I've been in the business for almost 20 years now and have seen a lot. They have always existed, the operators who build, convert and repair things on their own. I can tell you, there were some really outstanding things that made me wonder how something like that could even work. Often they were just lucky that nothing happened during the amateurish attempts to repair or put the jumping hill into operation by themself.

With the increasing professionalization of the jumping sport in recent years, this development has diminished, which was generally very welcome. The Interest in this beautiful sport grew and there was a feeling that jumping hill operators didn't want to leave anything to chance, be it the maintenance of the facilities, the track or the running of competitions.

With rising inflation and the difficult overall economic situation, we can see that the pendulum is swinging in the other direction again. The number of self-proclaimed track and jumping hill constructors is increasing again. Of course, in times like these, everyone has to ensure that they work as cost-efficiently as possible.

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

In rare cases it works well and everything fits. Most of the time, however, the shot backfires and then you can count yourself lucky if nothing or no one is harmed. Then it is professionals like us who are called carrying out the necessary repairs or correcting errors that the jumping hill operator himself caused due to a lack of knowledge.

Quality costs. It has always cost something and will cost in future. However, as an operator you can be sure that everything has been properly built, maintained and approved by a specialist. In my opinion, as an operator you are obliged to do this. But above all, we owe it to the many athletes who train on the facilities every day. Both our young talents and the world's best athletes deserve the best and safest infrastructure, and that shouldn't be a question of money. The issue of liability always hangs over the responsible persons like the sword of Damocles. Because in the event of an accident rarely does anyone want to take over it.

Therefore: Think about it and remember these lines before you get involved in critical matters and pull out the screwdriver!