A) you guys are exaggerating worse than ESPN
B) you can't see or measure correctly
Okay, let's clear this up. The line above the number is the height, not the below the number. So, in the referenced picture, there are numerous factors that you guys decided to get all worked up about that weren't true. Let's look at them
1) The guy is standing slightly above the 2 foot mark, probably around 2'3".
2) He is wearing ski boots which add approximately 3 inches to his height.
3) Because of his hat thickness and the little pom pom on the top he is measuring his hand approximately 3-4 inches above where his actual head is.
4) His hand is still about an inch below the 9 foot mark.
Doing a little math, that is 7 feet on the marker minus 2 inchs above the 2 foot mark, 3 inches for ski boots, 4 inches for hand height above head, and 1 inch below the 9 foot mark; hence the guy is really only 6'1" or 6'2". The camera people are measured correctly, it is initial offset error.
Next let's look at the spacing between the foot marks. HELLO, the lines are a couple of inches thick! The true measurement is the center of each line to the center of the next, not edge to edge.
Next, let's deal with the orientation of the measuring tower. If someone is jumping in the pipe ABOVE (like, top to bottom of the pipe) the tower, then the height of the skier appears slightly higher than actual. If the skier is below the tower in the pipe, the skier's height appears LESS than actual, since the tower is straight up and down and not at the exact angle of the pitch of the slope the pipe is on.
In the first picture with Hatveit, he is ACTUALLY at about 13-14 feet. Because, he is right in line with the tower even though the picture is a littler skewed and it is hard to tell, he is looks to be around 15-16 feet. And since we know the offset error is about 2 feet, we subtract that from the appearance height.
IN Conclusion, people like Dumont and a couple of the other big hits still got about 20 feet out , so simmer down and look at the facts rather than making stupid assumptions.
Yes, the offset error is about 2 feet, other than that, get over it.