I started my jumping career with five foot maple skis with leather (yes, leather) side clamping binders. I bought my first pair of real "Jumping Skis" from Larry Bover for fifteen bucks. They were 6 foot, had 3 groves in the bottom, with laminated maple wood.

The "jump" in the photos above was made by Joe Bedard, Rick and I and is located off Estey Hill. You know - the home of the Esteyville Gang? It came off that hill and ended up in the saw mill yard off "Sawdust Alley" which is off the end of Birge Street.

We built jumps everywhere we could, like the one in the photographs above. Clinton Tefft use to jump that one with us. We had one on the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital side hill towards Maple Street, the "sand bank" down by the Nelsons and Parmenters, off a side hill by the junction of Cherry and Southern Avenue by the Searles and one off Williams Street up beyond Sandy Campbell's where Interstate Highway 91 now divides Maple Street.

We had heard a "Rumor" that "The Old Brattleboro Jump" was located at this last location. We found a section on the side hill there that was completely cleared of trees in a thick forest area, pack down the fresh snow, built a jump off the natural hill trestle. I jump 137 feet which was the furthest I had ever jumped in my career!I learned how to jump before I every skied downhill. My beginning days were off jumps wherever we could make them.