SantaCruz

I picked up a GNU Rider's choice BTX at the end of last season. Benn itching to use it alllll summer. For the GNU and LibTech boards, anything that's BTX is banana/rocker. BTX = Banana Traction, so it has the reverse camber and the magnatraction on it. But I've only ridden one board so far, so I'm not sure how qualified my opinion will be. Still I'll let ya know.

Since getting a few bumps and injuring my knee I've come to accept the gospels of pads and guards. Broken wrist is the most common injury for snow boarders. When you fall most people insticntively try to catch themselves with they're hands and snap goes the wrist. I still do that, fortunately I haven't broken anything. They are a semi-hassle since they restrict your movement by design, but worth it IMO.

I'm pretty tall 6'5 (196cm), 99 kg and have big feet. Looking at my shoes they say they're: USA - Size 15 UK - Size 14 EUR - 50 33 cm I've got 2 boards, one 165cm and the other is 162cm I believe. Both boards are wide. So they're both long by normal standards, but for my height it's what I need. In general the longer the board then the more stable it will be which translates into being able to go faster. But of course the flip side is that the longer/heavier a board is then the more difficult it would be to do turns. That's the general gist if things anywa

Originally Posted By: Adam Nest Hey Santa Cruz re: Niseo transfer - I am working with someone named Haruka. S/He seems amazing and is definitely very friendly and helpful. Hope this helps! Nice, thanks Adam. Tried to PM you but when I look at your profile it's not enabled. Anyways, my knee has been hurting me the past couple of weeks so I need to see the doc. Hopefully it'll be ok, but holding off booking til I'm sure. Crossing my fingers.

I'm in the same boat unfortunately. I injured my knee back in Jan. It had been feeling great for a whiles but has been hurting me recently =( Gonna have to see the doc I think.

Originally Posted By: Creek Boy yes. got any advice on video cams? Unfortunately I don't, I haven't rocked a video camera on the slopes before. Just taken my normal digital camera out and shot some crappy video using it. I'm thinking about picking up a new one though. One of the more ruggedized ones so hopefully it'll weather the slopes better. I'd be super happy if they have one of those that also includes GPS as well. geotagging is some neat stuff.

Planning on taking the video camera on the slopes?

GNU Rider's Choice BTX Wide 162

Nice. Yeah I mostly just go riding around Seattle with my gf. So the more the merrier really. I do the season pass at Snoqualmie. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it's really close so I can't argue with that. Def a fan of hitting it up for some night boarding. Re Niseko hotel/transfer - any suggestions would be awesome. I'm going to get my stuff booked in the next month. Cheers.

Nice, good to hear. I've had similar experiences doing hostels in Japan. When everyone is a traveler then it's easy to hang out.

I haven't been to Japan so I can't compare, but Whistler is really nice. It has got the whole village thing going for it, so if you're looking for some apres or night life along with your you then it's a great. I love living in driving distance from it, definitely drivable for a 3 day weekend from Seattle.

Originally Posted By: Ezorisu SantaCruz - I wonder if you can get a SEA-YVR-NRT-CTS routing? I know JAL flies into Vancouver, and I always see a lot of JDM peeps in the airport when I am heading back and forth to Whistler. It would be nice if JAL had a direct YVR-CTS flight, but I don't think they do... I'll check into that, it'd certainly think that it'd be less flight time for me. Originally Posted By: Adam Nest I got the ticket thru SFO on All Nippon Airways. Looks like I'll have a few hours to kill at NRT on my way to CTS and a few hours in SFO on the way home. Cool good to kn

Adam: Madison Valley, nice. I'm in Greenlake about to move though. It's a shame but I actually haven't made it to Baker yet! That's something I'll have to resolve this season. I was looking at ticket prices for Feb and I was seeing around the same price as well. It had some long lay overs though. SEA -> SF -> Tokyo -> Sapporo I think. Still, I'm pysched to be planning out my trip

No problems with drinking. Almost all my adventures in Japan so far have involved booze at one point or another

The gf and I were planning on doing a trip this coming season. But her school schedule is proving to be to hectic so now it's just me. I'll try and get some friends to go, but not sure how doable it is for some of them. I'm still interested in hitting up Niseko even if I have to rock it solo. I'm looking for some advice for people who may have done this before. How hard is it to make friends there? Just looking for people to do some turns with and hang out afterwards. I've done hostels before for non-snow vacations and liked it a lot since it's easy and fun to hang out with othe

Should I mention that I have a few friends who work at Quicksilver (who owns GNU)? They just had they're sample sale where they can pick up boards for $50. I had him grab me some size 14 boots for about $30. I think one guy told him his entire setup (jacket, pants, board, bindings, boots) was less than $200. Ridiculous.

Originally Posted By: Adam Nest Making my way to Niseko from Seattle at the end of January 2010. Hey Adam, I'm in Seattle as well thinking about going sometime this coming season. Where abouts in SEA are you?

Thanks SJ! Appreciate it

If I end up staying there I'll bug them SJ, any chance you can flip on PMs for me? Cheers.

Originally Posted By: skidaisuki I still say Hotel J-First in Hirafu is an excellent choice Is J-First not on the Snow Japan list of places to stay? I don't see it there, but if I Googl....err, Bing it then I can find it.

Nice, thanks for the info Mamabear - on both fronts there

Originally Posted By: Go Native Well most of our accommodation is now 10% more expensive than it was last week and by Nov much of it will be another 15% dearer. If you still want some good deals I wouldn't leave it too late... Tried to private message you, but it says it's disabled. GN, does your company do bookings from the states?

Still trying to sort this out. The gf is going back for her MBA, so that means either we can go during her winter break in late Dec or her spring break in March. Probably leaning towards March since the snow would be more of a sure thing. And I'm thinking the ticket's and lodging may be cheaper.

Word. What parts are u in now a days Jynxx? I'm curious if anyone on here owns a pension, it'd be interesting to find out what it's like. To be honest though, it'd be hard making myself work and run the place instead of riding all the time

Good advice Jynxx. Everyone couple of months I get wanderlust dreams and something like this pops up Still, it'd be nice having a base in Japan for boarding.