The Transition that Changed Park Jump Design

Christoph’s cab 5 from that day was something like 3.6 seconds, which is pretty ridiculous – David Benedek

With its clever choice of soundtrack, awesome riding and above all, a real sense of fun, the first Robotfood movie, Afterbang, changed people’s conceptions about what snowboard films should look like; its sequel, Lame, featured a session on a natural booter that would change the way people thought about park jump design.

“We were in Austria filming for Lame,” explains David Benedek, “and we randomly stumbled across this feature in the backcountry of Lecht. It had almost like a quarterpipe-style take-off – very steep – and then a really steep landing afterwards.”

To the casual observer, this kicker might look like a million other powder jumps, but what made it so special to Benedek and his friends was the airtime it offered. Thanks to the steep take-off, riders were sent a good 5 metres out of the lip, while the pitch of the landing meant that they would drop a further 10 or 15 metres to the landing – maximizing that lovely weightless feeling every snowboarder knows so well. “It’s actually so rare to find this kind of combination,” says Benedek. “That’s why it was such an eye-opener.”

So special did this jump feel to the Robotfood crew, they decided to precisely measure the airtime on video. “I think Christoph Weber’s cab 5 from that day was something like 3.6 seconds, which is pretty ridiculous,” says Bendedek. “two to two-and-a-half seconds is about what you’d typically reach on a pretty well-built jump. For instance, Mads’ ‘world-record’ 150ft jump in Norway was barely above two seconds airtime. So it’s really about how jumps are built, not the size. You can have 2.5 seconds of airtime on a pretty small jump if it’s built right.”

Not only did the Lecht kicker offer massive airtime, it was also fun and relatively safe. This switched on a lightbulb in Benedek’s head: Rather than relying on these rare backcountry finds, why not try to recreate the shape and trajectory on a park kicker? “Essentially, we just had such a blast hitting this jump in Lech that we wanted to recreate that however we could.” Making this dream a reality, however, would prove the biggest challenge yet…