2010 – Indy over a small kicker

A lot has changed since we started riding the park back in January 2010. Back then a warmup used to exist of a few runs down the slope to get the legs used to standing sideways. Yesterday the warmup existed of hitting some Frontside 50-50’s on the tube and down-rail features. Slowly but gradually the progress takes place and we’re getting more and more comfortable on the snowboard each time we ride.

Even though the feature setup at Montana Westerhoven changes a lot and isn’t always what we’d hope to encounter, it was well suited for our training session last night. Jorg had to prep some of the setup-jumps and a part of the big jump, but that really made the difference for a good night of straight airs, 180’s & 360’s.

There hadn’t been a big jump for a long time, so the feeling of that air-time was very welcome to both of us. First it was some speed checking, but after we foudn the proper drop-in distance it was time to feed that addiction of flying. Here I could really notice that the time spent on the trampoline the last few weeks, had really been helping with my aerial awareness. I felt comfortable in the air, not out of balance and I had time enough to spot the landing and throw in some tail-grabs.

Furthermore the tube was one of the features where I started learning to jump on them backside. Last night I could really see that stuff was paying of, I had no trouble doing the backside 50-50’s onto the tube. Locking onto the tube and steadily riding down to the end. This is the basis for the next step, 180’s off the end. Once I get those 180’s to an acceptable level, I will take them to the down-rail feature. Where-as jumping onto the down-rail backside still looks to be in a distant future, but I’ll notice when the time is ripe; for sure that urge will to try it, will let me know!