A Reflection on Why We do This

By Jed Hinkley

Last week I took a trip to the Northeast. As with many of my trips, this one was a bit of a whirlwind with seven stops in seven days across New Hampshire and Maine. The purpose of each stop was as varied as the weather that followed me from place to place.  The first two days were spent preparing a hill for a high school jumping meet held at Gunstock in Gilford, NH. I want to give a big thank you to Lisa Kling and Kathleen Doyle who formed our work crew trio, and also to Chris Jones for letting us use Andover’s track setter. Nearly 50 high school jumpers showed up from all over the state to compete under the lights. As I marked, I had a pleasant conversation with two boys who were just joining the Gunstock Club to start jumping and an old friend and former teammate of mine who I had not seen since Junior Olympics in 1998. A good night by all standards.

That next day I traveled up to Berlin, NH to meet with the group that is moving things forward at Nansen. Ideas and questions flew back and forth across the table and underpinning it all was a palpable energy and yearning for Big Nansen to regain the status that it once had. Things are moving forward with Big Nansen and a fundraising campaign is underway to raise the funds necessary for an annual competition similar to Salisbury or Brattleboro. With plans underway, I left the Dairy Bar and jumped in my Nissan Versa rental and headed East. I crossed the border into Maine and shortly thereafter was greeted by a familiar face that I had not seen in many years: Mouse!  

Mouse and I talked late into the night about Rumford, Nansen, Ski Jumping, and, more importantly, life. At the end of the evening I came to the realization that our conversation was more than a conversation about Ski Jumping and what we should do to grow the sport (though we did solve ALL the sport’s problems). It was really about something that goes beyond sport and delves into what makes us who we are. We are Ski Jumpers, both of us, which means so much more than flying through the air on skis. The following morning Mouse and I met with the President of the Board at Black Mountain, which went well, and then we headed to Titcomb Mountain in Farmington to discuss starting up/reviving a junior jumping program that has been absent since 1981, the year I was born.  The meeting was very promising, and I left feeling good about the prospects of jumping in northern New England.  

The rain pelted down as I made my way South to inspect the hills that were supposed to host competitions the next two days. My optimism also turned South as I gazed upon grass showing through on the landing hill. Competitions were cancelled and postponed, but because of that I was able to sneak in a few more meetings. I met with Ben Wilson from the state of New Hampshire, Ryan Mckeon who showed me the new steel track on Lebanon’s 25 and 50 meter hills, and Mike Holland just to chat about junior jumping. I helped cut one more track with Tom Dodds and Heidi Nichols at Ford Sayre, and then finished the trip over dinner with Tim Norris where we reminisced about experiences from my youth and so many other things.

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Right now you might be asking, what the heck is Jed rambling on about and is there a point to this? When I first sat down to write, I was having a hard time figuring that out, but then it came to me.

This trip made me realize why I do the job I do, and I wanted to remind folks to take the time to reflect every once in a while.  So I have two main points. 

1. Despite the unbelievable amount of work that everyone has to do, usually for no pay, and little recognition, Ski Jumping is awesome...but it is only awesome if we make it awesome. I was lucky enough to have people like Mouse, Tim Norris, Alexei Sotskov, Larry Stone, Chris Hastings and so many more to make it awesome for me. And I was lucky enough to have great hills like Andover, Storrs Hill, Oak Hill, and Gunstock to jump. Were they the best hills in the world and did they meet FIS standards? No. Were they safe and did the community come together to work their butts off to get them in shape? Yes. Sometimes I  think we get so caught up in how things are supposed to be that we forget why we do this. It is to have fun, and I think that safety and skill building, not perfection, should be the standard that guides us at the junior level. 

2. My entire time as a youth jumper I felt welcomed, and I knew that my coaches were doing everything they could to help kids and the sport.  Were there disagreements about how things should be done? Of course, but I hope that the disagreements that happened then and still happen today always have what is best for the kids at heart. What I saw on this trip was a lot of people trying to give kids and the community a great experience.  But in my job, I also see a lot of politics and you know who suffers? Kids, and ultimately our sport.

So I will finish with this.  So many positive things are happening, and this trip reaffirmed this and brought me back to what I love about our sport. But let’s not make it harder on ourselves than it has to be. We are all in this together. Remember that and stop and think about why we all do this every once in a while.

-Jed