ygrene

Hi everybody, As you guys probably know, I'm really big on the second hand boards but I've managed to get myself an invitation to the Burton family sale this year so I'm seriously considering picking up a new new board. The last time I bought a board that wasn't deadstock or second hand was in 2000! I'm eyeing up a Burton Nug 142. I've never ridden rocker before so I figure this would be a good start but I wanted to hear the opinions of people who had ridden the downsized boards such the Nug or the Rome Shank or the Rossignol Mini. Supposedly you can go down 10 cms in length and I normally

Yep, I forgot about Jimbocho. London Sports is usually the cheapest place for outerwear. Most of the stuff that they have there are the Korean brands like Nokjok and Felice that haven't sold well in Japan and usually about 5k rated water proof. Not bad for the price though and I'm sure if you spend some time digging through all the racks you'll find some nice stuff.

With layering on a budget, you can be fully kitted out for under 20,000 yen. First layer Anything non-cotton like polyester will work fine. Heck, you can use any old cotton shirt if sweating doesn't bother you too much. Otherwise, you can pick up a no-brand polyester long sleeve shirt from Xebio for 1000 yen. I got one that is actually a volleyball uniform. A little bit scratchy but works fine. If name brand stuff is your thing, you can pick up an athletic brand (Under armor, adidas etc) compression shirts etc from the outlet in Kaihin Makuhari for about 2000 yen. As you are a beginner

Shame it starts from the 15th of March when the best part of the season and incidentally,also that line's highest revenue producing period is over.

Personally no, but there is a lot of deadstock outerwear still with shop tags on which are the ones I have bought from there before.

I just popped into the famed Hardoff behind Lalaport in Minami Funabashi today and I'm happy to report that they have put out all their snowboard and ski stuff. Saw some nice stuff there. Not so many boards/bindings as there was outerwear - basically both sides of one aisle devoted to just old jackets and pants so if anybody is looking for outerwear on the cheap, this is the place to go.

Perfect timing! Nicely done.

I have the exact same board. Beautiful stick, the last board that Bryan Iguchi designed for Burton I believe.

I think it's ok to use an old gear, as long as you're the one who used it through time. But, if you'd bought it on second hand, oh well, I don't think it's still good to use. Qualities before and today may have been lots of difference, and there are lots of great new gears(technologically speaking) for Beginner today than the gears that beginners used before. I politely beg to differ. It's not hard to lay a second hand board on the ground and see if it is warped or not. Same as it isn't hard to check for camber, core-shots, delams and dents in the metal. I'm not against new gear, don't

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner! and out of left field too. I would have expected gloves to have been one of the sooner replaced pieces of gear.

Yep, my toque is about 15 years old, still going strong. As for boards, personally I'm not convinced that's been any big changes in snowboard construction. They're still pressed in the same machines using the same materials that were available in 2000 as far as I know. Sure, there's a lot more variety of shapes and camber types now though. I'm not an expert on snowboard manufacture but when I see all the technical jargon used to describe snowboards now, I'm inclined to think that alot of it is smoke and mirrors. Like I said, no expert here so I welcome any info to enlighten me. Boots are s

I was fixing up a pair of second hand bindings from 2002 the other day. The rubber grommets holding in the toe straps had rotted and basically disintegrated resulting in the straps pulling out last season (both of them, while on the hill and about 5 minutes apart!). At the time, the ski shop couldn't help me (they had no idea what I was talking about) so I ended up folding pieces of gum tape until I had a sturdy enough rod to feed through the hole left by the grommets that anchored them into the binding. Happily enough, I was good for the rest of the day. This has got me thinking about how via

I was looking at freeboards but as I understand it, they're more for down hill riding, although I've read that they carve pretty well. I watched one of the instructional videos and thought "that looks way too fast for me" and went for the longboard I have now instead. As a way for keeping in touch with snowboarding in the off season, its not bad. I find the constant pushing with your off foot really works up a sweat quickly so I usually end up finding a reasonably steep and long hill and carve down it. Its definitely fun in its own way.

So, finally after a lot of back and forth, I invested in a work bench with a vise, an edge sharpener and gummi stone, I took the plunge and tried sharpening the edges on my own. Very easy, took no time at all and I'm pleased with the result. Thanks everybody who took the time to help me out.

I've got a longboard too but with "surfy trucks" so you can kind of carve on it. Doesn't really feel like snowboarding at all because you can't slide laterally but its perfect for the concrete wasteland that I live in.

Picked up one of those kids boards today in Jimbocho for 1.7 man with bindings. I figured if that's 3 days of rentals, what the hell. Now all we need are the riglet reel and boots and we're good to go. I'll definitely be bringing those along!

Lots of wonderful advice in this thread. I'm thinking about Cortina or maybe Iwappara as someone mentioned it earlier. Definitely yokels riding out of control is something that concerns me so a quieter resort or a roped off area would be ideal. As for the rental costs, I think I'll just have to grin and bear it unless I can find a cheap children's board to invest in. The danger is that she'll hate and then I'll be stuck with a set of gear that will gather dust while taking up valuable closet space. Mamabear, I've been reading up on those. That's a Burton Riglet I believe, if I do pick up a

We're planning on renting first and seeing how we go. I'll leave it up to her whether its one plank or two. Hopefully, I'll have a riding partner in 10 years time. Optimally I'm looking for a ski resort that is generally on the quieter side and has a roped off kid's learning area. Right now I'm considering Happo. The last time I rode there was over 10 years ago so I'm not really in the know about what its like now. Is it still massively popular?

Which helmet was that Snowdude? I'm pretty happy with mine, i guess for the price I can't really complain. The only negative that I can find is that the ear covers are only held in by friction so that they have a tendency to fall out. On the other hand, I sent off an e-mail asking about the forehead gasket (a little strip of material that closes the gap between helmet and goggle) and they sent me one in the post for free. I have the RED tracer helmet btw.

Haha, yeh I was reading that some people put their kids on skis first in order to build up their leg muscles and switch over to a board later.

Bubs has expressed an interest in starting up snowboarding this season. I've been looking at various resorts that offer ski schools for groms and was wondering what have other people's experiences have been? Any recommendations?

Yeh, some places are really overpriced. I got mine off Rakuten and I think it was cheap because Big B ended their RED line and rebranded all their protection gear as Anon so the shops had to dump all their old stock. Just had a quick look at Rakuten, they had this Head helmet for 4k plus shipping (if you don't mind the ski brand) - http://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/mall/helmet/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-101094/f.1-p.10-s.2-sf.0-st.A-v.2?grp=product

I picked one up last season for 6000 yen. Actually its the one in my avatar. Its a RED branded one (i.e. Burton) and I would consider it pretty good for what it is.

Decided to swoop in and pick these beauties up now that the new 2015 AK stuff has come out. Just some advice to people thinking of picking up last years AK stuff like I have - the Cyclic pants have a crotch section that is quite high up and could be uncomfortable for some. Luckily, I tried on both pants and jackets in stores at Jimbocho. My intention was to buy from there but nobody could match my budget so I got them online instead. If you can't try them on, just be aware and maybe aim for one size up.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt but since they're going to be taking a layer off with the base grind anyway, its probably not needed. I remember having a base grind done on a board at the snowboard shop in Ueda, Nagano and it was still waxed. I don't think it will make any difference to the stone grind machine.