Fall Water Ramping
The SSWSC Freestyle programs closed down the Bald Eagle Lake water ramp facility and the 2022 water ramp season on October 7th, four months and several training sessions after the opening on June 6th. Our SSWSC athletes and many visiting athletes benefited immensely at the hometown venue this summer and fall.
Our high school to U10 training programs experienced a fun learning atmosphere at the water ramps with phenomenal weather this year. For development-level athletes, the summer is the time to learn new tricks and jump qualifications, such as front flips and backflips, ensuring they are ready to perform safely on snow. At the same time, the summer and fall training allows our high school and older athletes the necessary time for jump repetition and to work on more difficult tricks. Many athletes completed over 500+ jumps throughout the water ramp season!
A new addition to our water ramp offerings this year included a September Ramps program for our U15 and younger athletes. September is an excellent time of year to train at the water ramps. This new program was well attended and allowed the younger athletes to add more jump training to their overall programming for the year.
Our training was enhanced at the water ramp facility by installing a new bungee system and replacing the beds and springs on the trampoline deck. This increased the rate of progression for our athletes’ trampoline skills and, ultimately, what they were able to accomplish on the water ramps during jump training. We also hosted a two-day trampoline clinic, bringing in a US Ski and Snowboard Level 4 Aerial Coach to work with the coaching staff on the trampoline curriculum and coaching cues. The guest coaches provided our coaches with a great continuing education opportunity and our athletes with feedback from a different perspective. We also made improvements to our technology at the water ramps. This new video playback software technology, Vidjump, using our ipads and some new monitors, allowed the coaches to share immediate visual coaching with the athletes after each jump on the ramp.
Postgraduate athlete Xander Tatar Brown has been training at the Bald Eagle Lake Facility since he was 10. “We are fortunate to have such a great training tool here in Steamboat for the team. This summer, I worked to improve my cork 1080 for the upcoming competition season,” Tatar-Brown explains. Tatar-Brown is looking forward to another FIS NorAm season this year.
The freestyle athletes will continue with dryland training and on-snow training camps until Howelsen Hill opens for training.
