Flight School
Posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009
“Just point ‘em.”
“What?!”
That was how the day was shaping up. I was standing on top of a 35-foot SnowFlex ramp in Copper Mountain’s new indoor jumping facility called Woodward. The young guy who just gave me the instructions, which I was really having trouble doing, had just walked me and my kids through an hour-and-a-half lesson on how to fall and jump into a foam pit. The part he left out was the part about this ramp. Now don’t get me wrong, I was all about doing these jumps, but I guess I thought we would kind of step our way up to it, not start there as our first jump.
The day started chill enough. We started by learning to tumble on a padded floor. The whole idea at Woodward is safety, and pushing your limits in the air. As we stretched and talked, they went through all the ways to fall correctly on the pits and floors. The funny thing is, tumbling at this altitude, 9,800 feet, kept making me feel like I was on a roller coaster, and I kept having to get drinks of water to settle my stomach. My kids thought that was funny. We went through the ways to land in the pits, and the swim to get out of the foam pit. I don’t think I ever really thought about it much; I thought you just got up and walked out.
No.
You have to sorta kinda swim – like getting out of deep pow when you don’t have poles and it keeps moving. The first flip I landed from the bounce floor put me under the foam, which I was not expecting, and resulted in my crawl-swim-flop technique to get out. Believe me when I say, it’s more work than I thought.
Once we got that all down, it was on to the tramps.
There we learned proper body position in landing and how to work on keeping our bodies under control as we shoot through space. I was looking for more control in flight with my skis. I tend to overshoot landings, smacking hard when I come down. Also, I tend to lean back, which at certain times can be a really bad thing to do. I don’t want to launch a 50-footer, but I do want to style the jumps I do hit. Whether it’s a rock in the backcountry or a kicker at the resort, I want to feel like I’m in some type of control.
After the tramps we headed for the SnowFlex Ramps.
The SnowFlex are ramps made out of a fake lawn-type of material. They feel a lot like riding on a groomer of hardpack. You can’t carve it, but you get the feeling like you’re on snow. Of course I was in shorts and T-shirt, but hey, I did have my skis in right!
We started with a really gentle hill that ended with a halfpipe. The roll in was about a 10-foot drop, but very gentle. Mayah and Will passed the first time, stopping a few feet short, but by the third time, they were dropping into the pipe and really having fun.
Next step was a higher ramp into the same terrain park and halfpipe. Again, they both passed, watching me twice, then jumping in and really having a blast.
Then came the biggie …
They decided to sit out, but I figured that’s the whole reason I was there. On my first drop, the instructor asked that I sideslip it to get the feeling. I didn’t argue with him in the least. Sliding my skis over felt like dropping into a super-fast elevator, but also super-cool.
Then it was back up, and the simple command I mentioned at the top.
“Do I really need to point the whole way???”
The smile and nod told me everything I needed, and with a grin and a prayer, point ‘em I did. In a second I was into the transition, and then launching the kicker over the pit. I even managed a sucked-up, hands-forward charge, then, poof. I was in. And man, I was hooked!
It was awesome.
To fly out over that stuff, knowing you won’t get hurt, is amazing and fun. I felt like a little kid again, and can’t wait to head back.
Flight School | Outside All Day || We Have To Be Outside says: December 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
[...] Flight School By Craig DeMartino November 30th, 2009 [...]