Ocean11

rach, I was in two minds about going to Nozzle this weekend, but now I know you're going, I've made up my mind to go. It'll be ace! How can you go out 20 times anyway?! What do you feed yourself with, snow?

Mobi daaarling, you do it your way and I'll do it mine. Personally, having tried to answer some of these questions before, I don't want to do it again, but being a helpful chap I referred our new companion to where the info is. Also, people who welcome newbies to boards give me the creeps so I don't do it. My you do have a dirty mouth though...

Well, rach, if you need to ask that, I'd say probably not.

danz, I'm not jealous, I scored a ticket for there too! I hear mixed things about the place. The SJG All Resorts page shows that Cortina has the most amount of snow in Naggers - something of a Hakuba anomaly? See you in the powder.

Tomorrow's weather forecast for Iyama (read, Nozzle) has a little snowman for every time slot. That should cover up quite a lot of crusty old shite I should think. It's seriously cold in Naggers overall now.

buba - won't do it! LN, by now you should be getting a pretty strong impression of how tiresome the whole business is. Do you like having turp stains and wax flakes in your tatami? And we haven't even got into the instructions for shaving your edges yet... Of course, once you've bought the iron, the wax, the turps, the scraper, the brush, the tarp for the floor, the trestle, the file, the edge guides, the wax again, then it costs you nuthin' but a little time. Or for 3,000 yen you can have some peon buff it up nicely and sharpen the edges so fine you could cut a finger off, all

belle, I remember all my conversations with skiers and boarders on the lifts because there's been so few of them. First off, it's unusual to find yourself on a chair with a stranger, as most of them avoid 'mixed riding'. Actually though, talking to me would be like chatting with a Stormtrooper - the mouth doesn't move, and you can't see the eyes. I find being on a chairlift is like being stoned out of my head - I usually need to shake myself out of my stupour by the time the terminal appears. A bit of conversation would certainly alleviate the boredom. Ret's talk with me! So when are

Great woodlouse picture! My 4-year old was tickled to see his dad looking at woodlice on the 'puter. Armadiddlydum vulgare's name might be something of a put-down, but he sure is a handsome fella. Bet he can luff some big airs and not end up in the hospital. That pack ice is some scary sh!t though ain't it? I haven't even_looked_at a pipe yet in case I get tempted and end up with some painful regrets. Think I'll give it a couple more years of playing woodland faun before I get in amongst the glaciers. BTW, doesn't riding rails mess up your base and edges? I get upset just riding ove

rabs, this topic has been done already. Have a look through some of the earlier postings to get the quickest answer to your question.

Jinja, Nozzle is a good ways north of Matsupon, so it's hard to read the weather at that distance. It might be great by the weekend, but as danz suggests it might also be awful. I'm wondering about 'weather' to go up there myself or just go to somewhere fairly crap and close like Norikura just to get my fix. If you're coming from afar, wait for the really good snow and you won't regret it. But danz, if you go up to Nozzle, let me know, and we'll ride together like brothers, bullsh!t board postings notwithstanding.

Mobi you big sukebe, behave yerself. Blazer, you reckon you should put the quick wax on after sliding huh? Never heard that before, but it seems to make sense. Presumably that's after drying the board right? Any tech or reverend gentleman who wants to wax my board for their own enjoyment is more than welcome. I'll certainly remember to stand clear when buba hits his rhythm with his big strokes though.

miteyak, as I've said on another thread, two planks never appealed to me, so I stayed away from winter sports until last year. Never tried skiing. Hell, it might even be fun. I'd like to try fun skis, as one of the big turn-offs of skiing is having to hold poles. But I bought an Airwalk Champ for about 30,000 yen (more than half of which was shipping!), and all of what you say about your Burton applies. Unless we swapped boards, we don't know if it applies more to yours than it does to mine. I imagine that above a certain price point, you're going to get something that works, and having f

Pay someone else to do it. Seriously. Doing it yourself is messy, boring, and time consuming. That's my conclusion after doing it several times on my own, and several times with mates and beer. Also, don't bother with that stuff that comes with a sponge on the top that you slather on before riding - if anything, I think it makes your board stickier. It's good for waxing the car windows of people who annoy you though. (I was going to say, people whose cars have ski racks on them, but some qualified psychiatrists who read this might get overly concerned...) The ideal thing though, woul

Yeah, the best jokes always come labeled clearly...

Most of the music I listen to is 70s stuff - Television's Marquee Moon album is often in my tape slot when I head for the hills, but you can't knock the BeeGees either (much). The threads were often pretty awful though, and that carried well into the 80s. 34, I'm totally off balance generally and I have psychotic episodes when I see skiers going anywhere off piste. It's common to see me yelling from the chairlift at Nozawa "GET OUT OF MY POWDER NOW YOU HORRIBLE POOFTER!" and I go looking for them when I've finished my wallowing. Oh I admit it alright, I'm a full-on nutter. Are you happy n

34, you're such a bigot! You're so homophobic calling gays 'fags', and it's totally offensive of you referring to Japanese as 'slopes'. Really, you must have had some bad experiences as a child or something...

monkeyz asked a question - I answered it. Don't go psycho-anal-izing me now. It's only fashion we're talking about here...

What's with spine pads, and what do they look like? I've seen a few odd looking pieces of lingerie in the board shops - something that looks like a boxer's trophy belt with a plastic woodlouse or armadillo fixed to it, but I couldn't figure out how you'd wear it. Is that the spine protector? Probably good for ladies who like to get a bit lying on the side of the gelende...

danz! DANZ! Down boy. Read it again. It says 70s fashion = mostly dorky 90s fashion = pretty cool. Then it says skiwear = 70s style, boardwear = 90s style. It does NOT say skiers = dorks. uakattakanaa...? And danz, I've seen the new skiwear and it makes people look like ... fishermen. Just stick a sou'wester on 'em and they wouldn't look out of place on a trawler. buawahahahaha!

danz, you could pay maybe 50,000 yen for a board and the same again for boots/bindings. But you'd be the biggest sucker if you did. There are sales on all the time, and you don't NEED high-end kit. You can get sorted out with the basics for around 60,000 yen or less - and it still works fine.

Well, monkeyz, since you seem to have a genuine urge to learn, I'll tell you. It's the difference between 70s fashion and 90s fashion. Skiwear is tight-fitting and flashy, using gaily coloured materials that are proud to be man-made. It's modeled on the sort of clothes you'd wear for a night under the crystal globe with the BeeGees. Boardwear though looks like natural fibre even if it isn't and the colours are more subdued. The style is low key and casual. Now if you take any real dork, male or female, and dress them in a pair of baggy cargo trousers, already they start to look a lit

hutch, we have to keep an eye on what the enemy is up to. It looks like you're planning some incursions into boarder territory with those fat skis. Be warned though, my powder trails at Nozzle are protected with Claymores. I see danz in hiz pants is hankering after the powder skis too, but the ski stuff is all just too costly like weez boardaz iz long bin sayin. Personally, I have a bunch of boards for whatever kind of riding takes me fancy... Well, as you were. One of us fat board people will be checking in on yous from time to time...

badmigraine, now all you need is leg braces and you'd be invincible. With all that armour on, you'll be wanting to try jousting soon. Regarding riding the pow, that's 2nd season's curriculum. 1st Years do have their learning to do that only a year on the corduroy can provide. Pow is bloody hell for a beginner, as I can attest.

snobee, I'm sorry to say it, but what I mean by 'filthy' is more along the lines of gross, irksome, polluting. Rather than floating down, it drops with the speed of diarrhea. You can almost hear each flake go 'splat'. Better omen than rain I suppose, but snow in town is just a big inconvenience. My elbow still hurts from skidding off my bike on iced-over snow two weeks ago. I looked for the edge to control my slide, but sadly bike tyres don't have 'em.

Normally they don't even bother yelling at you up there. Been down that run repeatedly, with no attempt at pursuit. There's some filthy wet snow falling around Matsumoto at the moment that changed from very heavy rain at lunchtime. This season was looking good until a few weeks ago. I wonder if this mix of hot and cold adds to the danger of avalanches...