Beach Vaulting

Jersey Jumps Beach Vault

By:Samantha Kaplan

On August 1st, I left my house in New Paltz, NY at 9:00 am to drive down to Seaside Heights, NJ for the Jersey Jumps beach vault, so I decided that the meet would be a good topic for my first article. The Jersey Jumps meet started on Friday, the first, with the Women's elite and Men's masters (over 40) categories. Special guests included Jenn Suhr, women's indoor world record holder and Olympic gold medalist and Lawrence Johnson, Olympic silver medalist. Even though Suhr did not end up competing because of an Achilles injury, she did warm up with a 3-step, as seen in the video.

Because I am writing for the women's pole vault department, I am going to talk about day 2 of the meet, specifically the three women's high school divisions and the weather catastrophe that could have ruined the meet if the competitors weren't dedicated vaulters with high spirits and determination. 

The three women's high school divisions were supposed to be novice A, novice B, and championship, with the novice groups competing on separate pits in the morning and the championship in the evening, with college divisions competing the following day. When the novice groups arrived at 8 am to warm up for a 10 am start, it was pouring rain with a 20 mph head wind. Vaulters took shelter in restaurants on the boardwalk. People walking by could barely stand because of the wind, but the troubling forecast did not make anyone lose hope.

A few hours later it was clear the wind would be a head wind all day, so Mike Pascuzzo, meet director, made the decision to turn the pits around. All three boxes, pits, and standards were moved from the left to the right side of the beach. With the help of many coaches and vaulters, what could have been a huge task that could have taken hours was accomplished in about an hour. Warm up finally began around 3:00 and competition around 4:00, but all three women's high school divisions had to share one runway, giving it 60+ vaulters, and the meet only reached 10 feet for us girls before it was too dark. The vaulters were encouraged to stay in a hotel or come back the next day to continue competing, but sadly many could not.

The 2014 Jersey Jumps shows how even after 6 years of everything going right, it can always go wrong. Even after 6 years of a tail wind in one direction, it can turn into a head wind the next. Pole vaulters are some of the most dedicated athletes out there. With the expenses of poles and practice, traveling with giant, inconvenient sticks, and being the highest people at the track meet, the Jersey Jumps dilemma, that may have cancelled any other beach sporting event, adds to the list as to why vaulters are the most dedicated, brave, and just plain awesome people out there. Keep jumping, vaulters, rain or shine!

Eat, Sleep, PV, Repeat,

Samantha Kaplan

Check out these links:

Vertical Adventures Website (they run beach vault): http://www.verticaladventures.org/index.cfm?bhcp=1

Mike Pascuzzo contact info (runs all Vertical Adventures camps including On the Road Track and Field World Tour...which was awesome):http://www.verticaladventures.org/contact.cfm