USANS Story Project 16-DEC-2016 BRAD HASTINGS

BRAD HASTINGS
Ford Sayre Ski Club
Grafton, NH
bhastings@golfskiwarehouse.com

One Jump, Two Landings and a Bandanna
Being a Nordic combined skier most of my competitive years I was not exposed to the big hills until near the end of my career. My first jump on the Lake Placid Large Hill (used to be the 90M back in my day but does not sounds as good, I guess) turned out to be one of the most memorable for me.

My good friend Bob Sachs and I had taken a year off between high school and college and were living the life training and working in the Lake Placid area. When the day finally came to take my first jump it was so cold that the elevator was not working and we had to hike to the top. I (or was it Bob?) had the great idea to put a bandanna over my face to protect from the wind chill (back in those days we were hitting the takeoff near 60mph!).  Most people reading this know the feeling of your first jump on a bigger hill, excitement, nerves and fear come to mind.

With my bandanna tucked under my goggles I took a deep breath and kicked (or pulled?) out of the start, probably barely enough to tip over the edge. When I exhaled my breath went up under my goggles and completely fogged over! Heading down the in-run I was almost completely blind but because of the spruce bows and markings had an idea when to jump which in this case was more like just standing up. I managed to keep my feet under me enough to hit the knoll and then bounced in the air again. If there had been markers at the time they would have argued over two different landing spots, although nobody would have been marking near my first landing. Because I spent so much time in contact with the snow I was carrying a ton of speed through the transition but still managed to stand though pretty it was not.

I’m sure whoever witnessed this ugly ride (Bob was certainly one of them though from the top or bottom I cannot recall) was wondering who the hell had let this guy to the top and thought I should head home. But as many of you also know this feeling, I ran back to the top excited to go again with much less nerves and fear and no more bandanna!

It is well documented in this Story Project how lucky we all were to be able to live this life growing up. The support from our families, coaches and many volunteers along the way deserve a huge thanks for giving so much; a thanks I probably was not very good at giving at the time so please take it now. Too many to name but you know who you are!

PARTNERS IN CRIME.  Brad Hastings (bib 65) and Bob Sachs (bib 64) in the early days.  Always tough on equipment.

Lake Placid Olympic jumps- site of the great goggle fogging.