[Snow schools in Japan]

Hey Jared, Im NZSIA aswell, The SAJ have moved towards a Canadian/Austrian approach going on the theory that a ski doesnt need the turning or rotary movement anymore as sidecut does that for you. Remember in the old NZSIA manual about the Edge Pressure Turning thing? Well the guys have just knocked out the T part.

This guy that I work for has moved off in his own direction. The fact that he cant physically steer a ski like we can due to the fact that he's wickedly bow legged and skiis on his outside edges, has developed a style on his own.

You gotta see it man, its a laugh!

cheers

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PS. Do you work in NZ in the jp summer?

[Patrol these days my 2 cents]

Hi enderzero, nice to meet you.

 

The Patroller at Goryu is a close friend of mine and I think because her english is good she is told to monitor the snow forums.

She told me what happened on H47 with Barok or their version, difficult issue that one,

I believe that in the situation the patrol would of overreacted and done what he said they had done.

 

Cheers

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EDITED

[Snow schools in Japan]

Hey guys a quick one to ask anyones opinion on Snow schools in Jp.

I used to work at an SAJ school in Kurohime, got spoilt actually, was tricked into thinking all schools in jp were great, that school rocked and still does, unfortunately the school im at at the moment is no so great.

Ski school director has due to poor leg angles ie +8 degrees on both legs has developed his own technique and is teaching it to everyone. Thats cool but now he's making me teach it. You wouldnt believe this style, u have to see it with your own eyes, it is in my experience the most ****ed up style I have everseen!

Most ski schools around the world have been teaching positive foot steering to turn a ski, or as sidecuts have gotten bigger, to edge and pressure the ski itll turn..

This moron is teaching to weight your uphill edge and steer with your hands!

Looks goofy as **** !

Anyone else had any funky lessons?

cheers

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[Patrol these days my 2 cents]

HI guys, yeah I agree about the evac skills and av skills, maybe they dont need to be the strongest.

The funny thing about evac procedures in japan as far as chairlifts are concerned, its not the patrols responsibility in the event of a breakdown they hand that over to the ojiichans cooking nabe in the drive/return stations!

I got rescued once from a chairlift breakdown at kurohime, an old boy with a ladder got to me and my homestay mother close to 45 minutes after the chairlift had stopped! Bad conidtions could have been a much more severe situation.

As for Sugi Ocean11 your mates are right, those boys are on the power trip from hell.

Theres an old boy who lives his life his sled cruising up and down the hill doing sweat****all causing more of a hindrance than actually helping.

You come to Sugi youll laugh when you see him, hes the old boy with the 70's rayban aviator looking sunnies,wears a helmet like the bad dude off terminator 2 and wears his radio microphone on his shoulder like the swat teams do!

See him and youll **** yourself!

Hes the head bullie.

As for that top lift it does close at the slight wiff of wind.

The usually windspeed limit is around 30 knots side on to a line gusting over. That will shut your average coverless chair.

The one at Sugi is a hood lift as you know but can withstand around 25 knots accross the line.

Those boys shut the lift at 10 knots constant regardless of wind direction, but I dont think it is a patrol decision, more a liftie.

Bit of overkill I think but there maybe some logic to it.

But hey the snow there today was kick ass to say the least, would be worth making a trip down sometime soon.

cheers

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[Patrol these days my 2 cents]

Hey guys, nice to meet you all, I work at Suginohara ski school right now and have been for the last couple of years, prior to that I worked at Kurohime ski school and patrol, also gokurakuzaka in Toyama and Takamagahara at shiga only part time at shiga though.

I agree when you say about having high expectations of patrollers, they should be the strongest riders on the hill, but sometimes it boils down to an economic issue, pay peanuts and you get monkeys which sometimes I feel is the case here.

A friend of mine is a avalache freak who runs courses on awareness here in jp and he was offered a good job on patrol at Arai, the head of patrol at Arai offered him 800 yen an hour! Thats about 50 yen an hour more than a 7 eleven girl!

You can imagine his response..

 

As far as Barok goes and his story at Hak.47 the reason why I found this site is that a friend of mine works on patrol at Goryu and sent me this web page to ask me how I felt about his story.

I wrote back and told her patrol need to relise that they arent police.

But anyway another story, I share some horror stories with you guys sometime.

till then ride hard (whatever youre on)

[Patrol these days my 2 cents]

Hey guys, Lets get one thing right, I read about Barok and his situation at Hakuba 47... Thats bullshit about what happened there. I dont know the guy but the patrol have no right whatsoever to touch him.

Sad thing about it is thst whether we like it or not the legal system in Japan is not geared up in our defence. I have worked in Japanese ski schools and patrols for the last 8 years. I have to say some patrollers I have worked with have been some of the biggest cocksuckers you will ever meet especially the heads, they get this mind set that being strict means being safe, the total of it all means that are afraid if we go into the trees that they dont actually have the skills in the event of a avalanche to come rescue you.

Next time you go to a ski area in Japan, look at how many patrollers have transceivers on them, also look at how many are prepared for a situation for more than one person to have an accident. Almost none of them. Alot of patrollers I have worked for dont like the sight of blood for ****sake!

The fact of the matter is Japanese dont have the ablility to foresee any danger therefore dont have any safety plans in motion to compensate for an event happening. Once it has happened they think about how to fix it and no sooner.

On the flip side of that alot of geijin haved common sense when it comes to heading for the trees, I dont feel the problem is us going into the trees, its who sees and tries to follow ie: the avarage little Tokyo japanese boy on fun skiis with no ****in idea about what hes doing let alone where hes going, gets himself in the shit and dies in the trees.

The all of a sudden its tabbo to go outback.

The sum of it all guys, they will never break the spirit of riding so maybe japan has to wake upto the fact that people will always blast off piste and that they will never stop it, so they better work out a way of how to allow it to happen relatively safely.