looking a little more like winter

Well its Dec. 2nd and the jumps can finally start making snow! We are hoping the the beautiful new k18 will be ready to rock in a week with all the larger hills not far behind it.

SWEET!!

K18 Inrun

The K18 is almost reasy for some snow!! Now all we need is ssome cold temps to come.

Greetings from Austria!

Howdy Team Grasshop!

Hope everyone is enjoying a great fall in Lake Placid. Did everyone get out to watch the Flaming Leaves Tourney? Heard there were some great long rides to be witnessed.

Things are going great over here in Austria. I've just wrapped up my third week of teaching English at a local technical high school called the Höhere Technische Bundeslehranstalt Rankweil. Jeez, what a name, huh? Try and say that one three times fast. It's a cool school though, and the students specialize in either electronics, woodworking and forestry, or construction management. It's cool-- I always find the students building some sort of wild bridge, spiral staircase, or treehouse contraption.

View from my house... complete with a castle!

People are getting psyched up for winter over here, and the first Alpine Ski World Cup wrapped up on the nearby Sölden glacier last weekend. Americans Ted Ligety and Lindsey Vonn scored some big early season wins, and I had fun bringing the sports page article into all my classes and giving them a big dose of US Ski Team "Best in the World!" They were not impressed, made all sorts of hasty excuses, and then claimed that the real Austrians are focused on the overall World Cup. Complete bogus. America: 2. Austria: 0.

What else is neat over here? Oh! Toni Innauer, winner of the normal hill competition in the 1980 Olympics in LP, is from this area. He just got a huge project rolling to build a new world class youth jumping and cross country facility in the next valley over. It's way cool, here's a little writeup on the project. They're hoping to host the Youth Winter Olympic Games in 2015, and I'm counting one of you guys to bag a medal or two!

This looks like a great hill setup. But I called the folks up and said,
"What is this, a jump for ants?! The real jumps must be at least... 3 times this big!"

I've been doing a little bit of road biking since I've been over here, and got myself good and lost yesterday during a little ride through Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Turns out they use different money over there as well, so I couldn't even stop to buy snacks. Things were rapidly turning pretty bleak. Totally lost in Eastern Switzerland, I then spotted a neat sign on an old farmhouse, congratulating Simon Ammann on his 4 gold medals. (Note, if you don't know who Simon Ammann is, maybe it's time to start checking out the LP Curling Team Blog instead.) Anyhow, there were neat posters all over the place, check out some of the pics. The town of Alt St. Johann itself was pretty teeny, with arguably more cows than people. It didn't take long to find the jumps, either, and they had a neat little setup with a K40, K32, and K15. Looked alot like the Andover setup!


Fun to see, but also interesting to note that this 4x World Champ came from a pretty humble spot. The Nordic Ski loops there reminded me alot of Dewey Mountain, and the jump itself was pretty basic. Just a tiny clubhouse that served as a changing room, judges' tower, and a few lights. I have to say I saw way more cows than people wandering around town. So consider yourselves lucky, especially with those shiny new hills, which seem to be comin' along really well!

The Wildhaus Jump Complex

Here, as seen from outer space. Er, across the road.

That's all my news. Hope training's going great, and make sure to take it easy on Coaches Bliss and Stone this winter! Remember not to tick Larry off in the van, either, or you'll find your face being ground into the carpet faster than you can say "Padiddle!"

As a true "Star of America", McDonalds has asked Coach Dave to be the face of the new "Miami Speis" sandwich line. Seen here with "Der Miami Grilled Chicken".

Coach Dave

New Small Hills!

I know it has been a long time coming but work on the new small hills in LP has finally started! Here are some photos of the hill crew moving and shaping dirt for the landing hill.

More to come as work continues!!!

-Evan

Chicago small hill Nationals

After another long van ride and some cool and windy days jumping in Fox River Grove I am happy to say that the NYSEF ski jumping crew is back in LP!

What a great and fun filled weekend in Chicago on their beautiful k70 where we saw a new National Champ crowned this year. I want to thank the Browns for putting all of the Eastern jumpers up at their house and letting Miles play Halo untill his eyes fell out every night.

If you want to check out results and pics they can be found here- http://www.skijumpingusa.com/


Highlight video can be found right here-

On the End of a Fabulous Era

In some ways, I'm sure you felt the same when you heard that the Space Shuttle program was coming to an end. Something you'd grown up with was suddenly no longer. Well, it's with great sadness that we announce that our trusty K18 meter Ski Jump, or Flugschanze, has been dismantled. Much like the Space Shuttle, the parts from the structure will be sold at auction in order to buy new clothing and food for Coaches Bliss, McCahill and Colby-- all of whom have had a challenging time dealing with the traumatic event.

Why, do you ask, was our perfectly good K18 meter hill dismantled? Well, the good folks at ORDA deemed the perpetually wilting Freestyle Judges Tower adjacent our jump to be unsafe, and it's to be brought down on the very ground on which our trusty jump lays. The Freestyle Hill itself will be re-graded and the knoll lowered, again with hundreds of tons of fill cascading into the ravine which used to overshadow talented up and coming Grasshoppers. So that's it. New Freestyle Hill. K18 meter gone-zo.

But wait, is that it?!

No.

There's more.

Fear not.

Behold, the new site of the K8 and K20 meter NYSEF/ORDA Flugschanzen:

See the light post on the right, illuminating the K48? That'll be the top of the new K20. The jumps will face down the fall line towards the K90 and K120 outruns, aiming jumpers to the right of the lift shack.

There's no doubt, it'll be a great setup. Coaches will be able to easily bounce between the smaller hills and the the K48, and it'll be a total blast having athletes on the K20 and K120 at once. We'll need a traffic control tower with all those long flights coming in! Larry Stone has already volunteered for this position.

We'll have plastic, of course, on both hills. It should be a phenomenal development complex, that when finished, will look something like this.

But, credit is due where it's most certainly due. We're sure going to miss that old K18. Every NYSEF Coach grew up learning the tricks of the trade on that old slide, and it became the launching pad for such sporting greats as Bill Demong, Lowell Bailey, Peter Frenette, Chris Lamb, Nick Alexander, and Wenceslas Etzol.

Here's a little photo gallery we've assembled as a tribute to our old friend, the LP K18.

Super Heroes!

Matt White, mid flight during a Grasshopper Cup Tele-Tournee

Our very first "Learn to Fly Wednesday"! Pete Frenette (far right in green) graced us with his presence.

Coach Bliss helping Zackary Katterman onto the bar

Landon Livreri, in his Tele-Tournee Leader's Bib. Behold the foreshadowing of the ominous Freestyle Judges' Tower, lurking in the background--ready to thwart K18 jumping at any moment!

Grasshopper Camp rulez. So did our K18.

And of course, we couldn't forget this.

Or, this:

So K18 jumping is finished for the season, we believe at least until the snow flies. The decision to dismantle the hill came as a complete surprise to us; we thought it was to take place after summer jumping had wrapped up. We'll send folks updates about revised practices, so stay tuned!

--The NYSEF SJ/NC Crew

Grasshopper Cup-- Complete Season Results!

And just like that, Grasshopper Camp season has come to an end for Summer 2011. And what a summer it was. Tons o' rollerskiing, jumpin, freestyle pool swimming, and sizzling games of "capture the boot". Expect more quality photo and video galleries from the summer soon, but until then, here are complete results from the Grasshopper Cup summer Tele-Tournee series.

Congratulations to series winner Landon Livreri, who clenched the overall title with 128 overall points!

Grasshopper Cup Tele-Tournee #1

June 26, 2011, Lake Placid K-18

Conditions: 60deg F, Light Rain

Judges: David McCahill, Andrew Bliss

Style Key: 3pts--perfect telemark, 2pts--two-footed landing, 1pt--drag/touch, in control, 0pts-- wipe out!

Athlete	Bib #	Dis 1	Style 1	Total 1	Dis 2	Style 2`	Total 2	Total	Rank
Beckett Ledger	½	16	2	16	17.5	2	19.5	37.5	5
Zach Zientko	1	10	2	12	11	2	13	25	10
Ellis Demars	2	10.5	2	12.5	10.5	2	12.5	25	10
Asa Chalmers	DNS	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Jamie Bleveans	4	--	4.5	4.5	--	5	5	9.5	12
Nate Caplan	5	14.5	2	16.5	15	2	17	33.5	7
Forest Ledger	6	12	2	14	13.5	2	15.5	29.5	8
Caleb Gilbert	7	11.5	2	13.5	12.5	2	14.5	27.5	9
Kevin Quinn	8	15	2.5	17.5	15	2.5	17.5	35	6
Rory Riggins	9	19	1.5	20.5	17	2	19	39.5	4
Rob DeMars	10	17	2.5	19.5	18	2.5	20.5	40	3
Gabby Armstrong	11	17.5	2	19.5	20	1.5	21.5	41	2
Landon Livreri	12	19	3	22	19	2	21	43	1
Alex Hohman	DNS	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--

Grasshopper Cup Tele-Tournee #2

July 10, 2011, Lake Placid K-18

Conditions: 70deg F, Sunny

Judges: Andrew Bliss, Casey Colby, Evan Bliss

Style Key: 3pts--perfect telemark, 2pts--two-footed landing, 1pt--drag/touch, in control, 0pts-- wipe out!

Athlete	Bib #	Dis 1	Style 1	Total 1	Dis 2	Style 2`	Total 2	Total	Rank
Ellis DeMars	4	9	2	11	9	2	11	22	8
Landon Livreri	5	17.5	3	20.5	18.5	3	21.5	42	1
Kevin Quinn	6	15	2	17	16.5	2	18.5	36.5	5
Charlie	7	15.5	2	17.5	14	2	16	33.5	6
Matthias Phillips	8	12	2	14	13	0	13	27	7
Rob DeMars	9	19.5	.5	20	19	2	21	41	3
Gabby Armstrong	10	17.5	1.5	19	19	.5	19.5	38.5	4
Alex Hohman	14	19	2	21	19	2	21	42	1

Grasshopper Cup Tele-Tournee #3

August 14, 2011, Lake Placid K-18

Conditions: 75deg F, Sunny, Light Headwind

Judges: Andrew Bliss, David McCahill, Mark Breen, Jay Rand, Margaret Maher

Athlete	Bib #	Dis 1	Style 1	Total 1	Dis 2	Style 2`	Total 2	Total	Rank
Zach Zientko	3	10.5	0	15.5	11	1.5	12.5	28	7
Elias Ford	6	13.5	2	15.5	14	2	16	31.5	5
Ellis DeMars	8	8.5	2	10.5	9	2	11	21.5	8
Cooper McCrillis	9	14	2	16	14.5	1.5	16	32	4
Matthias Phillips	10	12	2	14	13	2	15	29	6
Rob DeMars	12	18.5	2.5	21	20.5	1.5	22	43	2
Gabby Armstrong	16	19	1.5	20.5	22	1.5	23.5	44	1
Landon Livreri	17	17	3	20	21	2	23	33	2