Scott Walker, Scott Adventure Sports, Niseko

Tell us background information about yourself...
I am from Australia. I volunteered as a ski Patroller in Australia for 5 seasons and was also a lifesaver for 10 years. I left Australia in 1991 just after finishing a business degree to head for Austria to teach skiing there. Originally I thought that would be for two years, but I began to realize that it was the best time of my life. I always wanted to be a ski instructor from when I was learning to ski in Australia and I always looked up to the Ski instructors at the resorts. Anyway, I did some work as a life guard on the beach in Cornwall (UK), and then went back to Australia.

Before Japan...
I was 27 when I got back to Australia after being away for 2 years, and realized I was not ready to settle down just yet. The only remaining country where I could get a working holiday (as an Australian over 25 years old) was Japan. Japan was a mystery country before I came, and actually I didn’t imagine it to be a fun place at that time. I talked to some friends who had come back from working holidays in Japan - all of them taught English in Japan - and they all said it was great. So I thought ‘why not?’ and decided to make it my next adventure.

Arriving in Japan...
I ended up coming into Japan for the first time on the 24th of March 1994. At first it was homestays in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, then towards the end of April I called a home stay host in Sapporo and he asked if I wanted to go skiing the next weekend. So next thing I was leaving Osaka and hitchhiking up to Sapporo….it took 4 days and I saw a lot of Japan on the journey. My first day in Hokkaido completely sold me - I loved the great wide open spaces that were lacking in Honshu, and even though it was towards the end of April there was still snow deeper than I had ever seen anywhere in the world. So I decided at least to stay in Hokkaido for the duration of my working holiday visa.

I spent two years teaching English in Sapporo and most weekends going to Niseko where I snowboarded in winter and raft-guided in summer. I always hitchhiked back to Sapporo from Niseko to save money and to improve my Japanese and make friends. I found myself being really envious of other people living in Niseko and wanted to stay but there was no work for me, so I knew that if I wanted to stay there I would have to make my own living. Eventually I gathered up all my courage and established SAS, a limited liability company. It’s been challenging to say the least to start a business in a country with different customs and with a language which I have far from mastered. But thanks to the people in Niseko, I have managed to grow a decent business. The idea behind SAS was to introduce new outdoor activities to the Japanese - many of which are taken for granted in my country.　
   

  
My work and interests are basically the same, which is great as I love all that SAS stands for and all the activities we offer. We are a year round adventure company serving the needs of the Japanese and international customers, and in fact we are more busy outside of the winter season with whitewater rafting, Ducky (inflatable kayak) MTB and eco trekking from April until the end of October.

I believe the outdoor experience a customer has depends heavily on the guide, so I always put a big effort into making sure the customer has a good time. My best days are when I am out of the office with the customers - I feel so good when I get back from an adventure tour!  Believe it or not, I prefer summer to winter - I suppose my upbringing has a lot to do with it as I was bought up in warm Sydney where it’s summer for 1/2 the year and the winters are very very mild. I prefer Japanese snow and Australia's beaches.
  

  
Until a few years ago, you were operating dog sledding and 'snow rafting' - tell us some more about those activities...
We initially started in the summer of 1997 with rafting and winter 1998 with dog sledding and snow rafting in Hanazono - the new part of Hirafu ski area. I bought two teams of huskies costing almost a million yen.

Snow rafting was my idea - very simply, pull a raft behind a snowmobile around an up-down twisting course where the raft swings sideways on every turn. 　Some other resorts at that time were using banana boats, but due to the center of gravity being not as low as in a raft it was potentially dangerous. I was using an area next to the lift, which is controlled by the resort, and as such paid the resort part of my daily takings.  Anyhow, at one point the resort didn’t want me to continue with the snow rafting because of a perceived danger, but when I persisted saying that I would bear all the risk, they eventually accepted.  By the third year these two activities (especially the snow rafting) became very popular due to all sorts of promotion and regular appearances on Hokkaido and national TV.

In 1999 we also started snowshoe tours - a great way to get to places were you could never go by foot as easily due to snowshoes ability to not only walk in deep virgin snow but grip on ice as they also have crampons on them. Also running down a steep slop in snowshoes is an amazing feeling that is very difficult to describe but like skiing and snowboarding, snow shoeing can be easy and boring or can be difficult and exciting if you find the right areas to go down. Niseko has a great range of ideal snowshoe areas.

After my 4th season the Niseko Hirafu resort said that they were going to take over my snowrafting operation - not what I was expecting - (they didn’t want to do dog sledding due to fact they knew it was too difficult and they didn’t have the expertise) - and I had no choice but to give away all the dogs as they were suddenly out of a job.   After more than a year of extensive advertising all but two found good homes to go to and are living their days out as pets. I still go and visit them sometimes and it is good to see how happy they are.
  

  
Thoughts on Japanese winter sports industry...
I found when I first came to Japan 1994 that the Japanese cared more about fashion than function in their ski wear and the way they ski or snowboard…. they seem to be more interested in the way they look and the ski snowboard level certificates they can attain rather than having fun and going fast. When I first started snowboarding in Japan in 1994 all the way until about 2000 the off-piste was never touched due to Japanese always obeying rules and believing that it’s dangerous. Recently however due to the influx of non Japanese who come to Niseko for the powder, it’s best to be early…. Having said this though due to the enormous snow falls often in an hour all tracks can be covered fairly quickly. There is always fresh powder as long as you know where to look for it!

Into the Future...
I think it was just a matter of time before Niseko became popular with overseas customers. The reason is not so much because of the terrain, but because of the consistency and reliability of the powder that is on offer here. God’s design made Niseko into a snow machine. The reason is due to 3 factors　 

I think that in the future overseas customers will continue to increase in numbers as the word spreads as to how good Niseko is. Despite preconceived ideas about Japan being expensive and crowded, Niseko is neither of these and it’s rare to wait more than a few minutes at lift lines - so this isn’t really a problem for the visitor. Niseko really needs the foreign market as the domestic Japanese market is decreasing year by year and most accommodation and restaurants realize they need more English and are trying to cater to non Japanese customers.

Many thanks to Scott for his time.  You can find out more about SAS here, or at their official website.