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Why the difference between 'typical' terrain park jumps and BMX style jumps?
First off, I understand doing a switch double 1080 on short lippy takeoff/landing combo isn't realistic. All tricks aside however, don't you guys think it would be fun to hit BMX style features on skis? I've been seeing more and more privately built backyard/ local-woods jumps of this style and they look like a blast. How come no resorts do this?
Or maybe some resorts are doing it. If so, which ones?
_Joe_I get it's difficult, but BMX riders can do it, why can't we?
I'm gonna guess BMX bikes are heavy, and their downward arc is more sudden and vertical than skiers. Also for them they need a slope like that because coming down on flat with no suspension sucks. It's totally possible for skiers, just way harder and unnecessary.
1) Maintenance would be a bitch. There's zero way to get a cat in there, so all of the work needs to be done by hand. "But that's what shovels and park crew are for"...yeah, it would take an army to maintain that properly. BMX bikes do minimal wear and dirt holds up better than snow, if that was built out of snow it would rut out constantly.
2) Talking management into a "death track" would be an interesting meeting. No ski area would want something that is so inconsistent.
3) BMX bikes have brakes, skis don't really have brakes (hence the carnage in that video...and those are high level skiers, imagine a gaper going off that jump...insta-death).
When you watch the video they destroy themselves for the first 4 days of making it, hence the name "death track" also liability reasons and like others said the maintenance of the jumps and landings
[tk]I'm gonna guess BMX bikes are heavy, and their downward arc is more sudden and vertical than skiers. Also for them they need a slope like that because coming down on flat with no suspension sucks. It's totally possible for skiers, just way harder and unnecessary.
oi, i know physics, but realisticly, take a lead marble and a glass marble and shoot them at an equal velocity at the same angle, which one will hit the ground first? i mean in real life, not a fkn vaccum chamber.
Meapoi, i know physics, but realisticly, take a lead marble and a glass marble and shoot them at an equal velocity at the same angle, which one will hit the ground first? i mean in real life, not a fkn vaccum chamber.
scratch that, i went retard, the glass one because of wind resistance, but you get my point i hope?
BMX-style jumps are really cool, but there are a number of reasons - most already mentioned - why they don't work well in snow terrain parks.
- Maintenance: That steep of a transition is impossible to maintain without using a winch snowcat, and very difficult to maintain even with a winch cat and experienced operator. Maintenance by hand is possible if you're sessioning it for a couple of days with your buddies, but for daily park maintenance, forget it.
- Safety: Jumps with steep lips have a much greater chance of tossing riders into the backseat and onto their backs. Bikers in general seem to enjoy much steeper lips than skiers; BMX jumps are often 50+ degrees of angle on the takeoff, whereas you will never see a ski big air jump over 40 degrees (the steepest usually come in at around 35 degrees). Additionally, any kind of jump involving a gap—where you can crash into a vertical wall or uphill slope if you come up short—are basically verboten in ski area parks open to the public. Too much liability risk.
- Speed: Most (good) bike jumps are built so that you can clear it perfectly without pedaling when you drop in from a certain point. In a series of jumps (like that awesome photo of the Queenstone dirt park that OP posted), you can drop in from a certain point and be certain that you will clear every jump, because it's built that way. Snow unfortunately is much more unpredictable. It can be super fast one day and super slow the next. Add in that rider speed is much more variable: some people carve, some people straightline. Some have wax, some don't. All adding in to a much greater variability in how big people will go off a snow jump; hence the reason that normal terrain park jumps (should) have bigger landings.
This all goes to say that there's no reason why skiers shouldn't build awesome BMX-style jumps on their own or for private photo/video shoots. But in a terrain park open to the public, it's too dangerous and too impractical.
I was thinking about this a few months ago when I helped build the big air jump at Freestyle.ch. I was watching the FMX guys hit their jump, which had a much bigger gap than the ski jump but a much smaller landing. How the hell does that work? I was wondering. The answer is speed: the FMX dudes know EXACTLY how fast they need to go to make the jump work, and all of them travel at exactly that speed heading off the jump. BMX is similar: drop from this point, go straight, and you will clear it. Skiers are different: everyone likes to drop from a different point, go bigger, go smaller, maybe carve off the lip. BMX jumps don't really offer that kind of flexibility.
BWalmerBMX bikes have brakes, skis don't really have brakes (hence the carnage in that video...and those are high level skiers, imagine a gaper going off that jump...insta-death).
ESBSpeed: Most (good) bike jumps are built so that you can clear it perfectly without pedaling when you drop in from a certain point. In a series of jumps (like that awesome photo of the Queenstone dirt park that OP posted), you can drop in from a certain point and be certain that you will clear every jump, because it's built that way. Snow unfortunately is much more unpredictable. It can be super fast one day and super slow the next. Add in that rider speed is much more variable: some people carve, some people straightline. Some have wax, some don't. All adding in to a much greater variability in how big people will go off a snow jump; hence the reason that normal terrain park jumps (should) have bigger landings.
Speed control, and there's hella technique with 'bars & cranks to land sweet that ain't the same on skis.
_Joe_First off, I understand doing a switch double 1080 on short lippy takeoff/landing combo isn't realistic. All tricks aside however, don't you guys think it would be fun to hit BMX style features on skis? I've been seeing more and more privately built backyard/ local-woods jumps of this style and they look like a blast. How come no resorts do this?
Or maybe some resorts are doing it. If so, which ones?