didn't go quite as I had hoped they would go. Mother Nature just wouldn't cooperate the way I thought she was going to so I ended up with anything but what I had planned on for the day. As I walked up to the lodge I heard someone coming to a stop at the end of the outrun. As I got to the point where I could see who it was I wasn't a bit surprised to see it was Walter.

I changed clothes and headed up the hill to join Walter, Dan, Colin(1), Brad, Jonathan, 3 high school kids, and 3 junior jumpers all out jumping on the K25 this evening. Walter was definitely laying the jumps down the hill. He has managed to come back into his old form and tonight was working on adding the V into the flight position. His first attempt looked more like he was trying to go spread eagle rather than V style.

Tonight did seem a bit different then the past few weeks when I have been out. I didn't soap at all tonight and instead just relied on everyone else that was soaping to get the soap on the inrun. I was still managing to jump at 17 meters on each and every jump. Nothing with my technique changed...I wasn't jumping any harder or anything else. For some reason though I was going 2-3 meters further than what I had been jumping over the past several times I have been out. I don't know what the difference was.

Out of the five jumps all but maybe one of the jumps I managed to keep the hands up nicely going through the sawdust and out into the outrun. The new way of riding the sawdust does make for a much more comfy feeling. I still remember a couple of years ago when I jumped in Lake Placid on plastic and had the trouble because I was sitting so far back and always dragging my hands. At least I'm finally breaking that bad old habit and keeping myself a bit more upright.

Keep the ski tips up,

Crash

Jumping Journal: August 31, 2009

2009-08-31T22:39:00.000-04:00

What happened to summer!?

Yeah...two weeks ago today it was in the lower 90's today the temperature didn't even hit 70. It was in the upper 50's at jump time. What a difference a couple of weeks can make here in the Upper Valley. Granted this is the time of the year when fall starts to arrive. Oh yeah, did I say fall...the area is under a frost advisory for tonight as the temperatures are suppose to dip into the mid 30's overnight.

The sun was finally out as I arrived at the hill this evening. High clouds hung around until early afternoon and they helped to keep the temperature down. A couple of the high school kids were unloading their equipment and walkign toward the lodge as I pulled up. I was a bit surprised not to see more cars in the parking lot. Then again I did arrive pretty much on time instead of arriving 10-15 minutes late like I typically do during the summer months. It ended up being that instead of me arriving late several of the other jumps ended up arriving a bit late tonight.

After doing a quick bit of stretching I changed clothes and headed on up the landing hill. A nice crowd did end up showing again, very strange to see this many people out this late in the summer. Walter, Bill R, Mike, Brad(the one I didn't know his name last week), Jonathan, three high school kids and two juniors all were out jumping with me tonight. Another night of half a dozen adult ski jumpers. This is really unusual.

I decided to soap up and got the signal from Cannonball. I was once again a bit surprised by how short the jump was. Even with the soap I was still only getting down to around 15 meters. Something does seem strange about what is happening but I'm still not sure what is going on. Later on in the evening I watched Bill take one of his jumps and he seemed to be jumping short as well. I don't think it's my jumping as much as it is something going on with the inrun. The soap doesn't seem to be helping as much with extra speed like it always use to.

I went up and took a couple more jumps as everyone else was finishing up riding the landing hill and making their way up the jump. I was still coming in around 15 meters.

The evening as a whole remained pretty much the same. The last couple of jumps I did manage to keep from dragging the hands through the sawdust into the outrun like I always seem to do. I was quite glad that I was finally able to get myself to stay back but a bit more upright than what I have been doing for ages.

Also, on the last couple of jumps I did make a slight change in the inrun position. It seemed like I did get down a bit lower but when you jump late like I was doing on pretty much every jump tonight the response you get from being a wee bit lower in the inrun position doesn't really matter. I may have managed 16-16.5 meters on the last jump or two.

After I called it quits I got into a talk with Walterl and he informed me that he had noticed after jump he has seen me take I've been riding the inrun tilted to the right. It made me wonder how long I've been doing it. I didn't even realize I was leaning to the right on the inrun. Normally something like that I end up catching myself doing it and correct it quickly enough. This time around I haven't even noticed it once. I do wonder since Walter didn't take a jump after I made the small change to the inrun position if the change I made ended up correcting the problem or not. I did notice a difference in the feel. It felt like I was more forward/more crunched going down the inrun. It seemed like I should have had more power at the takeoff...if I didn't jump late. I'm going to have to watch next time I jump and see if I can notice myself leaning on the inrun or not.

Crash

Jumping Journal: August 24, 2009

2009-08-24T22:28:00.001-04:00

Did I mention critical mass? Couldn't of. Signs of fall finally arriving.

Well, after a week of temperatures in the 90s...did I say 90's, did I say sunshine. Couldn't of, not this year. I guess anything can happen. Yes, starting around August 14th the temperatures started spiking and the sun started coming out big time. Heck I didn't have rain for almost an entire week and I saw temperatures up around 90 almost every day. I guess when you miss the bulk majority of summer it will arrive sooner or later and come all at once and then leave quickly.

Well, temps today was back down more into normal levels right around 80 with some rain in the early to mid part of the afternoon before it tried clearing out by sunset. I looked at radar and I knew it was going to be decent weather for jumping so I headed on up to Lebanon this evening for a very surprising evening of jumping.

I arrived at the hill and saw quite a few cars in the parking lot. I figured their must be a committee meeting going on something like that. I was wrong. All the vehicles were there for jumping. The first face I see was an old timer...no not an old time jumper just an old time friend of Storrs Hill. I guess Fred's son is getting married this next weekend so they are up visiting family and getting ready for the wedding. I haven't seen Fred in probably a year now.

I next start seeing several kids I didn't recoginize and then several adults I didn't recoginize before finally seeing Walter, Bill(both of them) and Dan. Turns out the expansion phase of ski jumper at Storrs Hill is well underway. Yeah, well I didn't jump last Monday thanks to the heat and still being sore/tired from doing other things on Sunday their were a few more new faces that popped into the sport of ski jumping and started jumping last Monday night. Tonight they returned for their second evening of jumping. I guess the extreme skiers are finding other ways of keeping skis on their feet during the summer months and are getting ready for bigger hill jumping this coming winter.

Colin, the newbie I mentioned about a month ago had told some of his other extreme skier friends about jumping and they have now started coming out to jump. Three more new adults were in amongst the ranks tonight, Colin, Jonathan and I'm not sure what the other jumpers name is. I'll have to find it out next week.

In all it sure didn't seem like a late August jump session. I've never seen a late August jump session with so many people out jumping. This time of the year it is normally three or four jumps at the most. Tonight their was two high school kids, one junior, several first time very young juniors(8-10 years old), and Walter, Dan, Bill, Colin, Colin, Jonathan, ?, and myself out jumping. Gee 8 adults out jumping at the same time. THAT'S NOT NORMAL!

I suited up and headed up for my first jump. Turns out the first jump would be the best of the night. I managed to get nicely below 15 meters, probably closer to 17, I believe. The rest of the evening I would struggle, for some reason, to even make it 15 meters. The one pleasant surprise was the wet outrun that wasn't making stopping as quick as I have gotten used to it being all summer long. I think Lebanon must have gotten some of the passing rain showers before I arrived at the hill.

The second and third jumps were barely getting down the 15 meters. I don't know what the difference was. I know I was surprised by each jump as I couldn't figure out why they were going so short. Everything seemed like they should have been going 17-18 meters but instead I was landing at or above 15 meters.

The one thing I did notice was I was having a rather unusual time getting started up top. It seemed like I was almost sticking as I was trying come out of house. I couldn't figure out what was causing the problem but it wasn't being an issue until the fourth jump.

I got the signal from Cannonball for the fourth jump and I started over the edge when the skis caught nicely and threw themselves a bit sideways. I acted quickly and grabbed ahold of the railing and managed to keep myself from going down the inrun. I had to sidestep back up a foot or so of the inrun as my skis were already on the downhill part of the track. With a small bit of help I managed to get myself back up into house and tried it again this time without sticking quite as much.

Before the fifth and final jump Bill K. mentioned about the skis maybe not being wet enough so I went ahead and hosed them off to see if I would notice any kind of a difference or not. Their was a slight bit of a difference but not much. I didn't stick like I did on the previous jump at least. I'm still not sure why I was having the trouble tonight. I haven't ever had trouble like that in the past.

Crash

Jumping Journal: August 10, 2009

2009-08-10T22:41:00.000-04:00

Who the heck is that? Have we hit critical mass yet..if not I think we may be getting very close to it.

Well another evening of ski jumping. This evening wouldn't be quite as expected to say the least. The driest week in over two years has continued. I haven't seen any rain in over a week now. Better alert the news media a drought has begun, HA!! Yesterday was cloudy and most of today was cloudy until around jump time when the sky cleared out nicely and the warm humid air made for some rather sweety jumping conditions.

As I pulled into the parking lot at Storrs Hill I saw quite a few cars in the parking lot. I remembered that tonight was the club board meeting. I didn't think much about it and parked my car. I did notice two vehicles with Vermont license plates on them. The one looked familiar but the other one I didn't recognize.

I walked up to the lodge and saw Bill Ryan and Kim Farnham sitting on the picnic table talking with another guy I didn't recoginize.

Quickly I got the jist of the conversation was about the July 4th ski jump meet up in Lake Placid, New York. Something seemed very strange as the guy who was doing most of the talking was the same individual I didn't know. He appeared to be quite knowledgeable about the sport so I was very intrigued to find out who this guy was. I start hearing him talk about coaching the Holderness Prep School ski jumping team and everything tells me he's a former ski jumper but I don't have the slightest clue who it is.

Finally he goes to give Bill his email address and I quick realize who it is Walter Malmquist a former jumper from the area that jumped back in the 1970's and 80's. Turns out he had one of his kids up to Lake Placid earlier this summer and stumbled into Cannonball and said I got to do that again. He wasn't out at the hill just to visit...he came out to jump, for the first time since 1986.

I suited up as he was grabbing his equipment from his car. We headed up the hill and he rode the landing hill several times before taking three or four jumps. Mike, Walter, myself, one high school jumper and one junior jumper made up the crowd tonight. Yes, it's the summer doldrums. I know of one jumper that is at a three week camp that ends this weekend. This time of the year is always hard to get guys to come out and jump.

Turned out someone had gotten up on the jump and managed to throw the soap over the side over the past week. No soap...great:) I got the signal from Cannonball and headed down the inrun and jump, Cannonball said I jumped late and thinking back I would say I probably did jump late. I did have one of the nicest non soap jump of the season. I was a bit shocked when I landed down around 17-17.5 meters. I'm use to normally landing at or above 15 meters without soap. I'm not sure what was different about that jump.

I walked back up and took another jump with a bit better timing and landing about the same location. Afterwards some more soap was found and I skipped the soaping procedure since one of the kids was soaping up. I knew I could just use his residue and benefit from it.

Granted on the remainder of the jumps for the evening I was still getting about the same distance.

I did manage a real nice save on jump four. I landed with the skis quite a bit further apart than what I would typically like. As I went to sit back the ski tips went into a snowplow and I dug in my hands and managed to keep myself upright until I came to a stop. I'm not sure how I managed the sweet save but I won't complain about it.

I ended the night with the usual five jumps. The evening did make me question 'Have we hit critical mass in Lebanon'. I have said for years now you will know as a ski jump facility that you have hit critical mass when you get a female adult beginner out jumping regularly. Otherwise you will have to have a big number of male adults, both beginner adults and old times out jumping. Critical mass is simply the point where the program will feed itself and continue to grow rapidly as a result of what you already have as a base layer. They base layer will continue to draw in more people all the time.

What I have seen so far this summer makes me question if we have now managed to pull off critical mass in Lebanon or not. I have seen three 'new' adults come out and ski jump this summer. One, a former Olympian, still hasn't jumped the K25 but he has ridden the landing hill. The other two, Walter and Colin, have both jumped the K25. We picked up one new/former prep school jumper last winter. I haven't seen him this summer and I don't know if he even knows we jump during the summer months.

The key secret to growth is having an adult base. If the parents won't let their kids jump because they think the sport is too dangerous than you have no future. If the parents jumped as a kid than you have it made. Many of the former jumpers don't live around a ski jump anymore so you have lost the easy future jumpers. You have to replace that and the only way you can do that is to bring in new adults to the program. You have to get them jumping so they realize the sport is safe. You bring them into the program by showing them a big group of people their own age they can jump with. When you have a big enough base to feed off of it will grow on its own at quite a fast pace whether you want it grow or not. I call this effect 'critical mass'. I think we are getting real close to critical mass in Lebanon. I know of one female who jumped a few years back before hurting herself telemark skiing in northern Norway that wants to come back out and jump this winter. The next 12 months could be very interesting around the Upper Valley.

Crash

Jumping Journal: August 03, 2009

2009-08-03T22:29:00.001-04:00

The nicest day of the year.

It doesn't get much more summer like...at least not in this part of the country. After more rain and humid weather last week, some of it quite opressive today turned around very nicely and had to be one of, if not, the best day of the year so far. The humidity was low the temperatures were in the lower 80s and the sun was shining brightly with just the slightest of wind blowing. You couldn't ask for anything more...well, maybe a few more days like this before winter gets here. It sounds like Augst must be coming quick as the low temperatures are suppose to drop back into the upper 40s by the end of the week. I saw some Canadian geese today and I realize that is another sign that fall is coming quickly. DRATS!

I arrived at the hill this evening to find some of the outing club board members having a committee meeting but I didn't see anyone else. I saw several vehicles but no one was around. I noticed when I got in the right position that the door on the jump inn was open so I figured they must be over there.

A few minutes later I saw Cannonball walking back to toward the lodge with a pair of skis over his shoulder. As he set the skis down I asked him if he was planning on jumping tonight and he said they were for an old timer that is appearing might be making a comeback. Right behind him was Dan carrying a pair of skis that he wasn't planning on using and then a minute or two later came the old timer with his daughter and a friend from California.

I walked into the lodge and changed clothes and came back out to find both Bill's getting ready to jump. For the old timer he was just planning on riding the landing hill to get use to having jump skis on his feet for the first time since around 1981. He said he has only jumped five or six times since the mid 1970s and the last time would have been in the early 1980s. I just hope we can get him to continue to come out and take up ski jumping once again.

I grabbed the skis and headed up the hill with both Bill's, one high schooler and one junior jumper. After watching the newbies ride the landing hill I walked up the jump and soaped up the skis. I got the signal from Cannonball and had a pretty decent first jump. I wasn't quite use to going that far on the first jump of the evening. I haven't used soap for the first jump in about a month or so. I rode through the sawdust and came to a stop much further out the outrun then I have been. I still haven't figured out why the difference was present tonight. All season long I have been coming to stop much sooner than I did on any jump tonight.

Before the second jump I noticed that Tara had showed up and was sporting her new look, crutches. I guess in the past week or so two jumpers have taken nice crashes over in Lake Placid. Tara ended up breaking her knee and had one massively swollen knee to show off tonight. After I took my second jump I had the opportunity to see one of the most inflammed body part I think I have ever seen. She said it doesn't hurt but I don't know how it can't given how much it is swollen.

Jump three was bit timid since I was having problems with one of the cords on my bindings. I managed to get the cords repositioned/retied before I took the fourth jump and that helped to make things feel a bit more comfy. I was still jumping around 15-16 meters on each jump and each jump seemed like I was making further into the outrun than I normally would.

By the fifth jump I was also starting to notice I was getting myself turned a bit more going down the landing hill so I was staying more centered on the landing hill instead of heading off to the right hand side like I have been doing all season long.

On the sixth and final jump of the evening I decided to keep the head/eyes up nicely in the air and found myself getting even further to the left going through the outrun. It seemed like it was probably the best jump of the season so far even though I think their have been other jumps that were better. The fact of keeping the head up helped to make it seem like it was better than any of the other jumps I have taken.

In all is was one of the nicest jump session I've had all season. I hope there are many more like it between now and winter. Time shall tell.

Crash

Jumping Journal: July 27, 2009

2009-07-27T22:20:00.001-04:00

Summer has finally arrived. At least it sure has felt like for the past week or so now.

Gee, the temperatures have finally made it up into the 80's for several days over the past week now. The humidity has pretty much matched the temperature and it has made for some of the muggiest conditions I have seen in a long time. I'm not use to this kind of weather in New Hampshire. I don't normally think of breaking a sweat at 8AM in the morning but I have been breaking a sweat each day for the past week quite early in the morning. Definitely not normal, but I guess I can't complain too much...at least we are going to see something that kinda resembles summer before fall starts to make it presence known in a couple more weeks.

I arrived at Storrs Hill shortly after 6PM and found to my surprise that some of the high school kids were out. I didn't figure these kids in particular I would see again until the start of the school year if not the start of winter. They surprised me quite big time. It isn't normal to see high school kids have the motivation to come out and jump once the school year is over. This year things seem to be quite a bit different.

I walked into the lodge to change into jumping clothes and I saw my second surprise. Rusty Dan was going to jump tonight. I haven't seen him jump at all this summer. Rusty is a term we give to anybody that hasn't jumped in a while, typically anyone that you have jumped more recently than they have can be called Rusty.

The night ended up with Colin, Dan and I as the adults out jumping and three high school kids were out jumping from two different schools. Quite a nice sized fleet for the toasty warm/humid evening.

I headed up for my first jump and Dan had already soaped up so I knew I could just ride the inrun much quicker thanks to his soap job. The first jump both surprised me and didn't surprise me. I knew with the soap on the inrun that I would definitely go further than I had been in the past couple of jump sessions. The fact that I went from typically jumping 13-15 meters the past couple of sessions to jumping 17 meters on the first jump tonight still caught me off guard though.

The second jump was about the same but I started to notice I was doing one thing that I wanted to do a little work on. I wanted to look to the bottom of the hill instead of down between the skis. Since I have been having all the trouble all season long with crashing I haven't even thought anything about trying to keep the eyes/head up. I did spend the rest of the night working on keeping the eyes looking to the bottom of the hill and it did for some unusual jumps. I'm still not fully use to not looking between the skis.

After the fourth or fifth jump I watched as Colin came down and took a jump. Colin started jumping about a month or so ago. He's 28 years old. I think this was either his third or fourth time he's been jumping. I was amazed at his jumping. He was jumping better than anyone else tonight. He was landing most of his jumps around 18-20 meters. He is jumping with alpine boots, jumping skis/bindings. At least I think he is still wearing alpine boots. He reminds me of a jumper from several years back, Wes Wilson, who came out and started jumping and 6 weeks later he was already jumping the K90's. Colin reminds me of him all over again. He is picking up the sport very fast.

On my fifth jump I noticed that I wasn't cocking the ankles. I decided to correct that on the final two jumps of the evening. After wiping sweat from my forehead, like I did all evening long I managed to keep the ankles cocked for both of the final two jumps of the evening.

Not bad to have 7 jumps in quick fashion in the 7th month of the year. I had thought about taking another jump or two but decided not to. I was already sweating up a storm and decided I wanted to dry off.

Hopefully the weather will cool down a little before next week gets here. It would be nice.

Crash

Jumping Journal: July 20, 2009

2009-07-20T22:22:00.001-04:00

Summer has arrived, at least I think so.

The temperatures the past couple of days have hinted that summer may finally be here but the black flies still want to say its spring. I don't think I have ever seen black flies in the month of July until this past weekend when i was being swarmed by them. This past week has brought some much need dry weather as well. The forecast is suggesting that may change this week though, starting overnight tonight.

I arrived at Storrs Hill around 5:30PM and found Cannonball and Bill talking about the work party that took place this weekend. We walked over to the 50 and saw the change on the inrun that has been made to make snowing the inrun a bit easier than what.

After a while everyone suited up and headed up the jump. I was tired after having went to bed last night around midnight and waking up around 3:30AM and not being able to fall back asleep. I also had a quite a busy day which didn't help matter much so I was tired and I knew it was going to be a technical night of jumping since I didn't have much left to give me any kind of power at the takeoff.

I walked up top and put on the skis. I knew it was going to be slow since there was no soap laying around. I got the signal from Cannonball and headed down the inrun. Yes, it was slow and my jump ended up around 12 meters. It has been a quite a long time since I only jumped 12 meters on the K25 in Lebanon. I was definitely tired but thanks to being tired I was also too tired to crash.

I walked up slowly for the second jump. This time I did get back down around 15 meters before landing so I was highly pleased. I could tell it was all thanks to technique that I managed to make it that far. I didn't power off the takeoff like I have had in the past many times.

The third jump was about the same. The jumper right after my third jump had managed to find some soap and soaped up his skis. It did help my fourth and final jump of the evening. I was caught a bit off guard about how much extra speed there was on the inrun and how much further I managed to jump. I did end up with around 17-18 meters on the last jump so it was getting back toward more normal for me.

Now off to bed and hopefully make up for the lost sleep last night.

Crash

Jumping Journal: July 13, 2009

2009-07-13T22:48:00.001-04:00

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