Terrain park design

From little switz in slinger wi...
On my request for a step up/step over jump instead of a cheese wedge design. Very detailed response that I think all should pass along to their local hills.

We are extremely excited to be 100% open! I'm glad you share the same enthusiasm!

My name is Scott, I am the Terrain Parks Manager, Park Designer, and Park Builder at Little Switz, and Nordic Mountain, as well as the Daily Cat Operator at Little Switz. I am sorry to hear that you disagree with the way that we build our jumps at Little Switzerland, I can assure you that a lot of thought and effort goes into each and every build with an immense amount of our efforts towards the jumps.

Before I go into too much detail, for credibility purpose I would like you to know that I have been the lead builder and park manager for 10 seasons now, I have built for nine parks at three resorts, I have been to Cutter's Camp (Freestyle Terrain Based Week Long Training Camp) on Three different occasions, I have been to countless Risk Management seminars, I was featured in SAM (Ski Area Management Magazine) Twice, I have had sit down discussions with the Park Managers from Keystone and Breckenridge, I have also had seat time in cats with many of the top park builders in the industry, such as Day Franzen, Jay Scambio, Clayton Shoemaker, and JP Martin to name a few.

Now, moving forward. I do like the concept of a step over jump, but there are multiple reasons why we do not use them at the resorts that I work for.
1. To build a "proper" step over jump you need approximately 40% more snow than you would use for the more traditional table top style jumps that we currently have at Switz.
2. In the past we have tried introducing the step overs to our park riders at Little Switz and our feedback was very negative. They did not like that the entire time you were in the air (which is actually an identical amount of time as a Table Top Jump built to the same specs) they felt like they were merely feet off the ground. They said it didn't "feel as nice." We want to please our demographic
3. It has been proven that Step Over jumps have been related to more head back and neck inuries, due to the small distance between rider's trajectory and the rolling knuckle of a step over. If a skier or a rider tries to learn a backflip or a similar manuver that initiates in reverse rotation, on a Step Over jump, and he/she does not properly "pop," they will spin low and fast and with such a high knuckle, that is generally the first thing that stops their rotation.
4. Step Overs are simply not as nice to look at. Aestetically the style of jump that we build at Switz is very appealing, in my opinion.

I do understand and agree with some of the aspects of the design of a Step over jump, in theory, they are fantastic with the drop never being more than 5 feet down. But when it comes down to it, the entire industry is steering away from that style jump for the same reasons that I have listed above. The industry generally accepted practice or rule of thumb, as some may call it, is that the landing zone or "sweet spot" should be equal to or greater than the distance between Lip and Landing Zone. Also, this illustration shows the trajectory of a rider's speed without taking into consideration the riding stance of the individual who is hitting the jump. A rider can completely change their trajectory by either Absorbing "Compression Zone" AKA Takeoff, By Popping, or by being completely rigid bodied. One who pops hard can land ride a lot slower into a jump than one who absorbs the compression zone.

In my mind there are only a few different types of riders.
1. Unconscious Unconfident
These people have no clue what they are doing, but they have no clue that they don't know what they are doing. They usually only come out one or two times, they fall a lot, but don't understand why.
2. Conscious Unconfident
These people understand that there is a learning curve. They are doing it wrong, but at least they
understand that they are doing it wrong. They will be hitting the jumps eventually, but not
quite yet, they will take their time, go through the motions and get there eventually.
3. Conscious Confident
These are the riders that Know what they are doing, they are aware of their surroundings. they understand the importance of a speed check, they know what to look for when it comes to a smoothe in-run and taking your time. They are level headed and they progress the sport more than any other.
4. Unconscious Overconfident
These ones scare me. They are the ones that think they can hit every feature and do any trick. They will time and time again over-shoot jumps, try backflips when they can barely even go off of a jump in the first place, they are wreckless and a hazard. All we can do with these guys is try to reach out before they hurt themselves.

When Step Overs started getting really big a few years ago, that was without the consideration of one big factor, and that is the user. Step Ups were designed to try to out whit the Unconscious Overconfident rider by giving thm a fail-proof jump, unfortunately, that is an impossible task. We will never be able to determine who is going to try to hit what features in what parks, a person who is going to overshoot and backseat on a step over is likely to do the same on any style jump. Having the knuckle more exagerated will actually produce more conscious skiers and snowboarders. They will hit the knuckle a few times, and that is just a way of them guaging their speed. To be honest, the fact that there are consiquences will help keep some of the users off of that feature until they are actually ready.

Attached is your image the step over with a few highlights on it, showing a few of it's flaws, as well as an aesthetically pleasing photo of our latest jump that has been added to Switz.

I know I have thrown a lot of words into this e-mail, but one thing I would like to leave you with is that no matter what we do in our parks, terrain park safety is controlled by the users in the park, not by what mounds of snow they roll over. The best way to prevent injury is through open communication. By talking with other riders in the park, you can help prevent them from getting seriously injured. A few suggestions can go a long way.

Thank you very much for the feedback, it is very important to us. Let me know next time you're out at Switz, maybe we can take a few laps together, I always appreciate someone in the industry who knows what it takes to put together a high quality park.


Thanks!
Scott McCune
Park Manager
Nordic Mountain
Little Switzerland