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At the mercy of Mother Nature Posted: Friday December 28, 2001 4:05 PM
Canadian Veronica Brenner, 27, is considered a veteran in the sport of freestyle skiing. The aerialist was a member of the 1998 Canadian Olympic team and won the 1997 World Cup title. Brenner, a native of Scarborough, Ontario, missed the past World Cup season after tearing her ACL but is back on track to make the 2002 Olympic team. Check out Brenner's diary on CNNSI.com as she prepares for Salt Lake City. December 28, 2001 Wind. It's an aerialist's biggest threat. Competing in an outdoor sport, we're at the mercy of Mother Nature. With the mountains as our arena, competing and training in the wind is the norm, not the exception. As I write this, I can hear the wind roar outside, rattling windows and kicking up snow obscuring my view of the jump site, only steps away. Athletes who participate in sports like windsurfing and sailing pray for wind. Aerialists dread it. Wind interferes with an aerialist's speed going into the jump, and having the correct speed is crucial in aerials. Too little speed and one must "pull" hard (get small) to speed up the rotation and finish a trick early enough to avoid the painful stomach landing. Too much speed and one must "stretch" (get long) to slow down rotation, preventing a "slap back" (landing on one's back). For an aerialist being judged on form (a jumper's body line in the air --straight and tight is best) and landing, speed makes all the difference. One windy day, I went into a jump too fast -- when I slapped back, my helmet hit the snow, pushed my glasses down and broke my nose. My coach really liked the resulting black eyes. He said they made me look tough. Trying to adjust to the wind has become a real science. These days we have the benefit of a speed trap to accurately measure speeds (as opposed to the guess technique used 10 years ago). If the trap fails, we use radar guns (like the ones used to measure the speed of a pitch in baseball). Each of us knows the speed necessary to get just the right balance for our own perfect jump. This is why you may see athletes speed checking (the athlete skis down the inrun, but stops before going off the jump) during training. Before last season, an aerialist could wait as long as he or she wanted to perform a competition jump. In windy conditions, the aerialist (with the advice of coaches, would wait until the wind was reasonable before jumping. If the jumper was unsure about speed (due to wind and/or other changes in the inrun conditions), he/she had the option of "balking". Balking in freestyle skiing is similar to baseball -- the athlete skis down the inrun, but stops before going off the jump, just like a speed check. Based on the speed recorded by the speed trap, the athlete and coach can decide how fast to go when he/she attempt the jump over again. The problem with balking without penalty was the time it took to run competitions. Recently balking had become a strategy, not just an emergency procedure. Sometimes fifteen minutes or more would pass between competitors, just to have that next athlete balk. For better or worse, FIS (the International Ski Federation) has remedied this problem. In the 2000/01 season, a 15-second rule was implemented. Now athletes must abide by a countdown clock, started when the FIS "button-pusher" (that's the best job title I can come up with) believes the wind (measured by a wind gauge) is safe for jumping. On a gusty competition day, I can't think of a less enviable job to have. If an athlete does not jump within those 15 seconds, he/she is awarded an automatic balk. Now, balking is penalized by a 1.5-point deduction from a jump's raw score. Since the raw score is multiplied by a degree of difficulty (based on the number of flips and twists performed), an athlete could lose five or more points off a good jump. There goes the competition, folks! There are a few different kinds of wind: a side wind, a head wind, a tail wind and the infamous swirling wind. All winds are challenging, but a side wind is the most desirable. Speed is not affected a great deal, but the wind makes it difficult for the athlete to judge how fast he/she is going into the jump. After doing enough jumps, an athlete gets used to how the correct speed should feel skiing into the jump, and can be more prepared for what will happen in the air (i.e. immediately throw your arms up after take-off to slow down rotation if you know you're fast). I often feel as though I can "hear" the right speed-the wind rushing by my ears from a different angle (as it does with a side wind). A head wind (a wind coming towards the athlete as they ski into the jump) is worse, and can slow a jumper down a great deal if it is strong enough. One of my teammates made the mistake of turning in to jump just as a huge head wind came up. He barely made it off the jump and landed on the flats (or knoll) behind the jump, not even making the chopped landing hill. Fortunately he was unhurt, but he broke both his boots and skis in the process. A tailwind (a wind coming from behind the athlete as they ski into the jump) can be equally, if not more unpleasant than a headwind. A tailwind not only pushes the athlete down the hill so they speed up, but it can also carry them further down the landing hill. If you remember grade ten physics class and picture yourself jumping off a cliff that descends at a 45-degree angle, you'll realize that the further out one jumps, the bigger the drop. Same idea goes for jumping. The further you land down the hill, the more time you spend in the air. If you're flipping at a normal speed and land five feet further down the hill, that time has to be filled somehow. Usually the extra time is filled by rotating an extra quarter flip or so -- right onto your back. And now we've come to my personal favorite -- the swirling wind. This is a wind that has a mind of its own. I've stood at the top of jump sites, watching as the wind sock beside the jumps show a strong tail wind blowing, then turned my head to the wind sock beside me, only to see that flag pointing right up the inrun as a headwind. We can compensate for a headwind by starting higher, and a tailwind by starting lower, but a swirling wind is unpredictable and extremely difficult to gauge. Experience is a big help. Confidence in your ability to adjust to any conditions is key. A good coach who pays attention is essential. Still, aerials is an outdoor sport and no one can control the weather. So sometimes, despite my best efforts, the wind will get me. And just like a sneaky enemy, I never know when. -- Veronica
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