Volume 10,Issue 9
2.27.2015 A PUBLICATION BY HOLDERNESS STUDENTS FOR THE HOLDERNESS COMMUNITY
Holderness Ski Jumping: It’s Not What You Think By Parker Densmore ‘15 When I first visited Holderness in eighth grade, the first thing I saw was a hallway filled with jumping skis. At the time, I knew nothing about boarding school. I knew nothing of Holderness or the athletic facilities and had no clue what the classes were like; I had yet to even speak with a Holderness person, but for some reason I already knew there was a ski jumping program. While ski jumping was not the deciding factor, the presence of the jumping skis that day played a major role in my decision to attend Holderness.
I spent the first four years on jumps of this size. There were a couple other kids who came and went over the years, but there was never any real competition at the local hill. There were quite a few kids present at the ski jumping
“If you were to fall while ski jumping, the most likely injury would be a rash from sliding down the landing hill.”
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In fifth grade I went off the K30. This was huge for me; rather than being built into the side of a hill, this jump towered above the slope on a rickety, wooden trestle. While standing a mere fraction of the height of most professional jumps, it much more resembled an Olympic ski jump than a K10 or K20. Throughout high school, I have competed on jumps averaging in size between K30 and K50. My competitions have ranged from massive events of sixty high school athletes competing for the state title to a group of four people, each of which were competing in a different age category. While the larger meets are exciting, they attract much smaller fields than your average alpine race, and barely a molecule of the population compared to the high school soccer or football scenes.
I started ski jumping in first grade. My dad had been a junior national champion in the sport, and his influence, combined with the presence of a jumping program in my hometown of Hanover, gave me the opportunity to try the sport. Like everyone, I started small. My first time in jumping equipment was at Oak Hill, a nordic complex north of town. By the end of my first day, I was going off the K10 jump*, and by the end of the first week I was going off the K20.
Jesse Ross ‘13 Begins His Journey on the Appalachian Trail
meets, yet I had no consistent teammates to push me to the next level. I was also an avid alpine racer and sacrificed many hours to downhill training and traveling to distant races.
Continued on page 6
ANWR: Conservation vs. Development
This I Believe Pages 4 and 5
Page 3
The Center and the Edge: Two Student Reviews Pages 8 and 9