The Andover Outing Club (AOC) ski jumpers have been busy this summer. In Lake Placid, New York, Grasshopper Camp is held four times every two weeks during the summer at the 1980 Olympic Ski Jumping complex.

Grasshopper Camp is a ski jumping camp sponsored by the New York Sports Education Foundation. This year’s camps were led by Andover native and ski jumper Chris Lamb.

The sessions focus on overall training and lots of ski jumping. The camps end with a competition, and each session is part of a Summer Jumping Series that culminates on Columbus Day weekend.

The session held from August 8 through 10 was attended by AOC members Alex Burt of Concord, Massachusetts, and Sophia, David, and Matthew Reynolds, all of Andover. When they arrived, they were excited to see both Chris Lamb and Olympic Team member Nick Fairall there to coach them for the weekend.

In the summer, ski jumping takes place on the same jumps as winter, except the landing hill is covered with plastic strands put together like a thatched roof and kept wet with a sprinkler system. The track has polymer bumps that simulate the ice tracks of winter jumps. The tracks have water run through them to keep them wet.

The only part that is harder is that when you get to the end of the plastic on the landing hill, you have to sit down so you don’t face-plant on the grass.

Before we started jumping, we would play soccer and stretch. Then we would go to the jumps for some practice.

At lunch, they set up a small buffet and we could eat anywhere we wanted; on Saturday, we ate at the top of the K90 ski jump. Then we would do some more jumping.

On the second day of camp, we watched a competition on the K90 (Olympic Normal Hill) from the judging tower.

Overall, it was a great time, and we plan to go back on Columbus Day weekend for the last session.