Siem Reeves

ok, i just want an idea of what people think of this wee situation we currently have at our local hill. we have been skiing off the trail regularly and so do a few people we know. the patrol kinda know that we go there, but to date, we have only got little reprimands like "don't go there", "you should stay on the course" or a few fed up looks because we can't really understand what they are saying, but generally, we haven't had any trouble and don't go looking for it. a couple of weekends ago, a foreigner i don't know got stuck in the snow, off the trail with a japanese friend and were abou

well, when i was in niseko, there were a crazy number of people hiking to the summit the last day i was there, a steady stream... and very, very few of them had any gear... and who knows whether the ones who did have a pack at all carried any avalanche gear. fortunately, the japanese people i ride with are really responsible... most have all the gear, have done courses and regularly dig tests in the snow to check stability. they often head to hachimatai on powder days. riding with them is great, everyone is looking out for each other, and while we have a lot of fun, we also try to b

it worked!!! matches the skis you know... only in japan could i find a smurfette sticker to go on the tips of my big stix

oh the pressure of an avatar!!! someone already stole grover... that was my newschooler's avatar, super grover... not that that matters since snowjapan is way cooler!!! ok, will do it now since jared has stopped hogging the computer (and is finally sorting the cds he was meant to do months ago... ) HOORAY FOR SNOWJAPAN!!!!!

you'll just have to go by yourself your friends must be picky, slow!!! i don't really need anything except somewhere to ski, and food i'm happy to sleep in my van

thanks there!! unfortunately, i should have been in bed instead of playing with vids. was pretty tired getting up early for first tracks after late nights fiddling with movie stuff

nice one!!! i'd love to have a few more crashes on film (not that i want more crashes...) cos they feel so big a dramatic, it makes you wonder if they really are

It sure was - somehow it didn't look so bad on video. It hurt like hell being stabbed in the back with a ski!

Last years vid was a bit big so I chopped it down (by cutting out jared) and here it is. Music is Voilent by Stella there sj - I'll send it to you with screen shots on monday. Have a good weekend.

for the number of times we have been up the hill, we haven't really filmed much. the best skiing never got captured cos we were too busy skiing... also, we don't have a snow jacket for the video camera, so it's fine weather only at present. Quote: Some Quasimoto-helium-style female over some old skool beats going off on the soundtrack there. Who is it, btw? the music is from a DJ called P-Money from New Zealand. we'll be heading to hachimantai some time soon. a friend of a friend owns a bus, so all our skier friends at geto will hop on it and hopefully get some powder

yeah, i know, i did have to avoid those trees cos they only came into view at the last moment. anyways, here is some more of me skiing in niseko (again the skiing isn't too great - but it's pow and it's niseko...) i get retarded every now and then when i ski, that's my excuse here (snowjapan - you could stick it on the vid page if you like cos we prolly won't keep it on our site for long)

aahhhh, a bed... i miss our bed back home. bought it about 6 months before we left... beatiful slat bed made of solid rimu with big ball feet, low to the ground... it was the best bed ever... last time we slept in it was about a year and a half ago, only a year and a half more to wait!!!! now we sleep on a mattress on the floor. don't see any point in buying one, we'll just have to leave it behind!!!

hooray!!! this will be great!!! i know our japanese friends went crazy when we showed last years movie that we took using a digital still camera. there's just something about seeing yourself, your friends and places you know... Quote: How are you liking Adobe Premier? quite crap at it really cos i've only started nutting with it and the manual is enormous... i'm going with the play with it and use the manual when you get stuck appproach! i'll let you know when after i've used it more... as for a soundtrack, jared and i were gonna try and use as much kiwi music as we could

i rate spyder... nice stuff, strong materials... though that's what jared has (the fabric on my k2 jacket isn't holding up so well)

fantastic... over 20 days now and just had an epic weekend of powder, powder, powder!!!! first lifts, first tracks, beautiful snow everyone thought we were a bit strange yesterday on our fat skis when all the apparent powder was tracked

so who is making a ski movie this season? i've just spent the last 6 hours or so playing with adobe premiere, editing bits of footage from the ski season so far... not so much skiing (got a bit lazy with the video camera at times!) but plenty of funny stuff. ... who's making a ski movie? we should have a competition or something... view everyone's work at the end of the ski season. something to look forward to and have a few laughs over. we're gonna have a ski movie party with our friends so we can all watch the fruits of our labour!!

rabbits! jared spots them more than the average person and narrowly misses running the poor things down

16 now...

what worries me is the number of people without any kind of gear at all in niseko hiking to the summit (there was a steady stream) on a nice clear day... maybe 1 in 10 had a pack of some kind, and as to how many of them carried even a shovel i really don't know.

more comfortable than wearing a beanie!!!! also keeps the googles in place nicely... and of course, excellent for saving the noggin - having said that, doesn't stop you from getting the week long sore neck and headache after a major crash, but it would be worse without it, right?! not so many people around with helmets here, some racers, little kids, me and my friends...

geto, appi, then geto again. ha ha, jared has to go to sendai for some conference thingee!!!! sorry, that was mean

have to agree on the riding on the tails thing. my pow airs are mounted closer to the center of the ski, so to compensate, i used to have to lean back so i wouldn't go sinking and then diving into the powder. i'm finding it hard to stop doing that on the big stix. i dunno how much toque weighs, but for me at about 50kg, the 170cm big stix are pretty stiff... yep, gotta remember i don't need to lean back!!! they are so wide that i can get away with steering with one foot in the powder (so much for using both your feet in deep snow...). LAZY LAZY LAZY. telling myself to "att

13 days only so far cos the weekend we got back from niseko, we had to admit that we had to stay home, unpack and do some much needed laundry. having said that, how do you count a full day that includes a nighta as well? got 49 days last season, but hope to make it to at least 60 this season. the new big stix should help make the powder days fun fun fun!!!!!

if you are going to buy some skis and they will be your only pair, i wouldn't go for anything too fat. even though some reviews say the fat skis are just as good on the groomed, i think they may be stretching the truth. i did fine in the powder on my pow airs and they are probably only 75ish underfoot. 106 is getting quite a lot fatter... and while they make the powder (especially the heavier stuff) all floaty and nice, they really are clunkers on the groomed. like i said before, i still need to spend more time on them, but for groomers, i would much rather rip around on my "skinnier" skis

for me, i would much rather have my kids educated back home (nz) or in another western country - but that's only based on what i've seen in high schools here and what i've heard about japanese universities. that's my own opinion based on what i value in life. i want my kids to enjoy their years at school, work hard at the same time but do it because they want to (the entry requirements for university back home is so much more sensible than it is here) and not because they have to. it's hard to explain, but maybe the japanese system would make more sense and i would appreciate it more