Fang

Called Hotel New Belnina in Tsugaike Kogen in Dec to ask about booking a room, and they were kind enough to tell me not to bother because the snow sucked.

Cover any tats with elastoplast/elastic sticky sports tape or similar. Mixed bathing ("konyoku", not "konyaku" which is even more rubbery) is relatively rare although more common in Tohoku than most other areas. There are a few mixed onsen near hachimantai for example. There are very few legit onsen that allow you to bathe in swim suits (it's considered gauche) however when you enter konyoku there are separate changing areas and usually a divider/partition in the water near the change room so that you can't be seen by the opposite sex before you enter the water. Also at most konyok

Originally Posted By: grazza Never tried steps ins, you don't see them much these days. Don't know why. A rear step in binding would make life easier though. Here's another idea. Skating on a snowboard would be way easier if you could work out a front binding that could could be quickly rotated so that your front foot went lengthwise along the deck, then click back across the deck when you want to slide properly with both feet in the bindings. This would let you skate properly like on a skateboard, and would probably make traversing a breeze. Any engineers out there? Something like t

Originally Posted By: gareth_oau Originally Posted By: grazza Minuses = the pain of the flat traverse, all that unbuckling and buckling whatever happened to step-in bindings? they were in about 10 years ago? a pity the rear bindings cant be a blend of what we have now, and step-in K2s brilliant

Originally Posted By: torihada Originally Posted By: Fang I'm tossing up between a Protec and Giro, the shop near my place doesn't have either in my size so haven't been able to try them on, have to get to Ochanomizu soon. How would you rate the Protec generally? My head is still in one piece after numerous crunches. It has adjustable vents which is good and ear pieces that are removeable. Cheers

Originally Posted By: Mamabear I dont think I began in this thread full of emotive tosh, I don't think you did either it was just the one comment that got my goat. Originally Posted By: Mamabear methinks you might be playing devils advocate here Fang, To a degree, I certainly think wearing a helmet makes sense for me but I don't think the issue is as cut and dried as helmet advocates make out. When the bicycle helmet laws came in in Oz I know lots of people who simply gave up cycling, if that was a general trend then as a people we may have paid a greater cost in l

Originally Posted By: torihada I had a friend who had brain damage from a low speed impact with a car, landing head first. I'm sure his family wished he'd been wearing a helmet. That's tragic and I wouldn't presume to question your feelings or especially those of your friends family however I don't think it is relevant to the discussion. Originally Posted By: torihada Its a Protec, can't remember the model name.You can see it here: I'm tossing up between a Protec and Giro, the shop near my place doesn't have either in my size so haven't been able to try them on, have

Originally Posted By: Youdy I wouldn't bother arguing fang their helmets are blocking their ability to think rationally! but you did just give me a great idea for my case study for uni(psych/law majors) Sounds interesting and challenging. Originally Posted By: Youdy Does wearing a helmet lessen the amount of perceived risk? increasing your chance of participating in dangerous behavior and in turn injury Be tough to answer, I would guess that the vast majority of people who participate in extreme or dangerous snow sports wear helmets and in Japan at least the majority on piste do

Originally Posted By: Mamabear Im with you Torihada. Fang you clearly have a problem with helmets. I totally respect the choice of adult persons who decide that helmets are not for them .... but to try and make out they are actually MORE dangerous than not wearing one....uuummmm....sounds like you are looking for justification for not wearing one. My teenagers were really ANTI helmet when we began snow sports and kicked up big time but even my image concious grommets are fully supportive now. To the extend that Papa has been boarding without a helmet this trip as his got lost and he ha

Originally Posted By: torihada If you don't want to wear a helmet, fine. I do wear one. Originally Posted By: torihada I've got no problems with people not wearing them (though kids should be mandatory). Why? Any evidence that helmets reduce major head injuries or fatalities for kids? There is some evidence that as far as bikes are concerned that they actually increase the incidence of the above due to increased risk taking behaviour. (As I said I haven't seen any info about snow helmets). Shouldn't this kind of decision be left up to the parents? Originally Posted By

Originally Posted By: torihada I had a couple of tumbles last week and was glad to be wearing a helmet, especially after checking my speed; had my garmin GPS on me and I clocked 56 mph on one run. I didn't think I was going that fast and after that decided to wind it down a bit. Imagine cracking your beanie clad head on a groomed piste at that speed. Imagine increasing the mass and angular momentum of your head such that what would have been a nasty crack on the head turned into a fatal brain stem injury. As I've said before, I'm not saying that snow lids are a good or bad idea jus

Originally Posted By: stemik but its not just about reducing fatalities, its more about reducing injuries. And perhaps increasing fatalities?

Originally Posted By: gurgle Good point. Mine has saved me from a very nasty head versus ice incident, which probably would not have been a "fatality", but a very bad one for sure. Still won't be going out without it. How would you know the outcome wouldn't have been the same or better without a helmet?

Originally Posted By: macmeh I swear by helmets when i'm out on the bike though! 3 accidents, including a 4 week layup in hospital have taught me that a good quality bike helmet is worth every cent! If you're talking bicycle helmet then you're talking Bollocks. The piece of plastic you had on your head likely did nothing. Motorbike helmet is another story. Originally Posted By: macmeh Perhaps I should reconsider the helmet decision for the snow though! I guess it would also keep my head nice and warm at the same time! Snow helmets are a lot sturdier. Not saying they a

Don't know anything about ski/board helmets, but if you look at the actual science in regard to bike helmets you will see that they do SFA in most cases except for preventing road rash, and may in some cases make head/neck injuries worse. Of course snow sport helmets seem to be more solid than the expensive plastic ice-cream buckets that people wear on their bikes. I have a Bad Lieutenant that I used to wear at the insistence of she who must be obeyed, but it's too heavy so　I'm looking at getting a Giro G9 or G10, anyone have any recommendations about which is better or maybe a differen