So I happened to see the pic of the day on the frontpage today, and it is one of a backyard booter. It reminded me of the days when we use to get our tractor, find a hill and scrape as little as 10 cm of snow into a pile for a booter and a pile for a landing. Since 10 cm isn't really that much and you could spare no cm, this meant that often the tractor blade grabbed some dirt too, and since it was usually in fields, cowshit too. Our jumps were actually more black than white sometimes.
Anyway, their was nothing better than these jumps. If not only for the reasons above, but for others as well. Hanging out, something to do after school, and just the fact that you made a nice kicker on your own. Also, it really does show dedication. Oddly enough, you would think that a jump and landing with dirt and cowshit would suck, but they are actually really good jumps too.
The thing about park jumps is that the landing is generally, quite hard, and thus, learning new things is harder and scarier. Now with powder jumps, the landing is really soft, but it is generally harder to land stuff in backcountry kickers. Now with tractor jumps, you get the best of both worlds. After making it, they are nice and soft, but since the snow has been disturbed and packed to a point, it is landable like a park jump.
Some of the tractor jumps we use to make were some of the biggest jumps I've hit. I think that is something I would like to see, a photo shoot at some random field with a white/brown jump with a tractor in the background. Maybe it will get some soul back into skiing and it will still look "cool" at the same time. Or would it be too silly of a thought to have those Oakley one pieces dirtied up.
signatures are for pussies
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