Last week I was down at Blue Mountain, Ontario, once again doing the build for the Triple Challenge Big air and rail jam. I did my best to film a build video that I'll put together for you guys when I've got the time, sort of like that quarterpipe one I did in the summer. Not sure how it turned out, as when you're somewhere with night skiing, the groomers work in the evening, so it was totally dark out. Something that really burns my ass is when you see park staff in so many places around the world spending more of their time chilling than manicuring their features. I mean really it isn't like its a hard job, and it doesn't take all that much to get your features looking super pimp. I spent 70.5 hours building the jump and rail jam over a course of 5 night shifts. Sunday 10pm-Monday 12pm. Monday 10pm-Tues11am. Tuesday 10pm-Wednesday 12pm. Wednesday 10pm-Thursday 11am. Thursday 10pm - Friday 2:30pm. It was me, two groomers and the head of lift mechanics. Huge shoutout to the boys: Adam "the stickman" Watson, Dan "The winchman" Vigus and Rob "The steelman" Sheridan. Together we made this beauty happen.The final day I refused to give up. I wanted the jump to be absolutely perfect, so I actually ended up shovelling pretty much straight from 5am-2:30pm. This is what a person looks like after that... I think I was about to drop dead right on the spot. My speech was slurring, I was irritable, but I felt amazing that the job was done. This is what its all about. 58' on the left 57' on the right, lots of uber-smooth kick, 37' wide and a landing that could support the 11' stepdown. Adam's smooth stickwork gave it the beautiful tranny, and Dan's amazing winching skills gave it a landing with a perfect 34 degree pitch. This is the part that you print out and take in to your lazy park staff and say "this is what one non-lazy person can do." Adam and Dan helped by cutting the sides out with the cat, but I did all the polishing myself. Adam being the champion cat driver that he is even jumped out to give me a rest and join the shovel session. What a guy!It doesn't take much to make your shit look perfect. The cat cuts it out, but then one person, a little work ethic and some pride can buff the back of a jump to look nice and flat. Some people only do this for events, but why not have your park looking sick every day? When your park looks like shit don't stand for it. If the park staff are obviously trying hard, and are just understaffed thats a different story, but 9 times out of 10 they're just lazy bitches. Don't stand for imperfect features and rounded sides... raise a stink and let upper management know you want a good terrain park! Anyways, thats my rant and my beauty. I was really pumped on how the jump turned out. It always makes me feel really wicked when it finally comes together and the first riders drop in on it. I know that at first it made a few people nervous, what with 11' of stepdown and a bunch of kick, but I think that especially for a big air jump it should be big. Watch out for the article coming, plus you'll get to see shots of the badass D-F-D rail that was created by the Lift boys... fucking gnar!
Go tell your park staff they're lazy.
published
by Doug Bishop
( Mr.Bishop )
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