WallyDD

It snows every day where I am and I just use regular wipers. Snow wipers are one of the dodgy unnecesary Japanese things that everyone buys just because everyone else has one. Just make sure you leave them up when you're not driving.

I'd say there will be no problems, as long as your luggage and snowboard are under the weight limit for your airline (maybe it's a good idea to check with the airline). When I flew back to Aus last year I took my board with me. Unfortunately, I already had more than the weight allowance in luggage (not counting the board), so the board was counted as excess baggage. The lady at Narita wanted to charge me 70,000 yen excess baggage, but I argued with her and her superior until they finally looked through their system and found that QANTAS has a special deal where snowboards and skis are only 3kg

I don't think you should be too worried if your bolts are coming loose once every week of riding. Just make sure you tighten them everytime you go out. Take it from me, if you don't tighten them it can be very, very painful. I rode over a fairly high tabletop jump, got some nice air, and on landing both my bindings decided to come loose at the same time. The right one turned about 120 degrees to the right, and the left one turned about 100 degrees left. My groin was not happy. Couldn't walk for a few weeks.

I'm looking out the window now at my local ski hill. They're repainting the chairlifts and cutting away all the scrub that's built up over summer. It's only about 500m from my window. I hate autumn. Come on winter!

Thanks for the advice. I still haven't decided what to do. Got at least a month or two to think about it. I did have a bit of a look on the internet and found some of last seasons Missions for about 17,000 yen, which is not too bad.

So, I let my brother borrow my board for a weekend away and guess what... he returned it with a broken toe strap and some really nice scratches. I guess that'll teach me. Anyway, after a little research I found that Burton are selling their capstraps separately. Not too cheap (about 5-6000yen), but not too expensive either. I was wondering if anyone uses these, and if so, what do they think of them. Do they make much of a difference to performance or feel? Are they worth 6000, or should I just pay another 10000 yen or so and get a nice new set of bindings from last year or the year b