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The only thing that could have been better to make conditions perfect would have been no wind.
[Click the detail picture at the right to see the entire scene, along with a link to more photos of the Gilford jumps and the rest of the Belnap ski area.]
The Class A winner was Laurent Bernier of the Valcartier Ski Club of Quebec City [1]. Laurent displayed beautiful form and a lot of power as he edged out Ken Fysh [2] of Berlin’s Nansen Ski Club and Bob La Rue of the Telemark Ski Club of New York.
The big surprise of the day, however, came from the Class B entrants, led by youthful Eugene Lavasseur [3] of Worcester, Mass., with scoring leaps of 116 and 118 feet to top all the Class A entrants. The Bay State jumper was closely followed by Tink Austin [4] of Brattleboro, Vt., Norm Carlsen of Portsmouth, N. H., Roy Sherwood [5], a 17-year-old jumper from Salisbury, Conn., in that order, and all with [at least] 200 points. The judges for the event, John Carlton of Manchester, N. H., Fred Hansen of Lebanon, N. H., and Francis Bement [6] of Brattleboro, Vt., had a tough time judging the meet, and form played an important part in the final results. This was illustrated when Norm Carlson, with only 94 feet on his first of three jumps, showed fine form on all three leaps and gained distance each time, to win over Roy Sherwood by one-tenth of a point. The crowd was treated to some excellent jumping, and some beautiful somersaults as the jumpers wound up in the huge straw pile at the bottom of the outrun. Many of the jumpers had to be dug out by the boys stationed there to keep the straw piled up. There were 13 Class A entrants and Class B. -- FRANK DIXON
[1] Ski jumping ended in Quebec City before the new millenium, but in it's hayday, the P-50 meter jump at Mt. Ste. Anne east of Quebec City hosted some great competitions including 1972 and 1973 events with large fields of world class jumpers, led by Olympic gold medalist Yukio Kasaya and Ski Flying star Walter Steiner. Later, Quebec built a P-70 meter jump which, with its wonderful cross country venue, played host to the World Junior Championships where Horst Bulau of Ottawa took the gold medal in ski jumping.
[2] In the 1960s, Ken Fysh was the voice of ski jumping in Berlin NH. Fysh, along with Leon Costello, Alf Halvorson and others, conducted many successful competitions, but the big Berlin hill was frequently plagued by high winds. The huge ski jump tower still stands outside of town, rusting away. [ See 1999 pictures.]
[3] Gene Levasseur went on to be selected for a training squad to prepare for the 1954 World Championships but in the end, he didn't make the team. Gene comes to many competitions in Lake Placid and Brattleboro. If you haven't met him, seek him out and have a chat.
[4] During the 1960s and '70s, Tink Austin owned and operated Linden Gardens, the leading florist in in Brattleboro. There he employed Alan Sargent who directed the Brattleboro Outing Club jumping program and the Harris Hill competition for almost 20 years during the hayday of ski jumping in Brattleboro. Around 1970 you might have found over 100 kids on a winter Friday evening learning the sport on the two small ski jumps in Memorial Part in Brattleboro. Tink's son David Austin, also a jumper, married, then divorced, Kate Austin (now McGinn) who, with friend Pat Howell, stepped in and saved Harris Hill when things were looking bad. [5] Roy Sherwood went on to be National Champion (1954 in Ishpeming) and ski in the 1956 Olympics in Cortina. Roy has been a lifelong supporter of the Salsbury Winter Sports Assn. and later on became a jumping judge. [6] Franny Bement ultimately became an FIS judge.
The First Summer Ski Jumping in New England Fans, Skiers Happy with January in July Sport Bernier, Levasseur Lead Skiers In Unique Crushed Ice Jumping By SAM CLEVENSON A tank-oil pumper and a landscape artist found the ice-contoured slope of the Belknap Area 40 meter jumping hill to their liking yesterday afernoon and emerged champions in the first annual summer ski meet staged by the Winnipesaukee Ski Club. Laurent Bernier, whose stellar ice and aerial work had earned for him the i947 Eastern Amateur (winter) title took back to Quebec, Canada, the Class A trophy and Eugene Levasseur, 20 year old groundskeeper in Worcester, Mass., was the Class B victor. They earned the plaudits of a shirt-sleeved crowd, estimated variously between four and six thousand. With shorts and other summer-season attire the clothes motif, many of the specators sought vantage points beneath protective tree covering. The majority however braved the rays of the July sun for close-ups around the horseshow shaped out-run -- and the huge pile of straw into which the skiers plunged after completing the landing and transitional phases of the jump.
On the form charts turned in by Francis Bement of Brattleboro, John Carleton of Manchester, and Fred Hansen of Lebanon, judges scores of 50 or better were credited Bernhard Blidstead, former Oslo, Norway, skier now waiting out in Middletown, NY, his isolation period toward remaining in this nation, Wilbur bull of Dartmough, who will teach math in Manchester VT next fall, and Norman Carlsen of Portsmouth, B third place winner.
Not one of the jumpers was heard saying anything about "give me the old winter time." All wore their heavy boots and skis with usual ski pants, but had on light shirts or sweaters, and only one or two had hats. A half dozen missed the take-off and had falls, and another group were caught by the sometimes gusty wind, but they managed to fight their way back for skidding landings on the snow surface. The Summary:
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