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New Heights, Online the electronic newsletter of Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined Fall 2009 
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The Editor’s Stool… It has been a very good summer for eastern jumpers. Nick Alexander brought the US National title back to the east over Columbus Day Weekend. It's only the third time since 1997 that the eastern division has had someone at the top of the podium. It marks the first time someone from New Hampshire has been the national champion. Way to go Nick.My second biggest summer of ski jumping has been one of the nicest. Many new faces have popped up onto the scenes around Storrs Hill. We have found ourselves growing by leaps and bounds. Tara's mom talked to one of the guys who skis at Northeast Slopes in East Corinth, VT and he came out and gave ski jumping a try in the early part of the spring. By the end of summer he had his friends coming out every week. We would have 6-7 seniors/masters(28-32 years old) jumping during each jump session. Many of the jumpers were coming from the terrain parks. They picked up the sport like they have been doing it their whole life. Unfortunately, most will only be seen summer jumping as they spend their winters out west and their summers in Vermont. There is talk of trying to reopen the Alta, Utah ski jump since a few of the guys live out near there during the winter. Fortunately, though, a couple of the newbies will be sticking around the area to jump this winter. As the big explosion in adult jumpers started, a former Olympian showed up at Lebanon with his skis and started jumping after a 23 year hiatus. It has been incredible watching Walter Malmquist come back out and show that even the old timers can pick up the sport once again. He became more of a regular than anyone else the rest of the summer. It's looking to be a busy winter coming up with Lake Placid, NY holding both World Junior Tryouts and North Americans in early January and Brattleboro, VT hosting the SuperTour Finals in February. The Olympics are just around the corner with opening ceremonies on February 12, 2010. It looks like the east will have at least two participants, and maybe more making the trip to Vancouver. Nick Alexander looks like he should be representing the United States in special jumping, possibly being joined by Chris Lamb and/or Nick Fairall. Bill Demong will be competing in Nordic Combined, possibly being joined by Willie Graves and/or Carl VanLoan. Good luck guys and lets see if we can't end the medal drought. In this issue of New Heights: In October it was announced the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance's 2009 list of seven state landmarks worth preserving included the Gunstock K87. In the chairman's report Dan Warner talks about what he found on his recent trip to Gunstock to inspect the jumps. Peter Claus gives us a report from the Eastern Officials. Tim Norris gives us a look into the growth at the Andover Outing Club and talks about the new astroturf they installed last fall on the jump. In a follow up to Tim's report Zach Daniels gives us a look at using summer training to help improve your jumping. I sent out a questionaire to several of the potential Olympians for the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. I got responses back from two of them. Nick Alexander and Bill Demong. There a new improvement to www.skijumpeast.com which will make planning for training and competing easier than ever before. If you're interested in learning how to ski jump there is contact information for each of the active jumping venues in the Eastern Division. Have a safe and enjoyable winter and remember...keep the ski tips up.
Just back in from a trip to Gunstock to inspect the K87 jump. I found the hill in very good shape despite not being used for many years. Carol Anderson, for those of you who have not heard, has a plan to revive the complex. I met with Carol and GNA stalwarts Lisa and Paul Kling at the site. I did a tour and talked with them about the next steps in the project. A profile will be shot and sent to USSA for a new design. The K50 looked to be usable if the tower was rebuilt so that hill is not that far away from being ready. The smaller hill's were in good shape as well. It is the hope of the group to have some kind of a plan in hand by the first of the year, so fundraising can start with possibly using it next winter. Starting a Jr. program will be in this overall plan as well. Great work by the folks in Gunstock!! 
To read more about summer ski jumping at Gunstock goto http://www.skijumpeast.com/gna-1949.htmPhoto Courtesy: www.weirsbeach.com
Nationals went very well in Lake Placid. The Super Tour event had to be cut short because of dangerous wind. The East is hosting World Jr. Team tryouts over the New Year and right after that the North Americans. Good to have all or these events on home turf. Congrats to Lake Placid for stepping up and hosting these events. And let's not forget Continental Cup Nordic Combined in mid December in Lake Placid thanks to Joe Lamb! Also another Joe, Joe Holland has been named the Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined Sport Chairman at the USSA spring meetings. Congrats to Joe! And how about the Eastern Jumpers. Great Job at Nationals Guy's and Gals. Lets carry the momentum into the winter events. Sorry about not having an Eastern meeting this fall. It just did not work into the time frames. Have a good winter! See you on the hill. Dan "Mouse" Warner, Chairman
The OFFICIALs Line As we wind up For anyone interested in the process of becoming an official, ask one of us or look in your comp guide!!!!!!!! Peter Claus, Chairman Eastern Nordic Officials Association
Andover Outing Club had a great season Our veterans also had a great year. Toward the end of the season, the technical progress of kids like AJ King, Warren Bartlett, Kyle Horner, Davey and Emily Rauseo were on display. Several of them have been off Lebanon's K50. The king of the small hill circuit last year was Matt Doyle who looked very good on a K50 and made a camp at Lake Placid this summer and was a regular summer participant in Lebanon. Warren and Matt have been XC sking for awhile and AJ and Kyle are both psyched to be Combiners. The Proctor XC coach and team have agreed to coach these kids on Thursday afternoons which is a huge new thing for us. AOC is very proud of our Junior Olympians, Zach and Luke Daniels, who both had excellent seasons and have both jumped substantially this summer and made what looks to me like great progress. The whole Daniels family contributes substantially to AOC and to Eastern jumping in general. All clubs work together, and a wonderful example is the generous help that LOC'er Nick Burke is giving us with our effort (finally) to become a 501(c)3 non profit. We're all tickled by the amazing progress of Lebanon's Nick Alexander, but close behind him at the summer nationals were AOCers Chris Lamb and Nick Fairall. Three Easterners in the top five was pretty cool. Nick Fairall and Chris Lamb both started the same year at age six and I believe both are now twenty. They were one/two on our K38 at the Eastern Festival at age nine and have continued to compete over the years. As most readers of this newsletter know, Nick finished 23rd on the Kulm Ski Flying Hill for the best finish by an American jumper in five years. Nick finished 3rd in the National Championships in 2007 and 4th in 2009. Chris and Nick were living in Bad Mitterndorf, Kulm's city, and were vocally supported by the local fans. Chris Lamb has improved a lot this summer, he feels that his recent summer training in Norway has been especially productive. He was on the US World Junior Team in 2008. We all wish these guys well in the run up to Vancouver. I've been asked to write a few words about astroturf on in-runs. We noticed years ago that a rug, particularly one with some sort of underlayment (like tyvec) under it, works really well as layer of insulation. The snow stays put. The trouble is that the rugs rot and look pretty horrible after a few years - black and mossy. I found used astroturf on the web. www.ondecksports.com from Georgia sells it for a dollar a square foot. Astroturf doesn't rot and it doesn't seem to be bothered by crampons too much. The stuff we got had hardly any rubber left, but it still worked fine. It's a little heavy to move as a roll, but once you're at the top of the trestle with the right width, you just let it unroll itself and tack it down with strapping. Martin Jones and I did it pretty easily. We plan to put it on the K38 next year. Tim Norris, Head Coach, Andover Outing Club   Tim Norris Terri Daniels
Summer Training Highlights 
When I arrived at school in the beginning of September and after being asked what I did all summer, I had time to reflect on the high points of my summer. I simply replied, “My summer consisted of many trips to Lake Placid, a 17 hour road trip to a competition in Chicago and 2 weeks of training with the US Ski Team.” Although in the early part of summer I had drivers ed, I managed to attend every camp in Lake Placid and further my jump and cross training. Aside from jumping we worked on weight lifting, agility and coordination. It surprised me how much the exercises we do in the gym affect my performance on the jump and in races. After I accumulated a total of 5 weeks of training in Lake Placid, it was time for the annual Norge Super Tour in Chicago. Feeling that my jumping skills would show on a slightly smaller jump, I was ready to compete. After training on a K90 all summer, jumping on a K72 in Chicago was an advantage. Because technique is key in ski jumping, I was able to jump smoother on a slower and smaller jump. It was the Saturday night of the competition and we arrived at the jumps to find a large crowd of spectators. There is nothing like seeing a crowd of spectators lined up to watch you. There ended up being close to 5,000 ticket sales that day. Sitting on the bar, I wasn’t nervous, but rather amazed at the size and noise of the crowd. I took my trial jump and it was 69.5 meters. Although this jump did not count, it pumped me up for my next jump. My first competition jump was the exact same distance. I was relatively sitting in fourth or fifth place with one jump left. It was about dark by the time of my last jump and I was ready to stand on that podium. The wind had turned for the worst, so my jump was a meter and a half shorter but the other jumpers had similar wind conditions. I went to sleep that night not knowing what I placed. The next morning, before the second part of the competition, in front of the same size crowd, medals were presented. When they called my name for third place I was thrilled that I was recognized for my performance and especially in front of all these clapping people. Although the competition in Chicago was over, my summer training was not even close to ending. Upon returning to Lake Placid after a grueling road trip, school was in session and this meant that I would be training every day. After a few weeks of jumping and roller skiing, the weekend of Nordic Combined Nationals had arrived. I competed against Olympians, World Champions and US Ski Team athletes. Although Nationals were fun, I actually enjoyed the training weeks around the time of Nationals. During this two week period in mid October I had the opportunity to train with the US Ski Team. We trained, for the most part, two sessions a day, mainly roller skiing. It was awesome to train with a group of 15 or so top notch athletes and get to know them and the coaches. We worked on cross country technique and speed. By the end of this US Ski Team camp I was exhausted, but so thrilled that I had the opportunity to do so. This got me thinking of what may be in my future and how if I continue my training I will so reach that level. Overall my summer training was very productive and I got to experience things that will stay with me for a while. Zach Daniels, Andover Outing Club Nordic Combiner
Name: Nick Alexander Q: What year did you start jumping and how old were you at the time?
Q: What were some of your better results as a junior jumper?
Q: What are your jumping goals for the next couple of years? Anything unique?
Q: What would you like to see happen in eastern ski jumping?
Q: Tell us a story from this past season.
Q: Is there one tidbit/gem of advice you would give to any of the younger jumpers that are up and coming?
Editor: Thanks Nick and good luck this coming winter.
Name: Bill Demong Q: What year did you start jumping and how old were you at the time?
Q: What were some of your better results as a junior jumper?
Q: What are your jumping goals for the next couple of years? Anything unique?
Q: What would you like to see happen in eastern ski jumping?
Q: Tell us a story from this past season.
Q: Is there one tidbit/gem of advice you would give to any of the younger jumpers that are up and coming?
Editor: Thanks Bill and good luck this coming winter.
New Feature on SKIJUMPEAST.COM
I will continue emailing out meet announcement information. Other than updating any changes to what is on the website I will only be posting the direct link for where you can go to find the information/registration page without having to go through the calendar. The schedule is not yet complete, but we will continue to update it. Check back from time to time. Ryan 'Crash' Crawford, Editor of New Heights
Interested In Learning To Ski Jump Winter is upon us and that means ski jumps across the northeast are just waiting to be jumped. Below is a list of the jump sites across the northeast that offer ski jumping. You can click on the name of the town and it will bring up a Google map of where that particular ski jump is located. If you are interested in learning to ski jump and live in, or are planning on being in the area, contact the person in charge for more details. Anyone of any age can learn to ski jump.
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