Adam Loomis: Rolling and Jumping

Eau Claire native Adam Loomis is one of the fast rising Nordic Combined stars from the Midwest, earning his first World Cup points in January and then this summer finishing second overall (and just 5 seconds back!) in the US Nordic Combined Championships at Soldier Hollow.  Loomis has been training in Europe but back has been back in the US recently, and competed in the Mini Tour event with the US Ski Team athletes earlier this week. 

We hit Loomis up on two topics... rollerskis and summer jumping...

The topic of rollerskis and the inherent variability of speed came up recently, and I'm wondering how this is address in the Nordic Combined world. You've obviously rollerski raced with the best in the US, and even internationally. In your experience, how have they addressed the issue of rollerskis brands and wheel speeds to ensure a "level" playing field?

At the highest level, like Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix or the " Toppidrettsveka" Mini Tour race that the US XC Team took part in this year in Norway, the organizers provide skis for everyone. For our Summer Grand Prix, the German company SRB comes with a fleet of skis, both NNN and SNS. Everyone gets a pair from a random draw 15 minutes before the start. Obviously this isn't practical for most races though!

(Photo: Oberwiesenthal Grand Prix, August 30, 2015 - Credit: Romina Eggert)

On our team, we all have Swenor skis with speed 2 wheels, and we encourage junior racers to have these, plus we have a couple extras, so that at a National event almost everyone is on them. This summer, though, we got skis from IDT, a Norwegian company, that are a little different shafts but they have the same "speed 2" wheels on them, so we've used them some for TT's this fall.

We just finished racing with the XC team in a little Mini-Tour at SoHo, and their team uses Marwe 6/6 wheels. They encourage everyone to use them if possible, but obviously that isn't always the case. It looked like the Sun Valley and APU team's were on a mix of Swenor and Mare. Either way, most of the skis were really close, so I think it was relatively even, at least in the skate race. In my opinion going with the Marwe 6's or another brand ski with Speed 2 wheels is the best way to go, since they are common and easy to order online.

But at the end of the day - it's racing on snow that matters!

What's it like to ski jump in the summer?

Oddly enough, I took my first ski jumps in the summertime. I didn't decide to try out ski jumping until I was 10, which I was told was a little old to start, so I had to get right after it. When I was first learning, on the plastic jumps at the Blackhawk Ski Club, the toughest part was learning to sit far enough back after the landing when I slid onto the flat grass outrun. Once I got that down, I could focus more on the jumping aspect. Now, I would say that summer jumping is just as safe, if not more, than winter jumping, as the track is never going to be sticky, washed out or bumpy and the landing hill is always consistent as well.

The main difference between summer and winter jumping is actually the warmer temperature and resulting lower air pressure. When the temperatures start to drop for winter, the air feel noticeably thicker beneath our skis. This is one of the reasons why just about everyone loves winter jumping a bit more than summer.

And are there places in Minnesota/Wisconsin you can regular train in summer jumping?

There are opportunities to summer jump in a good handful of places in the Midwest now. When I grew up jumping, I jumped on plastic in St. Paul and Coleraine, MN; at Blackhawk near Madison, WI and at the Norge Ski Club, near Chicago. Now, I'm happy to say that there are even more opportunities for summer jumping. Wisconsin Rapids and Iola, WI both have plastic, and this summer my local Flying Eagles ski club finished putting summer jumping on three junior hills. Most of theses complexes are open regularly throughout the summer, so that jumpers can train on a variety of hills size on close to a year round basis now. The saying is true, "skiers are made in the summer!"

(Photo: Flying Eagles Ski Club - Eau Claire, WI)

You can follow Adam Loomis on his blog (and you'll find all his social media links there as well).   Loomis will be back in the Midwest for a special training event and fundraiser next Saturday, Nov 7th at Tower Ridge hosted by Out There ski shop.