Sammy5

Cool, thanks for that. Boards on order and all that jazz. Is it snowing yet? I've heard about the ski patrols being quite strict on out-of-bounds riding in Furano; whats the worst they can do to you if you get caught? I'm not planning on getting caught, but it helps to know these things.

Sideways is rightways for me

Yarp, 2 more brits coming over from the Westcountry this winter! ...and TB - didn't the arse fall out of the Nova Language thing a few years back?

I worked a season back in 05/06, hoping to improve my paragliding. Luckily I saw the light and get about 8 weeks a year now, snowboarding of course

Yeah, I'm a good 80kg naked, so, like most human beings, a bit heavier than you Jynxx! You're right in that the Völkl is the one I *want* to take, but it's quite a specialised board. It can handle almost anything but it's only ever really at home in the fresh. All we really want to do is ride powder, you can go anywhere for groomers or parks, so why bother? I guess that doesn't make us so different here.

A 'Safety Conference' is also a euphemism for sharing a joint in some parts of our troubled world...

A mate and I have 30 days planned for January, 3-way split between Hukbua, Niseko and Furano - will we be too early for good pow?

Hello SnowJapan people! Me and his nibs are heading out for a taste of all this lovely powder we keep hearing so much about this coming January. We've got a 30-day trip planned, with time split fairly equally between Hakuba, Niseko and Furano. I'm a bit stuck with what boards to take; the main board is an easy choice; a 157 Lib Tech Cygnus - a banana thingy so it's great in pow as long as the terrain's steep enough and you keep your speed, but it's shite on traverses and flat stuff. For the second board I was going to take either a Malolo (163cm, pintail with a bid old nose