ghostofwar

ok but was the japanese response more like "WTF is this new thing?" or was it the openly hostile reaction that american snowboarders seemed to face from the ski industry?

I personally was not around for the beginning of this thing in any country, but First Descent told us all the story of the snowboarding REVOLUTION... in America and parts of Europe. Basically what I got out of this movie was: snowboarding was originally rejected and looked down upon, snowboarders were banned from the lifts in the 80's/early 90's, etc. Then, whoops, snowboarding is cool all of a sudden and the snow industry does a 180 to cash in on the popularity. What was the story in Japan? Did they embrace and accept it right away or was there an initial rejection here as well? Anyb

from what i hear boa is a nightmare dude. practically nobody has anything good to say about it. never used it myself but you can find about a million forums out there where people badmouth it for pages and pages.

yeah they have a ton of forward lean built in. I liked it at first but now I wish I could back it off and i really can't. but mostly the team skybacks are just higher than I'd like them to be.

what's too small, the lowback Cartels? If you bought a pair I'll trade you the highbacks (skybacks) off the ones I bought in the US...

Oh also the lowback Cartel is Japan only. Wish I new that before I went back home for Xmas and bought a pair with the team skybacks.

Burton makes the X8, the Aura, and the Avenue boards, also the Serrow boots only sold in Japan. (I guess the X8 will be available all over next year, but this year it's Japan only.) Also Japan sometimes gets late release graphics that are unique to this country. Why?? (I can see the graphics as a kind of gimmick, but why sell actual hardgoods only in Japan?) Do other companies do much of this?

Well that does me no good up here but thanks.

And about the environment wasn't somebody on here selling environmentally friendly wax at a showing of Bikecar or something? Is that stuff widely available? (Also totally off topic, but how is Bikecar?)

No I hadn't thought about it but that's a good idea.

Quote: Originally posted by SirJibAlot: I don't know about Toko, I usually use OneBallJay. Seems to work well, no complaints here... -SJA Where are you getting OneBallJay in Japan? Or did you bring a bunch over with you? I've never seen it here, even in specialty shops.

It's too cold to go out on the balcony to scrape my wax off, so I usually do it in my kitchen (as it has the most sweepable floor). The shavings get all over the floor and my clothes. Harder waxes basically turn to dust as I scrape and the particles fill the air/my lungs. How dangerous is this to my health? Let's say I wax and scrape about once a week. And I know that this problem would go away if I just scraped at the base of the mountain like a lot of people, but I'm always too anxious to get on the snow so I don't want to waste twenty minutes of the morning scraping in the parking

I do nighters almost every day after work (resort 25 minutes from my workplace). If they didn't offer nighters I might not bother to buy a season pass, as there are so many ski-jos in the area that I'd rather spend each weekend at a different one (since none are really that big).

To be honest I don't really give a shit about any opening ceremony... is the place going to be snowboardable or what?

Not really a webcam but if you go to http://www.zao-ski.or.jp/ they have pics, most recent one is from the 19th. Most recent bulletin is from the 24th, the one that claims a 12/2 opening.

Crap.

I second exactly what daver said. ...that said, is Zao opening up on Saturday or what? Their website says so, but the pics of the slopes don't show much snow and haven't been updated for almost two weeks. What's the deal?

Rag doll, not an age thing, I'm 25. ...that's still young, right???

What do they have to do with each other? I'm watching Absinthe's More and it kind of kills the mood for me when I see dudes posing like gangsters in a rap video. Not even standing on a board, just posing against a wall waving their arms with their fingers splayed in mock gang signs. Give me a break. I can enjoy the flow and beat of the music and it does fit the pace of the riding a lot of times, but let's face it snowboarding is basically a sport for people whose socio-economic situations free them from about 99% of the issues hip hop culture is centered around. I have nothing against hip

The bag I have isn't all that padded but it has extra room as it's meant to hold a board + boots and outerwear, etc. So I guess if I just pad it with laundry or newspapers to fill it out it should be fine. Will they let me take it on the plane or will I have to check it? Fattwins I'm buying Burton. Japs love their name brands so I save myself about 2man yen by buying it at home. Hell, my local shop here sells just a sticker with the Burton logo on it for 1500 yen.

I'm going home for X'mas (to the US) and since everything is hell of expensive here I'm planning to buy a new board in the states and bring it back with me to Japan. Will I have any problems doing this? I have a board bag to put it in, but will they even let me take it on the plane (they must have size restrictions?). Will I even be able to check it? Will they charge me extra due to the length (only 158 but still longer than the normal allowable luggage I assume). Also should I pack or pad it in any special way so that the board isn't damaged during the flight? Any tips appreciated. Tha

I hope to get a lot of nighters in this season. Should I stick with my regular orange-tint goggles or would I be better off getting a second pair? I thought clear ones (no tint) would be ideal but I looked around online a bit and can't even find any for sale. So what's the best color for nighters?

No but it was sunny and warm so I hit the skatepark all day after like a solid week of rain and crap weather. Almost as good.

Don't remember the exact price, but I think it was about 1.4man. Doesn't seem that unreasonable by Japanese standards seeing as they sell for about $100 in America. I can try them on in the store, but it's not really the same as riding with them. If they are supposedly tighter in the nose, it might be the kind of thing I wouldn't realize until I leave them on for a few hours and then they start to hurt.

Tengendai in Yamagata was supposed to open last weekend, but the weather crapped out on us. Zao is next weekend. Any place in Touhoku have snow already? I heard there was some kind of snow event two weeks ago in Fukushima, but was it real snow or did they make it for the event and it's gone now? I wouldn't mind driving a few hours as I have zero to do tomorrow.