[Nozawa Onsen and slow - something going on?]

At least its not like Italy where they have introduced speed camera's to catch people.

 

I wonder how they track you down afterwards?

[8-10 hour stop over in tokyo on return flight]

It's about an 1hr and a half to Tokyo station from Narita on the express. Suggest you try and stay for a few days or don't bother.

[Helmet or Not to Helmet]

Took a while but i'm in the helmet camp.

 

Don't want to be another Sonny Bono.......

[Waxing questions]

I found p tex candles quite tough. Especially if you have a white base. You need to stop the ptex from burning and going black before it drips onto the board. It's quite an art to keep rotating it and not letting the flame get too hot. Unless you are getting core shots all the time i suggest getting the shop to do it with a ptex gun.

 

As for the wax, one tip, dont leave the iron in one spot for too long. I learnt the hard way when i burnt a pair of ski's from the base through to the top sheet.

[Safety Gear]

In New Zealand the government gave free wrist guards to the rental places as they were sick of paying the medical bills for snowboarders with broken wrists. The problem however simply transferred up the arm and people started damaging their forearms due to the new (and now inflexible) stress point.

 

Moral of the story: Stick to skiing......

[What age did you start off your kids on snow then?]

As an instructor i have had kids as young as 2 in private lessons but would not nessicarily recommend that approach (quite scary for a kid of that age to be with a stranger in that situation). Suggest you keep it short and fun and just play games with them. Work on mobility and confidence in the environment to begin with. Young ones generally have a pretty short attention span so when they start loosing it suggest you take a break so that they dont hate it and refuse to try again.