Sean Hartel

Water ramps:

So things are all wrapped up after the first summer of Tahoe Freeride Water Ramp Camps. Everything went smoothly, all my athletes learned a ton of new tricks, and most importantly everyone had a great time. Most of you are probably wondering, what the heck are water ramps? Well let me explain…

The Utah Olympic Park (UOP) was built in Park City, just outside Salt Lake City, before the Olympics were hosted there years ago. It was originally built as a training facility for Olympic athletes and as a venue for certain events, but now it is mainly a tourist attraction outside “the splash pool”. The UOP has a bobsled and luge track, several huge Nordic jumps, an alpine slide, zip-lines, a museum, and the pool. The splash pool is an in-ground concrete pool about 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep. It has several jumps going into it ranging from 10 feet of air time to the biggest jump in the Olympics. You come down a steep ramp built over rocks and grass at a speed of 45 mph and hit a jump that shoots you 70 feet high into a pool. Since a 70 foot drop to water would feel like you’re landing on concrete, they have a giant air bubble system to break the surface tension of the water. If you miss the bubbles on your landing, you could be taking a trip to the hospital. This setup gives freestyle skiers and snowboarders the chance to learn dangerous flips and spins (sometimes multiple flips and spins) in a safer environment than an icy landing. Inside the fence of the splash pool, there are also three Olympic trampolines with bungees, harnesses, and extensive padding. This is my summer training ground for my own skiing and that of our Tahoe Freeride athletes.

If I want to learn a new trick I take certain steps to do it safely. First I learn the proper progressions on the trampoline. Progressions are a way of doing your trick with a body bounce in the middle before taking it to your feet. Then I complete the full trick to land on my feet on the tramp. Once I’ve landed this dozens of times consistently on the tramp, I will take it to the ramps so I can feel the sensation of the trick moving downhill with my skis on. When I feel I land this trick consistently it is ready for snow. Before I try it on an icy park jump like the ones in competition, I will do it off a backcountry jump into a soft powdery landing.

The Tahoe Freeride Water Ramp Camps are offered to the athletes on our teams so they can use this exclusive facility. We drive out from Lake Tahoe with a few caravans full of kids and equipment. We all stay in a big condo, and we, the coaches turn into teenage babysitters. We cook meals for an army of starving hoodlums, clean up messes, and teach them how to have a good time. Every morning and afternoon we train hard at the ramps, and in between we do various mid-day activities such as hikes, cliff jumping, racing alpine slides, relaxing in the hot springs, or just hanging at the skate park. After dinner every night we do video review, where we go over each athlete’s jumps in slow motion to observe and explain their flaws and how to fix them. These trips are extremely productive and tons of fun!

Thanks for all the support!

Sean