I was skiing down for one of the last run's of the day last Saturday at Alpine Meadow. I stopped to wait for the girls I was skiing with and I came across these two kids who had built a kicker (a jump for you non-skiers) in a remote part of the mountain. The kicker wasn't huge, maybe about 3 feet off the ground and the pitch wsan't that great, but the hill was steep and the landing was all soft powder.

One of the kids (the one pictured here), and these guys are maybe 16 years old, tells me that I should have been there a few minutes ago. He flew 70 feet off the kicker and landed it. OK. I didn't really believe him, but it didn't matter. Clearly these guys were serious. They could have jumped all day in the terrain park, but insead they spent hours fashioning this perfectly squared off kicker.

The guy, who was on skis, was getting his nerve up to do a forard a flip. He side stepped up the hill about 15 feet and was sort of gauging his courage while being egged on by his friend. I didn't think he had a chance because the pitch of the kicker was too shallow. I also didn't think he was going to go for it, but he started downhill, hit the kicker and flipped forward. He didn't pull the full 360 degrees, but he made about 280, I would guess, and landed on his ass in the cushy snow. It was impressive.

Right about the time the girls showed up, the other kid, the one on the snowboard took another jump. This time I had my camera ready. I can't beleive how well this shot turned out considered I was just using my little Canon S500 point and shoot which usually has a tough time dealing with any kind of motion, but it's sharp as a tack and stopped the motion dead in the air. Check out the original size shot to really see how good this is.

I didn't if he landed it this jump or even how far he flew, but the kid got some serious air. Must be great to have rubber bones and no fear.