jumps

[Guest boogieman]

does anyone jump with their alpine board

i tried once and i ripped out my rear binding and almoast broke my knee, since that day i never tried it again

[trikerdad]

Used to jump all the time. Loved to sail through the terain park hitting the sides of the kickers and flying 50 to 60 feet down the hill. Then one year, on the last run of the last day, I thought I'd see what happened if I hit the kicker itself. I went back to work 6 months later with nine screws and a plate in my right leg.

[Guest boogieman]

Whats a kicker?

is it ok to do that (jump) for the equipment doesnt it abuse your board since i think they are not made to flex that much as they do when you dont land perfectly in balance

[trikerdad]

Kickers are the turned up lip at the top of a jump meant to 'kick' you up (at low speed) to give you a little extra air. NOT meant to be hit at warp speed! Go off to the side of the kicker at speed and you go out and down, hit the kicker and go straight up!

[Mike T]

I like hitting small ones on my Axis, but that's about it. 12 foot tables are about my speed.

[GeoffV]

I still look for lips and will hit them, but don't get the big air I use to in my college days. I've always hit jumps with an alpine set up. I will hit the smaller table tops on the parks once and a while, but it is difficult to gauge how much air you get because you get launched with the a stiffer alpine board vs. the freestyle boards.

[willywhit]

10 years ago I watched Bud Keene throw a blindside 360 off the Stimilon BIG AIR jump at Stowe at night under the lights on a factory prime. Frickin HUGE and he stuck it. At VAIL there used to be a nice big kicker on the top of a wide carving trail.We'd launch it and land in a heelside carve(toeside for goofys).Not really that hard if you land in some transition.Pretty funny to watch the tourists standing there gaping on the headwall as a bunch of carvers threw tindys and mulekicks and proceeded to lay out some high speed carves.WHOA! Vail Air Farce

[skategoat]

Last big jump I took, I hit it with my weight a little forward and over my toes. In the air, this weight inbalance transitioned into a tumble forward and I landed on my head and shoulder. My friend thought I broke my neck but somehow I just ended up with a big frickin' headache. Now I keep my board firmly planted on the snow.

[D-Sub]

used to spend plenty of time in the air, on rails, etc, on my PJ7...

there was this tiered section at steamboat...pitch then cat then pitch then cat and so forth...I would lay carves and fly off the edge in the middle of a carve and land on edge.

Im far more timid now. Hopin to squash the timidity again

OCD has a few sweet photos of him launchin...

oh..and btw..."kicker" has always just meant "jump" where Im from...

[Tommy D]

I think a lot of people use kicker and jump interchangeably. I always think of a kicker as a man-made ramp used (Mostly in the parks) for tricks, big air, etc, and jumps as natural terrain features used for distance(Such as launching off a cat-track) and clearing obstacles.

[Stan]

I try to avoid hitting kickers straight-on. From the side is where it's at. Transition from one side to the other if the jump is not TOO wide. Basically, I love jumping (no tricks, just air) but I prefer to land (as previously mentioned here) on my heelside and NOT on flat base.

[D-Sub]

hey triker...

whats shasta like? Ive always been curious about it. the pictures remind me of Mt. Baldy here, but...its gotta be better'n that. I mean...the actual peak is HIGH!

[trikerdad]

Shasta is over 14,000 but the ski park isn't a whole lot over 6,000. It's a carving friendly park with mostly intermediate runs, but they tend to be a little short. About the time you get into a rhythm (there's a word I had to look up), you're at the bottom again. Unrestricted season passes are only $199 witch is a big plus.

[lonerider]

Originally posted by Stan

I try to avoid hitting kickers straight-on. From the side is where it's at. Transition from one side to the other if the jump is not TOO wide. Basically, I love jumping (no tricks, just air) but I prefer to land (as previously mentioned here) on my heelside and NOT on flat base.

To me, kickers specifically refer to ramp jumps. A table top (looks like a trapezoid) is not a kicker but is a jump. However, most people don't usually don't know or bother with the differentiation.

I have not taken a medium-sized jumps on my alpine board (only like a few 15-20 footers). Tthe narrow angles and responsive edges make it rather hard to absorb landing and stay on a flat base riding away.

Is everyone talking about going over the side of the jump (like a tabletop) or the angling off the side of the ramp so you don't hit the lip of the jump.

While I still occasionally land on my heelside when I "panic" or feel off-balance in the air, I have found once you learn to be confident in your abilities and commit to the flat base landing, you will be much more solid on the landing, for anything bigger than like 25 feet, landing on your heelside is going to be less effective... not to mention that it really messes up the landing (I always teach people to land on a flat base... ride off the landing... and THEN speed-check).

[Gecko]

I tend to head down and anything that pops up in front of me, or (my favorite) drops out from under me always ends up as an oppurtunaty to air...usually a simple Indy air as I find the rear hand to the toeside edge to be the most balancing...the longer you spend in the air the more neccessary a grab become if only to control body motion...strangly I land toeside more often than not

[lonerider]

Originally posted by Gecko

I tend to head down and anything that pops up in front of me, or (my favorite) drops out from under me always ends up as an oppurtunaty to air...usually a simple Indy air as I find the rear hand to the toeside edge to be the most balancing...the longer you spend in the air the more neccessary a grab become if only to control body motion...strangly I land toeside more often than not

That's a good point... once you start doing bigger airs, doing a grab actually helps you stay more stable in the air than the "praying mantis" style no-grab airs. Indy is the easiest grab to learn and will help keep you from flapping your arms around in the air.

[Guest Thrillkil]

I once made the stupid mistake of letting my softboot friends talk me into hitting the toolbox at mountain high. The toolbox is a large wooden box that has a small jump up to it, the idea being that you grind the box and hop off the other side. Well, on my attempt, I hit the jump going way too fast, landed on an edge on the box, fell on my back on the wooden box, then bounced off and landed on my back on the snow. I thought I had pulled a Christopher Reeves, but luckily there were some 800mg ibuprofen tablets nearby. In generally, it totally sucked.

[lonerider]

Originally posted by Thrillkil

I once made the stupid mistake of letting my softboot friends talk me into hitting the toolbox at mountain high. The toolbox is a large wooden box that has a small jump up to it, the idea being that you grind the box and hop off the other side. Well, on my attempt, I hit the jump going way too fast, landed on an edge on the box, fell on my back on the wooden box, then bounced off and landed on my back on the snow.

Doh... I think we should have a freestyle clinic for hardbooters... as there a lot of common novice mistakes being made here. The problem being all of you are speed demons and are likely to get carted off the mountain from a stupendous crash before realizing what you are doing wrong and correcting it. :p :p :p

The first thing as I mentioned before... you should land on a FLAT base and ride away. No edging... in this case it's a crutch and a bad one... you might be able to cheat on small jumps, but you will be flirting with disaster if you ever do larger jump with a less than perfect landing or ANY rails/boxes. Thrillkil, your softbooter friends should have warned you to be confidant and stay on the flatbase and lean *forward* towards the nose. When anyone gets nervous, they lean uphill and go on an edge... and on a rail that means you will slip. I had a dog of a time learning blindside boardslides because trouble riding the rail with my back facing downhill, and *then* trying to focus on leaning back downhill to compensate from my natural urge to go onto my toe edge.

The second thing is learning to correctly judge the needed speed through experience and by watching the people going in front of you (counting the number of turns they did before the jump and see if they have enough speed).

[AK in PA]

I've always hit jumps and drops in hard boots. Sometimes drop into the pipe, too, but a stiff board is tough to manage in there.

Last year, I cautiously launched off a 5' jump in the terrain park and landed on the flat instead of the transition. My knees hit my chest and I winded myself. On the next run, I picked up more speed for the jump, flew up much higher, but still came down on the flat and royally winded myself. Determined to get it right, I hit the jump at top speed the third time. I launched straight up to the moon, and came down (you guessed it) square on the flat. I thought I broke my ribs when my knees my chest. It took me three stupid jumps to realize the ramp builder was either an idiot or a sadistic bastard...

[D-Sub]

DOH!

[Gecko]

My favoite park jumps are the drifty fall away's that you have to hit with some speed to get over the flat to the landing that's oh so soft/smooth

[Guest AlpentalRider]

Originally posted by AK in PA

Last year, I cautiously launched off a 5' jump in the terrain park and landed on the flat instead of the transition. My knees hit my chest and I winded myself. On the next run, I picked up more speed for the jump, flew up much higher, but still came down on the flat and royally winded myself. Determined to get it right, I hit the jump at top speed the third time. I launched straight up to the moon, and came down (you guessed it) square on the flat. I thought I broke my ribs when my knees my chest. It took me three stupid jumps to realize the ramp builder was either an idiot or a sadistic bastard...

The ramp builder was an idiot. And don't feel bad, there are ALOT of ramps in terrain parks that are improperly built. It amazes me how many poor ramps are designed by resorts.

[NateW]

Jumps are the main reason I go snowboarding in the first place... I just love flying. I don't really see stiffness being a problem but then again I ride a Coiler AM, not a Factory Prime.

IMO a large radius sidecut makes big jumps easier... but maybe it's just me, the pros don't seem to care for it. I sure do like the extra stability at higher speeds though.

When I'm eyeballing a tabletop that I haven't hit recently, or haven't yet tried, I watch a few people hit it, look at where they start from, look at where they land, look at how much skidding they do in between bombing toward the jump and hitting the lip. That all helps me gauge where to to start from in order to land in the right place to get a nice smooth landing. I try to find some landmarks to line up with so I can start from the same spot every time and just bomb straight for the jump - fewer variables that way, so I land in pretty much the same spot every time. When you land on the downhill side of a nice tabletop, you touch down really softly and it just feels great.

But as has been mentioned above, undershooting (landing onthe tabletop) and overshooting (landing BEYOND the landing ramp) really really sucks. To be honest I still undershoot from time to time because I'm utterly paranoid about overshooting. I destroyed a rear binding that way, winded myself, and probably would have busted a leg or something if the binding hadn't absorbed some of the impact for me. Scared the daylights out of me. Never want to do that again. It just sucks.

And I stay away from rails and boxes and such... they do look fun, but a) I don't want to beat up my board; b) I don't want to beat up my body. It's bad enough falling on snow.

They're building a huge new superduperpipe at my home hill this season, with snowmaking stuff. I can't wait. (I broke my collarbone in a pipe mishap a few years ago, but **** happens.)

I used to always prefer launch and land on edge, but when they started building terrain parks I had to change my tune (pun intended). Keeping the base flat is better when conditions allow for it. I use a one degree base bevel to reduce the chance of catching an edge - fear of catching an edge was the main reason I used to avoid riding with the base flat on the snow. It does help to use the edge a little bit if I want to spin though.

You might want to search the archives, a lot of this stuff has been covered before and in more detail.

Bottom line: you can get no less air on an alpine setup than in soft boots. Personally I prefer it.

[skategoat]

The problem in the East is that the landing areas are usually very hard and icey. Very narrow margin of error and if you have your weight even a little bit back, the board will shoot out from under you on landing and the last thing you'll remember is the crack of your coconut hitting the ground.

[Guest thomas_m]

Originally posted by NateW

They're building a huge new superduperpipe at my home hill this season, with snowmaking stuff. I can't wait. (I broke my collarbone in a pipe mishap a few years ago, but **** happens.)

Hi Nate. I assume you're referring to the Summit. That'll be my home hill to this season. Let me know when you're headed up there sometime, I'd like to shoot some pics of somebody in hardboots in the Superpipe of hitting the tabletops down below the Central Express.

We got passes for the whole family so I'll be up there a couple nights after work every week until they close and any weekend I don't go to Crystal/Stevens. Of course, as a beginner, I have a hard enough time keeping my base down on the snow to think about launching it through the air.

Thomas