I Hit A Jump On Snow Blades And Wiped Out

This past Saturday I went to Pine Knob with a couple friends of mine to go and rage out on the slopes. I don’t know if you can call it raging in Michigan because you spend more time on the chair lift then you do the slopes. It was still a great day of skiing. We had a snow storm which dropped about 5 inches of snow through out the day and into the night which made for some of the best skiing in Michigan I have seen. It was not cold or windy and the snow was powder. Very enjoyable to say the least. It reminded us of when we take our annual “mancation” out west to go skiing and the types of snow we see out there.

When its a powder day I prefer to snowboard. There is very little work needed to be done on 3 inches of snow when your on a board. On ski’s its a little bit different. I grew up skiing and took up snowboarding 4 years ago. I’m ok on the board but my confidence is lower when its icey. If there is ice I am on my skis.

For Christmas this year my girlfriend bought me a pair of snow blades. I had wanted a pair because I saw other people doing wicked sweet tricks on them and having a good time. Plus, normal skiing in Michigan does not get me excited anymore. Sure I could practice more on the board but my next step on the board is the terrain park, but let’s take it one step at a time.
[phpzon]snowblades ski, 2[/phpzon]

After boarding for about 3 hours I ran back to my car and put on my snowblades. It feels like your not even on them when your going down the hill. On to the small terrain park. My buddy Dave brought his video camera to document anything awesome that happens. On my first run I hit a jump then went over a box rail and landed it no problem. Next time I went over I landed the box rail but my ski popped off and I wiped out. It got me thinking that these little skis cannot handle all of my weight coming down on them so hard.

We headed over to the big terrain park and I was feeling ready to hit some of the bigger jumps and get some air. I hit the first kicker and landed it no problem. On my approach to the second jump I checked my speed and hit it. Well, I landed the jump right at the point where it goes from the flat part of the gap to the down slope. No problem if I was on big skis but the snow blades could not handle it. As soon as I hit both snow blades flew off. It was ice that I landed on so of course I slid face first and smacked my chest off of it. It knocked the wind out of me. First time I had ever had both skis come off of me after a jump. If I would have been going about another 1 mph faster I would have landed on the down slope and would have been fine. Next time I need to go faster.

I finished the night of skiing but I was sore as hell yesterday. It must have been a bigger impact then what I thought. My whole upper body felt like it had whip lash. Dave was filming it and when he gets the video uploaded I will update this post so you all can laugh with me.

I found some videos on YouTube showing the same exact thing that happened to me.

This is just cool. I guess I am gonna have to try this.