I love the internet; it just brought back a great memory.
Several years ago while skiing in Park City, I went to Utah Olympic Park just outside of town and took a two-hour Nordic ski jumping class. You could use your regular skis, had to have helmet (which I rented), there were four of us in the class and our coach was on the 1988 USA Olympic team (and was currently an Olympic coach).
Not bad for $40.
So they started us on a “5-meter jump” which was basically just a bump in the snow (the number of meters for a ski jump is from the lip of the jump to essentially the middle of the landing zone, so if you are hitting the landing on a 5-meter jump you are flying about 15 feet). We then we moved to the 10-meter jump which was a real takeoff and landing but just pretty short. Then we moved to the 20-meter jump (do you notice these keep DOUBLING??), and a recent viral video brought this all back to me. I SO wish I had a GoPro at the time…
Here is a picture of me flying off the 20-meter jump (that’s actually the 40-meter jump behind it; DOUBLING again!); our coach said we were flying about 45 feet:
Not that impressive a photo, right? So then it ALL comes back to me when I see this viral video of a 4th grade girl taking her first 20-meter leap on the exact same jump at Olympic Park (yeah, I know she is only in 4th grade but they have no fear of serious injury at that age!). This is how it looked for me as well, and I’m pretty sure I said exactly the same things while up there:
She’s amazing, and I feel so lucky to know exactly how she felt.
Definitely before and during, and ESPECIALLY after. 🙂
Wayne's Whirled 
