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Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
This is something different. Way different. I got invited to check out a ski jump camp at the Utah Olympic Park up in Park City. This is one way that skiers learn to do complicated aerial tricks without ending up dead or in a wheelchair. Yup. That can happen when you're 15 to 30 feet in the air and land wrong.
They've got a bunch of different sized jumps with either plastic or astroturf-like ramps and a deep pool to land in. As they land a burst of air comes up from the bottom of the pool to soften the impact. I was there for a kids' practice camp but there were some pros practicing there as well. This is a sequence of big mountain pro Grete Elliasen, doing a backflip. Note the Red Bull helmet. You can't buy those. If you see someone wearing a Red Bull helmet you can be sure they're one of the best athletes in the world.
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More Aerial Ski Practice Photos
Here are some more ski jump practice photos from the Utah Olympic Park. They were all shot with my Canon EOS 7D and 70-200mm f/2.8L. For the sequence I used the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS. I also used a polarizer. I shot all of these at ISO 800 between 1/1000th and 1/2000th of a second. It turned out that 1/1000th was actually a bit slow. The sequence has a little bit of motion blur in it - these skiers are moving really fast!
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Re: Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
Here are a couple more, for perspective. The first one is the lineup on the main ramp, with a skier doing a kick turn to drop in. The second is one of the few times someone hit the biggest jump. He's got to be at least 25 feet in the air. I tried to shoot a sequence of that jump but the skier went out of the frame :)
Re: Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
I really like the capture of the Stay Puff Marsh Mellow Man pushing the car in the top clouds of the second picture in post #3, Jeff
Re: Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
great facility, great photos
Re: Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
Re: Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
Quote:
Originally Posted by
pleincadre
wow incredible!
I know. It was a really cool thing to take pictures of - especially since it's skiers in summer in a swimming pool. It's just so unique :)
Re: Utah Olympic Center Ski Jump Pool
It's just so crazy to see them with life preservers on!! What a fantastic opportunity.