Norge Autumn Ski Jump launches 31st year in Fox River Grove

FOX RIVER GROVE – Casey Larson was just 6 years old when his baby sitter told him and his sister, Cara, about ski jumping and the competitions at the Norge Ski Club. When his parents arrived home, Larson begged his mom to take him.

Larson went the next day and watched his baby sitter compete. He was hooked and had to try it.

That moment was 11 years ago, long before Larson eventually made the U.S. national team for ski jumping. And while he’s part of the national team, Larson still competes in competitions at the Norge Ski Club in Fox River Grove.

In 80-degree weather and obviously no snow, the club had its 31st autumn competition Saturday and Sunday.

From a 150-foot high jump, skiers slid down on skis and then jump onto the 70-meter hill. For a moment, the jumpers soar through the air.

“The flight – there’s nothing really close to it,” Larson said. “You can go jump on some skis at Wilmot [Mountain] or something, but there’s really nothing like this.”

Ski jumping isn’t a sport that would be associated with a state as flat as Illinois, but the Norge Ski Club has been around since 1905. For the past 31 years, they’ve held an autumn event. This year’s competition featured 30 jumpers from around the Midwest.

To be able to jump without snow, plastic material is laid down on the hill and when water is applied, it makes the surface equivalent to ice.

But the community that makes up the event closely knows each other. Volunteers for the competition are usually either members of the ski club or parents of the jumpers, Meg Larson, Casey’s mother, said.

In Tonya Gibson’s case, the Barrington native used to attend ski jump events with her grandfather at the Norge Ski Club. Ski jumping has remained in her family and her 15-year-old son, Hunter, was one of the participants.

Hunter Gibson was hooked the moment he was asked by his grandfather, “Do you want to learn how to fly?”

“It’s a great sport,” Tonya Gibson said. “[Hunter] did football when he was younger, but [ski jumping] is a big family. Not that everything in other sports isn’t competitive as far as families go, but this, everyone really celebrates each other’s kid.

“As a parent, I couldn’t ask for more than that.”

There are risks that come with the sport, too. When Hunter Gibson was 7, he crashed on a 40-meter jump and needed to be flown to the hospital. He then needed reconstructive surgery for part of his face.

Despite the crash, his mother said she isn’t worried about him getting hurt again, calling the sport controlled. She initially had doubts, though.

“As a mom I was like ‘Maybe this sport is too dangerous,’ ” she said. “In the first night in the hospital, he started crying and I was like, ‘Oh no, what’s the matter?’ He said ‘I wanted to be the youngest to jump the 70-meter.’

“I knew I had to let him get back up on the horse.”

Billy Demong called the sport an addiction. Demong won a gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in a combined ski jumping and cross country event. He was in Fox River Grove to support the competition and help recruit people to the sport.

“It’s about the thrill,” Demong said. “You get addicted to the thrill and the courage it takes to point down the ski jump. At the same point, it’s a real community behind it.”

Larson has done his part to help spread the word about the sport. Demong said he and Larson went to North Barrington and Lyons Township classes to recruit kids to start jumping.

Larson, though, said the Norge Autumn Ski Jump was his first competition he competed in as a kid.

“Everyone knows each other. That’s pretty awesome,” Larson said. “It’s a great sport, good people. It makes you want to keep jumping, for sure.”