Plucky

Sorry brah...that was a wine induced post. Not like it will be much better sober. Give it a shot - come up north this summer if you can. I would love to have a convergence up here. All the brahs from SkiJapan. We do some backcountry at Hakkoda, surf the next day. We could make this fun. If you are interested, let me know. I'll have 2 extra boards for people and one suit. Can probably get some more suits too. Probably some more boards too.

Sorry brah...that was a wine induced post. Not like it will be much better sober. Give it a shot - come up north this summer if you can. I would love to have a convergence up here. All the brahs from SkiJapan. We do some backcountry at Hakkoda, surf the next day. We could make this fun. If you are interested, let me know. I'll have 2 extra boards for people and one suit. Can probably get some more suits too. Probably some more boards too.

My post above was bigtime tongue in cheek. I hope I didn't **** anyone off Indo - email me back! I'm putting in a big order to the states for some boards. I'd like to pick your brain for shipping info and I'm curious about what you are doing too. What a country we live in eh? Ski/board for 5 months, surf year round! enderzero - I wish I had some info about Syndey for you. From friends that have lived and worked down there, I hear it is very crowded and can be very aggro. Japan has some great surf and a completely mellow vibe. Plus, the skiing/boarding sucks down there

My post above was bigtime tongue in cheek. I hope I didn't **** anyone off Indo - email me back! I'm putting in a big order to the states for some boards. I'd like to pick your brain for shipping info and I'm curious about what you are doing too. What a country we live in eh? Ski/board for 5 months, surf year round! enderzero - I wish I had some info about Syndey for you. From friends that have lived and worked down there, I hear it is very crowded and can be very aggro. Japan has some great surf and a completely mellow vibe. Plus, the skiing/boarding sucks down there

Thanks enderzero. I kinda knew that, but I had a bit too much wine for proper brain function. Just read my posts and I think you will see that. Here's the pic where my season ended. It's not a huge cornice, but the snow was so heavy that I stuck on the landing, body went forward and the skis didn't. I already have a torn meniscus in my knee and this little jump just ripped it worse. I landed a good 20 feet past where the guy is in this pic. You can actually see the pit I made on the left side of the pic.

Barok - ignore the post above. Instead, eat as many pizzas as you can and then hop on an indo board. It's what I do and it works for me. If you are realy just a beginner, get a longboard. That 6'6" crap won't cut it. You'll get too pissed trying and will give it up quick. There are a lot of different takes on how you should learn to surf, but the assholes that say 'do it on a shortie' should be shot. Get a funboard or a true longboard and just go out and have fun. Try to progress from there. You have to learn to surf before you can surf and this will be the best way. If you have any b

Barok - ignore the post above. Instead, eat as many pizzas as you can and then hop on an indo board. It's what I do and it works for me. If you are realy just a beginner, get a longboard. That 6'6" crap won't cut it. You'll get too pissed trying and will give it up quick. There are a lot of different takes on how you should learn to surf, but the assholes that say 'do it on a shortie' should be shot. Get a funboard or a true longboard and just go out and have fun. Try to progress from there. You have to learn to surf before you can surf and this will be the best way. If you have any b

Take him surfing brah.... I've got friends coming out in 2 weeks from the states. 'We'll do a little skiing, but he will bust anyone on heree at surfing

thanks for the heads up Ocean! "I have yet to see them get quite so serious about dangerous driving" that line cracked me up. I was surfing last week and this dude has no etiquite. I would say , 'dozo', basically just go man and he ended up dropping in on 3 waves on me. I didn't get upset, but I did try to teach him something. He dropped in on me again, I dropped in and hit him in the head with my 9 footer. I asked him if he was okay, he saie\ hai and then he left. Pretty much pissed me off big. If the guy was on North Shore, he'd be dead. Luckily I'm a good enough skier

so we have 'gank' and 'clag'. I'm serious here people. Ocean, the whole point is it shouldn't be called powder. Slang will be okay for now, but I want some names for some of this shit snow we are getting. C'mon brudder, help this poor soul out.

Snobo - I'm not sure what mountain that was. My geography skills collapse when I get that far south. Either way, it was very beautiful and very, very fun to ski. Look at that bowl in the pic. I think I just orgasmed myself looking at it. What a blast that was! See my pow post - it was powder in the morning, but the afternoon...God I love skiing!

THANK YOU enderzero for posting those. I think I have it down now. I have a shitload of other pics. We got a bit tired of the Tazawako runs and decidedclimb a bit. The second picture is the ridge we hiked up. We made it to the peak after 2 hours and skied down. Well worth it. We sat on the lift with some locals later and they asked 'did you see the three guys climbing the mountain?' We just started busting up. The other pic is from Hachimantai Forest. It's OB, but you hike and you get rewarded. Here's one more adendum - I put these on 'moment of fame' and they s

Easily Hachimantai in my kneck of the woods. This Rutsu place sounds intriguing thouhg...

Well, that didn't work. How the heck do you post pics on here? I went to 'moment of fame' and it obviously didn't work. help please?

A great point was brought up by a guy in the ski club I help run today - "If it is heavy, if it's wet, if it's thick - why do they still call it powder?" I didn't have an answer for him. I thought it was a great question. He came up with it after we described skiing some backcountry 'heavy pow' earlier in the day. You have 'powder', you have 'packed powder' (if it's packed, how is it powder?) you have 'heavy powder' which makes no sense either. I know the Eskimos had over 100 words for snow depending on the conditions that snow was in. But when white man translated, all 100 words be

barok - the prefecture but not the city. If you are dyslexic you can see where I live. Otherwise, it's quite the brain tease to figure out. Why, you got something nasty planned?

Ray - I....have....a...hypothosis. Bear with me here. You know how when a lot of snow is supposed to hit Misawa but it always seems to bypass us to the North, South, East and West and we are left with a fairly clear 'hole' of decent weather over the city? Well, I believe that the Kami of Hakkoda takes our clouds and snow and places them smack dab on the top of the Hakkodas. He is basically saying "**** off you Ami's - no snow for you in town. Come play up here in this crap!" And when we have to work, he of course teases us with that incredible view we get from town. Hakkoda-san i

Hey hem now - pretty sweet place, eh? I got one of those flukey blue sky actually could see Mt. Iwake and the city of Aomori and more than 2 poles in front of me tree well spottin' ski bunny boppin' days last Saturday. The clouds did move in later in the day, but the famous 'Hakkoda Cloud' was nowhere to be seen. The pow was heavy as hell, but we still had a great time. seanbird (Larry Bird was my hero growing up - any relation?) - hem now hits it on the head. Wait until the Spring to do any hardcore backcountry up there. If you don't know the area, there's a strong possibility you

Dean, I'll gladly receive payment for any future ego pumping you may need This first one is on me though. I'll be at the Forest this Sunday (Feb 16). I'm really hoping for a day like I had two weeks ago. Lightest powder I've ever skied! I've posted on here about the place a few times - a true secret of Japan skiing - until your darn article at least Any chance you will be up there this weekend? (I'll be at Tazawako on Saturday, Forest Sunday) I've never skied the Resort but had to pick some people up there a few weeks ago after my day at the Forest. They had the biggest

SnoboYaro - a lot of good advice on here for you. If in fact you have torn your meniscus, you technically are okay to ski or board. This is the second time I've done it to my right knee. The first time was 3 years ago and I opted for surgery. I was off crutches in 2 days and back surfing (it was Summer) in 3 weeks. I decided against surgery this time around simply because skiing would be too hard in a recovery mode and I didn't want to miss any of the season. The doctors told me I really couldn't injure it any worse and if I could take the pain I was okay to ski (pretty much what badmigr

RICE, RICE BABY! R est, I ce, something else and something else (I don't remember how that goes exactly). Sorry to hear about the knee man. I myself have been skiing with a torn meniscus in my right knee all season. It's held me to going only once a week. Usually the pain goes away after giving it a week to rest, but it does hurt fairly severly about mid-way through a ski day. If you want to continue boarding/skiing, I'd suggest getting a brace. It may not physically help much, but it will keep your ligaments warm and give you some added mental confidence.

Right on the money - great article! Thanks for the read.

I'm feeling kinda juicy. Yeah, the snow up north really sucks right now!! It's been a very week year, I really hope the mountains hold the snow through the spring. This is the type of snow that will produce some big avalanche.

I HAD ROTS OF FUN!

enderzero - I am completely in love with the NW. Oregon is, and will always be my home. I love redirecting people to your state though! Keep Oregon Green - and local! I guess you are okay since you're from WA. Bend is an area I'm looking to live - more like Sisters or Chumalt because, like you said, Bend is blowing up. Bend is a mess right now, but should get better soon. What do you think about Wenatchee? Mission Ridge looks to have some backcountry potential. And, FYI - Hakkoda had great weather today. You would have been at home - Perfect NW cement. The pow su