[Yahoo Auction]

I didn't realise I had any replies on this thread and thought nobody cared about me! but I was wrong. Thanks everyone for your help, you guys rock!

 

What I ended up doing in the absence of your advice (ok so really it was ignorance or blindness because the advice was here all along) was buying a factory second from the US and having it delivered to my address in Niseko. It's a Burton Process (162), yeop completely and utterly mainstream, I know. But I have no experience and haven't tried anything myself so went with a general crowd pleaser, for a first board I think it will be great. I love it already and we haven't even met.

 

With regards to boots, I got super dooper lucky beyond my wildest dreams and a friend of a friend from my small home town had a pair of barely used Burton rulers that fit me like a glove. For bindings I ordered second hand contact pros (2011-2012) from over east and now all I have remaining to do is get a converter plate so they fit my channel board. I know this isn't ideal but at my level I don't think I'll notice the performance retardation by the introduction of the converter. So no Sapporo stop for me! straight to the snow!

 

Thanks again everyone for your help, I'll try to get off the Burton trail because I know there is a lot more out there.

 

Hope to see you all on the slopes!

[Yahoo Auction]

Hi everyone, pleased to meet you.

This is my first post, I'll try not to make myself look like an idiot.

 

So I only have about two weeks of experience snowboarding but progressed fast thanks to my surfing and skating infused upbringing. I'm doing the whole winter in Niseko and I know (I really hope) I will improve. I am trying to source a snowboard. What is the best way to do this? I have gathered from this forum and a couple friends of mine that it is essential that boots be fitted. So despite living in Western Australia I will go to the one snowboarding shop and get them fitted. What I really wanted to do is buy my board/boards and bindings from Yahoo Auction as they had some excellent second hand and old season gear. Seriously good stuff! and shipping within Japan is cheap. I wanted to pay from Australia and have my gear arrive at my address in Hokkaido before I did (staff accommodation). Is this impossible without a Japanese credit card? I can't do a bank transfer from my Australian account to their Japanese one? Mostly looking at the popular Burton models as they are commonplace on Yahoo and I trust them.

 

I have explored the option of buying in Sapporo. I would leave my suitcase at Chitose, catch a train to Sapporo and run around for four hours like a headless chook trying to find gear, before returning to Chitose and bus-ing to Niseko. I have looked at many posts and have a series of shopping options mapped out. Of course if you have any retail/shop suggestions I would be very appreciative. I would check second hand places before I looked at the sports stores like xebio etc, Haven't heard much positive about their gear. Of course I am a little worried about this option because I risk not finding anything of quality or in my size etc.

 

Another option I have considered is ordering from America. I see it is much cheaper but the problem is getting them to ship internationally. I managed to pick my pants, jacket, gloves and goggles up from dogfunk by picking the few brands they were allowed to ship but no luck with snowboards. If you use a third party to ship your gear from the US is it expensive? Can you recommend any companies?

 

And the final option would be to buy in Niseko but I'm not a millionaire and I don't want brand new gear anyway. It doesn't come with the satisfaction of a hard found bargain. Absolute maximum I would spend on board and bindings would be about 50000 Yen but being my first board I really don't want to spend that much. A friend might, just might, have a short board for me so I'm looking at planks for the powder, maybe a fair sized sherlock or process.

 

Thanks for your time