Jump Heel/Ankle Strap

[lagdawg]

While watching live streams of tournaments I've seen more and more jumpers wearing what appears to be a rubber strap around their foot, ankle and heel. I first saw Freddy with them. I'm just curious if anyone is able to enlighten me what these straps are and why they are being used?

 

[BraceMaker]

Looks like electrical tape.

[Broussard]

The electrical tape bunches the skin together and creates more of a pad on the heels to prevent bruising them on landings.

[Cooper_Trelawney]

@Broussard do you do this and do you notice a difference?

[unksskis]

I was thinking this would be about the outer straps being used. What are the top jumpers using outside the binding? It looks like Freddy uses a velcro binding material strap, others seem to use something tied and rolled over the binding.

[Broussard]

@Cooper_Trelawney I have not - the farther and higher you go the more impact you tend to have on landings. I only jump about 150 ft.

 

@unksskis Most people are using some sort of bicycle inner tube. This is to tighten up the upper part of the wrap to create a more direct connection between the jumper's movement and the translation of that movement to the skis.

[BraceMaker]

@Broussard - its actually very similar to techniques used medically - when people have heel spurs they use heel cups to "squeeze" the meat to get more cushion.