Are airbags the best way to progress your tricks?
Since I was 14 years old, a staple of my summer has been going to the Utah Olympic Park to practice my airs.
Through the years I’ve seen so many changes to the UOP, and while it has always been one of the top training facilities in the country, they recently acquired a new piece of equipment that really changes the game for freestyle athletes.
left to right we have: the large ski jumps, water ramps, airbag, smaller ski jumps, bobsled and skeleton track
If this is the first you’re hearing of the Utah Olympic Park, let me describe it to you. Built in 2002 for the Salt Lake Olympics, at the very top of a small mountain in Park City, the UOP started as a location for the ski jumpers, bobsled and skeleton athletes to train and compete. Since then, they have added more and more winter sports amenities until it became one of the top summer freestyle ski training facilities in the world. The place is a mix between a teenage skier’s Disneyland and the most intense boot camp you could imagine. Every time we went there as kids, we were filled with a mix of excitement, motivation, and a little bit of PTSD. I’ll explain.
photo by Stephen Shelesky
Just listing every step you have to take for one jump will make you sore. First, for each jump you have to carry your skis on your shoulder up a hundred stairs or so. Once you fling your body off the jump, doing whatever trick you are practicing, remember to brace for the impact on the water. The surface area of your skis makes the smack onto the water jolt through your entire body, even through the bubble system they use to help ease the surface tension. You usually fall completely underwater, waiting for your lifejacket to bring you back up, and after a relieving breath at the surface you have to immediately swim to the side of the pool because people are waiting on you to get out of the way so they can go. But of course you can’t kick your legs because you have skis on your feet, so it’s all on your arms. At the side of pool you heave yourself onto the concrete, click your skis off, and start the long walk up the stairs again, a wet and sloppy mess. Repeat this over and over, until it feels like your legs might fall off.
photo by Stephen Shelesky
One of the best parts about the UOP was that different teams from all around the country and the world came to train there. Just walking on the pool deck, you’re bound to run into Olympians everywhere you look. Besides the US Team of course, you also get to watch the Australian, Japanese and Chinese national aerialist teams train all summer at the facility. I look back and I realize how insanely cool it was for a bunch of goofy teenage mogul skiers to become friends with the Australian Olympic Aerials champion, someone we never would have met if it wasn't for the UOP. It felt like the center of the universe each summer, it felt like THE spot to be for an aspiring freestyle skier.
three people in this photo went on to ski World Cups in moguls, hint: it wasn't me. Photo from my dad.
This summer, the newest upgrade was the addition of the airbag for the freestyle slopestyle athletes: a big rubber bag, sprayed down with water, that has the same pitched landing as on snow (instead of the water landings which are always unforgivingly flat). I was so excited to try the new piece of equipment. The landing being pitched meant not only that it would be less impact than the water had been, but also that it would also be more realistic to what we experience on snow. I came to the UOP this summer ready to get my double backflips down pat.
What I didn’t realize, was that since this was a brand new jump and brand new training tool, that I should have started on it gradually and warmed up to the situation. I came into the airbag hot, thinking I could get right into my double backflips. For my first couple of days there, I kept crashing, whacking my head on the bag in multiple directions.
Being stubborn and wanting to improve, I kept jumping, and kept hitting my head. Over and over again. Not surprisingly, I woke up with a splitting headache, feeling confused and upset. My doctor confirmed I had a concussion.
I’ll skip over the recovery for the concussion to get back to the airbag stories, but I want to quickly mention to any skiers who are reading: concussions are serious. They take a long time to heal, and the symptoms are brutal: you don’t feel like yourself, you lose your words, you can’t keep up in conversations, you’re extremely emotional and you can have a headache for weeks. They are scary injuries that you should take seriously every time you hit your head.
I’m really grateful I was able to take the proper time off to heal after my concussion. It took me about 6 weeks to get back to feeling healthy and it would have taken longer if I wasn’t able to rest as much. To all the skiers reading this: there is nothing more important than your brain, it’s everything that makes you, you. Take care of it when you need to, skiing will always be there to go back to.
a screengrab from Matt Fournaris' footage for this upcoming year's episode
I returned to the airbag two months later after getting cleared by my doctor. To my surprise, I was starting to do better on the airbag. My small improvement gave me new hope. This time, I ended the trip landing three double backflips in a row. I drove home elated. I knew I still had work to do, but after the setback of the concussion, this was a huge victory.
Finally feeling like I had it down, I decided on my next trip I was ready to bring a filmer. This time, I felt like I was on fire. I threw almost ten double backflips in a row and landed all but two. Soon, I’m heading down for one last weekend at the airbag before they close for the season. I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made this summer, but more importantly, I’m proud of myself for sticking with it through all the setbacks. This summer I re-learned a lesson that I’ve learned countless times through my ski career: it doesn’t matter how long it takes, if you keep going you will get there.