Dangerous self-modifications!

By now I’ve been in the business for almost 20 years and I’ve seen quite a lot. There have always been plant operators who build, modify, and repair things on their own.

I can tell you, there were some really wild things there, where I wondered how such stuff could possibly work. Often one could only count on luck that nothing happened with the amateurish attempts to repair or commission the jumping facility themselves.

With the increasing professionalization of the sport in recent years, this development has diminished, which was generally to be welcomed. Interest in jumping sport grew and one had the feeling that jump operators did not leave things to chance, whether in maintenance of facilities, commissioning of the track, or competition support.

With rising inflation and the difficult overall economic situation, we can observe the pendulum swinging back in the other direction. The number of self-proclaimed track and jump constructors is rising again. Of course, in times like these, everyone tries to work as cost-effectively as possible.

“You can save a few euros here, we’ll postpone this maintenance, we don’t need that now, we’d rather do it ourselves, we’ll get it much cheaper”… the arguments are varied, just like the outcome of such “home improvement projects.”

In rare cases, it works well and everything fits perfectly. Most of the time, however, things backfire, and you can count yourself lucky if nothing or no one was harmed. Then professionals like us are called in to either perform the necessary repair or patch up mistakes that the field operator caused due to lack of knowledge.

Quality costs. It has always cost something and will continue to do so. For this you can be sure as a operator that everything is properly built, maintained, and inspected by a professional. In my view, you are obliged to do so. But above all, you owe it to the many athletes who train on the facilities daily. Our youth and the world's best athletes deserve the best and safest infrastructure, and money should not be the issue. The issue of liability always hovers like a Damoclean sword over those responsible. For in the event of an accident, hardly anyone wants to take responsibility.

Therefore: think about it and remind yourselves of these lines before you lay a hand on critical things and reach for the screwdriver.

Yours, Peter Riedel