Always speed check

vauban08

vauban08

Member
This might have been around; I just saw it and found it to be an authentic and nightmarish video about the dangers of being to ballsy / not careful enough with speed checks etc.

Don't want to sound overdramatic. Just thought it might be a good reminder for the new season...

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Oh, he actually won the silver medal at the Paralympics in Vancouver.

 
That's terrible. Always take your test runs and scope everything out before you hit it. It's really not worth ending up in a wheel chair for the rest of your life.
 
Wow.. that was.. just.. wow. So sobering. It really was a great watch. Thank you. Especially when you see hours of videos of pros execute jumps perfectly, it is good to see the other side too.
And I am so, so, stoked that the guy managed to get silver in the paralympics. Really just want to let the guy know what a great job he's done to get back to doing what he loves.
 
first, i once hit a booter (up at Schweitzer) w/o having any idea how much speed i needed. i remember going off it. i remember being probly 20' off the ground looking straight down at the end of the sloped landing, thinking "fuck". then i came out of the blackout in the ski patrol shack. ended up just being a concussion. that was the last time i went big w/o knowing how much speed i need. since then, if there aren't others around to gauge where to start from, i go small, often landing on the tabletop on the first go.

second, what does it mean to speed check? I know this might sound silly. but i've just never skied w/ anyone who really knows what they are doing in a park. (i also do not really know what i am doing in a park...)
 
wow, i cant believe that i havent seen that before. definitely will always speed check from now on. mad vibes
 
scrub snow

so if someone says take 3 speedchecks into this jump, approach it and scrub snow 3 times during small turns or high-speed slashes
 
just a quick tip and reminder to go with this warning, which most of u know... just the smallest temperature change can drasitcly effect the in-run speed of a hit. Like when the sun goes down, you can almost always feel the difference in speed.

don't be afraid to push yourself and go big, but play it smart this season. watch where other skiers drop to determine speed, and watch for gapers on the landing.
 
By speed check, I think the op literally meant check the speed of the jump, not to take speed checks.
 
i have also noticed this.

what do you guys do when you're in front of a jump and don't know how fast to hit it? i see people in edits often stop right at the lip of a jump. i don't get how that helps though, as you still don't know how far down the landing you're gonna end up. i've also noticed that how much i pop can make a pretty decent difference in my air, i'm assuming that happens to ya'll?
 
You don't really want to short it either, knuckling is going to get you in trouble once you move up to bigger jumps. Plus it hurts your nuts.
 
oh yeah, knuckling hurts like a mofo. for me, it is worst on my shins. then again, i usually have pretty bad shinbang after an hour or so in a park. i'm still learning to lean forward when i pop so i don't land backseat. but after way overshooting that one landing i thought itd be better to come up short. any tips on knowing how fast to hit a jump would be appreciated.
 
ski up to the lip of the jump with the speed that you think seems right, but instead of taking off come to a stop at the top of the lip. at the top of the lip you can gauge how far you would have gone based on the speed you just had and the angle of the jump that your standing on
 
its really sad to see this happen to what seems like an incredible guy. I think that this is almost a wake up call to all of us just to not be stupid or else bad things will happen
 
Just start small and work your way up and I personally like to straight air everything on my first run of the day just to get a feel for how fast the snow is and such.
 
i dont know why but when he said "it means im kind of fucked up", it sent shivers down my spine, its crazy how in almost an instant your life can be changed for the rest of your time alive
 
I broke my back over-rotating a cork. Luckily I was able to ski away from it, though I am constantly in pain/discomfort. Either way it has made me a better and more cautious skier. + Vibes to the guy in OP's post.
 
dislocated back... fuck. i scorpioned pretty good and sprained by back early last season... sketches me out thinking about that now... shiiiiiiit
 
Jumps can be so unpredictable. Always speed check, and always use your best judgment. Even if a jump was perfectly set up a few hours earlier, snow conditions can change enough that you're going to need to adjust your run in.

It's a real shame that this happened to him, but it definitely is a wake up call to guys who think they're indestructible.
 
Holy shit. I often start the day with a frontflip without speedchecking, guess I'll think twice next time... sucks so much...
 
These kind of things suck to watch. Vids like this should scare everyone on here who watches. Its good that people post these every now and again because it keeps us in check. Makes us realize we can really fuck up.
 
+++ vibes
in no way was it this as serious as his.... but i have broken my back overshooting a jump. wheel chair for 3 months and learning how to walk again. you never think it could happen to you until the day where you see the landing fly past you.

 
Wow that is so horrible, I feel so bad for him. Inspiring that he still was able to bring himself to work for it and get a medal in Vancouver. +vibes
 
Stand at the top of a jump and watch other people hit it and see how they do with the amount of speed that they take into the jump. Also, for sure you can talk to people at the top of a jump line and just ask them how the speed is, most people will be cool and tell you how it is if they know. But even following someone else's tracks in the snow works, if they had good speed.
This whole business of rolling up to the top of the lip sounds great, but for me I know that I can't really get anything from that. I already kinda know "about" how much speed I need, I'm just fine tuning it, and watching other people is a tried and true method.
But whatever you do, don't let peer-pressure make you drop in before you know exactly how much speed you are taking into a jump. That's when you get hurt.
 
at it and then stopping at the top of the lip". This only works on step-down jumps or on some flat tables where you can actually see the knuckle and or landing from the lip. On a steep lip or most big cheesewedge jumps I find this method gives little information on how fast you would actually be traveling coming off the thing. Also sucks for people waiting to hit the feature or someone who has already dropped in behind you on a long runway who now has to skip the jump since you're standing on lip or sliding back down it. I've always used the watch as many people as you need to hit the feature until you learn how it is sending them. Factors to think about while watching/learning the speed are 1. weight/size of the riders jumping (obviously seeing your six-foot four 210pd friend hit the jump isn't going to give
 
you much speed info if you are a dumont midjet. 2. Wax! Ask people if they did or did not especially if it's hot out or the runway it super long or the jump is gnar. 3. Form. Are people tucking into it or making small turns on their way to the lip?? Count their turns and try to repeat it if you feel that you liked the way it was approached. Also look at
 
Josh is the man! He coached at my mountan before his accident. He is so inspirational for overcoming his injury and becoming one of the top sit ski skiers. I was actually talking to him before I read this.
 
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