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18th August 2003
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Fujiten
Wheelboarding
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On 18 May I went to Fujiten (Fuji Tenjindaira) in
Yamanashi Prefecture to ride my Dirtsurfer and check out
the mountainboarding scene in Japan at first hand.
Although I was very close to Fuji all day, I didn’t
catch a single glimpse of it as a chilly fog was hanging
low over the hills. This fog had soaked the grass and
dirt of the runs at Fujiten, making for hairy but
forgiving riding conditions.
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18th July 2003 |
Riding the
T-Board
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I am not a skateboard person
and never have been. In fact, I’ve always hated them as I can’t stay
on them for more than 5 seconds. One of the reasons I started snowboarding
so late was the belief that it would be like riding a skateboard.
The T-board from Tierney Rides is basically a skateboard. It has a
skateboard deck, albeit bigger than a normal skateboard. It has trucks and
wheels on the bottom, although only two big wheels instead of the usual
four small ones. |
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12th June 2003 |
An Interview with
Tierney Rides
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The Tierney Rides T-board is
the wheeled board chosen by the U.S. and Canadian national snowboard teams
as a cross trainer. But besides its value in maintaining off-season
snowboarding skills, the T-board is also well-known among longboard and
skateboard enthusiasts as a ride with a difference. Tierney have
generously provided SnowJapan.Com with two T-boards, one for the
Department of Testing and Review, and one for a giveaway. |
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18th April 2003
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Looking Back
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The 2002/2003 season was an
absolute corker by any standards. Well, it was for me at least.
The desperate prayers and frenzied dancing of hundreds of supplicants
were rewarded by early snow of the like I’ve never seen before. Looking
back through my Journals I see that there was snow on the higher peaks as
early as October 2nd and my first trip out to Hakuba 47 was on
November 15th. Conditions were excellent and there was even a
bit of powder around. |
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14th March 2003
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Along the Venus
Line
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Right in the center of Nagano,
between the Utsukushigahara plateau overlooking Matsumoto, and Shirakabako
runs the Venus Line. This apparent allusion to a classical goddess
actually has more native roots - the road is named after a pottery
statuette of a woman found in the Tateshina area and dating from Japan’s
Jomon period before 300 B.C., the ‘Jomon Venus’. She’s a big-hipped
lass, but winsome. |
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January 2003
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Concerning the
Patrol
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I’d like to make some
observations about Patrol and their role at the resorts I visit. Patrol
seem to loom rather large, but what little I’ve seen of them doesn’t
impress me. An encounter with Patrol
has thrown the issue into sharp perspective for me, along with the recent
incident in which an SJ Member was roughed up by patrol for riding off the
course and for daring to come back having been told to leave. |
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13th December 2002 |
A Snowboarder's
Checklist
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My first year snowboarding, I
didn’t really know what to take with me, and found that I was carting
all sorts of junk along that I didn’t use, and the things I did need, I
didn’t have. So being something of a control freak anyway, I started a
checklist on my Palm digital assistant. It started out as one screen’s
worth of items, but I was shocked by how quickly it grew. The checklist
developed categories and sub-categories, and soon I was scrolling for
several screens before I had all my kit together. |
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1st
November 2002 |
Introducing
"Snow Japan"
A look at the new re-branded site for 2003 |
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October 2002 |
Dirtsurfer Review
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1st October 2002
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An Interview with
Dirtsurfer
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July 2002 |
A
summer alternative to snowboarding!(?)
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June 2002 |
Year Round
Boarding
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April 2002 |
The
New Resort
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Summer
2001 |
Mountainboarding
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