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What's that? Smaller jumps?

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*simba*
Posts: 9125 - Karma: 512
So I was chatting with a few Blue Mt. employees today about the meeting they had.
Of the many interesting things they said, one topic caught my attention.

Blue Mountain will be reducing the size of their jumps.
They weren't told why, but I'd imagine it's something along the lines of:
"Well we want everyone to be able to use the terrain parks!"

Usually I wouldn't care, but it's kind of a problem since Blue's jumps last year were all like 30 ft. on a good day. (correct me if I'm wrong.)



Discuss.
Nov 7 2010 8:30PM
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~~~~~~~~
Posts: 2345 - Karma: 2,104
at least you have jumps.
Nov 7 2010 9:52PM
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jdilla
Posts: 706 - Karma: 41
That's retarded, what/who is your source?
Nov 7 2010 10:26PM
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*simba*
Posts: 9125 - Karma: 512
These sources will not be given until I confirm the intel.
Nov 7 2010 10:27PM
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jdilla
Posts: 706 - Karma: 41
You should probably have done that before you made the thread...

I don't even understand how they could make the jumps smaller, they're already tiny as it is.
Nov 7 2010 10:32PM
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*simba*
Posts: 9125 - Karma: 512
Well, it is something that Blue would do.
Nov 7 2010 11:39PM
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yeahitsdave
Posts: 1315 - Karma: 10
agreed. if only the could build them properly and design a park were all the features don't land into each other...
Nov 8 2010 11:40AM
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*simba*
Posts: 9125 - Karma: 512
In all honesty, I've liked Blue's park last year.
They had an ok assortment of rails, and the jump line wasn't too bad.
Nov 8 2010 4:34PM
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jdilla
Posts: 706 - Karma: 41
Blue's park is being taken over by someone legit this year. I've got faith...
Nov 8 2010 6:37PM
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*simba*
Posts: 9125 - Karma: 512
Yeah it seems like Andy really knows what he's doing, coming from Mammoth.
Nov 8 2010 10:33PM
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^BEANS^
Posts: 624 - Karma: 248
when he worked at bear he fabricated some sweet rails. im deff gonna have to come up and ride!
Nov 9 2010 4:32PM
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thesheik
Posts: 1488 - Karma: 18
my heart sorta sank when i read the thread title and saw it was blue...but if i remember correctly, the last one in sidewinder was a bit bigger than 30...they were claiming 60 feet on the website, but that was just a baldfaced lie. i wan't up there much, though, i just remember the last one was pretty big, espically for pa.
Nov 9 2010 4:34PM
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Ski_Unit_19
Posts: 8188 - Karma: 38
its not too late to buy passes to spring mt. i hear they are adding new rails this year!
Nov 9 2010 6:51PM
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cmo
Posts: 2325 - Karma: 1,085
haha ive never been but i hear the place is a joke...
Nov 9 2010 7:53PM
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Coalescent
Posts: 4871 - Karma: 2,063
Being a park manager, I'm really not surprised. The deal with a lot of places, especially around here is that you can't build a park for the 5% of riders that throw down and slay. For a park to be successful, you have to build it for the 95% of the other riders.

We cut down some of our rails in height this season. The reasoning is they will get used more. We still have some "taller rails" coming in at about 3.5-4ft, however some were cut down anywhere from 2-3ft. The rails that were cut down were the rails that only 5% were hitting. With our setup at my mountain, we don't have a lot of room to work with. Better than some, worse than others. Having lower rails will allow us to conserve on rail take-offs and aid to jumps.

The way I see it, a LEGIT 30ft jump can be super fun, especially when built correctly. I would much rather hit a 30ft jump with a long poppy lip than a 40-50ft jump with a crappy mellow take-off, granted that's my own opinion.

Basically at the end of the day, I want to see our riders hitting almost every feature, progress through the season and have our park be complete shit by the end of each night. By that I mean I want ruts to form, bombholes, all of those in which can be fixed.

We can't have the huge stuff at our mountain, that's not where our resort seems to want to head or where it will anytime soon. I would love to be able to set up huge tables, but with our current situation thats not the case.

With that being said, I liked Blue's setup last year. Not sure of the style rider that normally rides there, but maybe they see it. I'm sure Andy will do a killer job.

I had a lot of fun when I traveled to blue twice. The jumps weren't huge, but the last one on sidewinder had a long landing which made it more fun.
Nov 9 2010 8:47PM
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midget.
Posts: 839 - Karma: 101
They should have just 1 nice, big jump. and they can down-size everything else for the public.
Nov 10 2010 7:57PM
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jdilla
Posts: 706 - Karma: 41
They tried that already, however it turned out to be a fucking death trap.

Blue is all about quantity over quality. Theoretically they could can that stupid hip that nobody hits and just build a drop in and have enough space for two nice, larger jumps (similar to BB). But instead they insist on building 4. It's just not enough space to build 4 fucking jumps there. Most days you have to always skip one anyway, Even the huge lines at keystone are only 3...breck builds 4 but freeway is about the size of blue. 4 jump line in PA is just fucking ridiculous.

As for building them smaller to gear towards less experienced riders...sidewinder is their advanced park. Just like the mountain offers advanced trails it should be the same concept with parks...another thing blue doesn't get. They have come around and lower terrain for small features. Sidewinder does not need to be sized down at all. It's too small already. By saying they need to size shit down actually contradicts their logic...they put that stairset in front of the park to keep inexperienced people out. Plus they put up crazy circus jibs that are probably more dangerous than a 45-60 jump anyway.

I just hope the new park staff can work on the quality. The problem is the higher management...they want to be able to publish on their website that they have a shitload of rails and jumps....when in reality just having a legitimately built park will bring more people there.

/rant
Nov 11 2010 12:15AM
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skithesprings
Posts: 9086 - Karma: 1,349
wow, all i can say is that i feel really bad for mountains that don't even have enough skiers capable of hitting a big jump to build one. the 65-70 footer at 7 springs went off every day with people hitting it constantly. definitely one of the nicest jumps i have ever hit, and this season shits only going to get bigger!

new rails and snow! hyyyyypppppeeeeee!Click for larger image
Nov 11 2010 3:11AM
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Justo8484
Posts: 3905 - Karma: 205
false, the staircase in front of sidewinder actually ATTRACTED people to it. they didn't have it last season and in general, i felt that the park was less crowded on any given day than the previous year. they've put that hip on the corner in their CAD rendering the past few years, and it didn't actually make the cut last year, they just built a mound there.

that said, i agree, three hits is too many for that short stretch of trail. i'd rather see two nice 30-40 footers there. they used to have some bigger stuff, but that trail is just not suited for it, at all. to get enough speed to hit something 50+, you're coming around blind corners in a full on tuck as soon as the snow starts softening up. i've been told by a lot of people that jumps are not going to be big this year, and really, it doesn't bother me that much, as long as they're built well. blue's got a new park manager who actually knows his shit, so i've got faith in that. they're already way more prepared than they were at this point last year.
Nov 11 2010 9:35AM
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Coalescent
Posts: 4871 - Karma: 2,063
Springs has the room for space like that. Roundtop however doesn't haha. We've had 50-60ft jumps before however when we get that large with what we have, the landings begin to become shorter and shorter. With that being said, just like Justin said, having a smaller well built jump is more important than having a huge one. Springs has their stuff on lock. They have the space they need and the management to back where they want to head with their parks..
Nov 11 2010 10:48AM
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