Water Ramp

For a modern training example, watch the video at this link http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/08/17/2031598.aspx

Definition

A water ramp is a ski jump into an over sized pool or lake for practicing ski and snowboard aerial acrobatics utilized in Freestyle Events[1]. A water ramps is composed of an in-run, a kicker and a water surface for landing. Athletes practice new skills while "landing" on water where the impact is significantly less dangerous than landing on compacted snow.

Athletes flip and rotate from as high as 60 feet in the air above the water landing

Water landing

A water landing is, in the broadest sense, any landing on a body of water. All waterfowl, those seabirds capable of flight, and some human-built vehicles are capable of landing in water as a matter of course....

 surface.

World class coaches help their students work on each aspect of a new trick into water, before being allowed to attempt it on snow.

Smaller Photo seen here ->http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Water_ramp_8X10-1.jpg

History

Water ramp training for snow ski

Snowmobile

A snowmobile, also known in some places as a snowmachine, or sled,is a land vehicle for winter travel on snow. Designed to be operated on snow and ice, they require no road or trail. Design variations enable some machines to operate in deep snow or forests; most are used on open terrain, including...

 aerials became an indispensable professional training tool
when Bob Salerno, Frank Bare jr., Hans Ribi and Jeff Chumas built a ramp capable of
breaking world record

World record

A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...

s in 1978. This first world class water ramp was built on a
ski resort

Ski resort

A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...

 partially owned by Bob Salerno called Nordic Valley

Wolf Mountain

Wolf Mountain is a small local ski area in the Ogden Valley near Eden, Utah. The area was known as Nordic Valley until June 29, 2005, when it was acquired by the nearby Wolf Creek Golf Resort....

, now known as
Wolf Creek Utah Ski Resort

Wolf Mountain

Wolf Mountain is a small local ski area in the Ogden Valley near Eden, Utah. The area was known as Nordic Valley until June 29, 2005, when it was acquired by the nearby Wolf Creek Golf Resort....

 http://www.wolfcreekutah.com/.

The first double twisting triple back flip & the first triple twisting triple back flip were performed by Frank Bare in 1979 on this water ramp. In 1983 Frank Bare went on to perform the world’s first
Quad flip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTb0zCgybnY&feature=channel_page on snow.

Being the only water ramp capable of pushing the sport of aerials skiing beyond its limits, athletes from all over North America trained at Nordic Valley.

The next world class water ramp was built in 1987 in Lake Placid

Lake Placid, New York

Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....

, 7 years after the
Olympics http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=2&OLGY=1980 that were held there in 1980.

Park City, Utah

Park City, Utah

Park City is a town in Summit and Wasatch counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City's east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census...

 built their WATER RAMP http://www.olyparks.com/uop/freestyle.asp, in preparation for the 2002 Olympics http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=2&OLGY=2002.

Winter Olympics http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Skiing/Freestyle-Skiing/

Today there are water ramps run by freestyle ski and snowboard teams in Canada, Europe and Australia

Lake Placid Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex

Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex

The Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex comprises a 90- and 120-meter ski jumps towers built for the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, United States...

 New York USA
Olympic Park

Olympic Park

An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics complex in the case of the summer games, or the main...

, Park City UT USA http://www.pcfreestyle.com/index.html
Steamboat Springs, Steamboat CO USA
Yabuli Ski Resort, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
Shenyang, LiaoNing

Shenyang

Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...

,China
Centre National d'entrainment acrobatique Yves LaRoche)

Water Ramp Construction & equipment

A water ramp is constructed by covering a structurally stable

Structural stability

In mathematics, structural stability is a fundamental property of a dynamical system which means that the qualitative behavior of the trajectories is unaffected by C1-small perturbations....

 wood or steel frame

Steel frame

Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...

 with a
stiff plastic, hair brush like surface, that skiers slide down, which is called an in-run. This ski-able surface was then, and is today, called “the green meanies" for its ability to leave a "road rash"
on a skier/snowboarder who falls on it (much like the famous "agony of defeat" video from ABC's Wide World of Sports Introduction). The sliding surface is regularly watered down to allow skis and snowboards to slide without sticking on dry spots.

At the end of the "in-run" is the "kicker" which is a curve of the ramp upwards to provide "air time" which allows the skier/snowboarder to perform tricks in the air before landing in the water.

Pools built specifically for water ramps are larger than Olympic size to accommodate the different distances that athletes travel forward of the ramp. Water ramps are not heated and only operated during the Summer, since during the winter aerialists take their new skills onto ramps on snow.

Today water surfaces are being aerated to raise the water level with bubbles by as much as 12”. This function softens landings and lowers injuries.

Skis are reinforced to lengthen their life. The impact on the water will delaminate skis even when the water is aerated and the skis are reinforced.

Dangers

As a training tool, the water ramp can be invaluable to preventing injuries on snow, but dangerous in themselves.

Falling on the in-run is always a concern for the novice water ramper who isn't used to the compression that happens at the end of the in-run and the beginning of the kicker. http://www.ugoto.com/video_ski-ramp-crash.html & injuries. Awkward landings from high in the air often renders athletes unconscious. Lifeguards are a must at all water ramps.

Participants wear wet suits, dry suits, gloves, ear-covering helmets, & Life Jackets.