Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 is this normal for furano then? I thought that it being in Hokkaido, albeit inland, it would get almost the same snow as Niseko. Honshu has really had great snow when it finally arrived here this year. Ippy, have you tried out the Bataleon yet? Link to post Share on other sites
SKI 15 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Furano usually gets more. It has been cold and dry the last week or so. Of course, 1m or 2m or 3m doesn't matter at any time it's the top bit that matters. Though more if always better and they could do with some for sure. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver Ippy, have you tried out the Bataleon yet? Yeah dude, spent some time on it at niseko. Clearly im too old for the deck i have, but man oh man, it blew my socks off. I know its easy to say "its all about the rider", but may the good lord strike me down if im lying: that deck made riding fun again! What really shocked me is that i have their softest deck and that thing can seriously charge. Hold on, i worte my first impressions of it at trusnow. Ill see if i can dig it out: Quote: heres my take on the airobic (155 - me=73kilofatass) Went out on the airobic last night thinking it would a) fold up on me, and sink. Indeed, its because of this ive been here a week and yet to get on it. I just assumed it would be a complete dud in hokkaido powder. I tell you this kiddies, bataleon suits me down to the ground Havent had as much fun on a snowboard since last year on the scope. The board KILLS the scope for stability, and when you lock in on a carve you really feel like its on rails. In pow it does sink mind you (though not that bad, indeed it floats better than you might expect) and pressing it feels a little uncontrolled (rider issue). I can get really nice controlled tail presses from the scope but cant seem to pull the airobic up all that much without feeling like im sliding out one way or the other. BUT when you want to tail block, its effortless (though i only know this because my half cabs keep trying to land vertically - probably because im not entirely used to the pop yet ). Basically the deck is awesome for stability, and really is catch free. If you dont carve it and its bombing it will start sliding out behind, but getting on a carve was effortless anyway. Id rather be on edge anyhoo when im bombing so its no skin off my nose and it only happened the once, but i figured it was worth echoing the point above just because it is true and can happen. In the negatives, it hasnt got great float. Its better than the quiver killer, but its nothing like the charlie... obviously. I dont think its got as good float as the indoor/scope either. For nice long tail slides, the scope also wins. But for forgiveness and happily dropping into switch the airobic wins. Its totally catch free. Finally, its really poppy. Only found its sweet spot a couple of times over little rollers and bobbles on the mountain, but when you do find it, it takes off. I can still ollie easier on the scope, but i reckon thats a technique issue for sure while i get used to ollying on camber again. All round i cant quite retire the scope because it has some great advantages (float in particular), but damn, the airobics the most fun ive had here so far and i havent even taken it into the park yet I still think the funkink would have suited me more (not least because its got a setback on it which would definitely be handy out here) but im really glad that it wasnt just the hype talking. The board was surprisingly more feisty than i expected and definitely holds its own in some of the parts its not really expected to. I do like a good charge, and if theres one thing im okay at its bombing, so i wasnt holding back on it i promise. It gets a bit chattery at high speed, but it doesnt feel like its going to fold on you, and that was just awesome. It genuinely picked my trip up a bit. Instead of looking at little features and wishing i was on something a little more playful (as i feel riding the charlie), its great to know that im on a deck that eats that stuff up for dinner All in all, im loving it so far. I cant help but think though that if this board does all that, the evil twin must be raging! As for the riot... Basically i dont need a jib board, but i took what i got, and honestly its not making me feel like ive got a deck i dont really want (except through the assumption that if their flexiest board is this fiesty, then the stiffer boards must be freaking insane!) I spent almost an hour fondling the riot they had at rhythm trying to figure out a way to get it, and my other three decks home without incurring a massive bill for overweight luggage. 45,000 and i would have had the one board to rule them all it broke my heart seeing it and leaving it. Chips or no chips (the top sheet's a bit messy), that deck needed to be mine. Im a full on bataleon convert. I knew i was getting carried away by the hype, but dammit if the thing seriously did way more than even i expected it to do yeahforit4ife! Saying that though, took it out in furano today, switched boards to the quiver killer and had a way better time. Still, if i had a riot or a jam im pretty certain i would have had an even better time of it Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver is this normal for furano then? I thought that it being in Hokkaido, albeit inland, it would get almost the same snow as Niseko. Furano doesn't get as much snow as Niseko but the locals say that it's drier, being further inland, etc, etc. At the moment though, more of anything would be good! Nice review Ippy and welcome to Furano Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 shit.....I'm now wishing I bought the Jam!! Funny cos recently I've been thinking that I should get a softer board to develop that side of my game, but I don't want it THAT soft.......sounds like my first impression that Jam was for me was spot on Link to post Share on other sites
kaiser soce 0 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Originally Posted By: Mick Rich Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver is this normal for furano then? I thought that it being in Hokkaido, albeit inland, it would get almost the same snow as Niseko. Furano doesn't get as much snow as Niseko but the locals say that it's drier, being further inland, etc, etc. At the moment though, more of anything would be good! Nice review Ippy and welcome to Furano That's true. If you study the JMA's precipitation radar when it snows and correlate that with the ski resorts locations on google maps you can see a pretty predictable pattern develop. In my experience Hokkaido's major resorts snowfalls go like this- Niseko area, Kiroro and Sapporo Kokusai get very similar amounts and top the charts for snowfall. Rusutsu is a little behind. Teine doesn't get nearly as much as Rusutsu and can take much of the season to get really good. Then would probably be Furano followed by Tomamu. I guess Furano would probably be lucky to get 7m a year and Tomamu less than that again. Link to post Share on other sites
kokodoko 67 Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Clouds are coming over and i saw a few little flurries here and there. I am hoping for some schnee este nacht. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Originally Posted By: kokodoko Clouds are coming over and i saw a few little flurries here and there. I am hoping for some schnee este nacht. Looks like we're going to get some tonight and tomorrow Went to Kamui today and had a blast! Don't get me wrong, I love Furano (it's my second season here) but I left Kamui with a much bigger smile on my face. Maybe it was the foot of fresh powder or the acres of off-piste and tree runs that you're able to ride without fear of losing your pass to Ski Patrol, but if I was only in this part of the world for a few days, I know which place I'd prefer to go to. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 in all sincerity, the big reason i came here was for kamui. Id be there today, but secretly called last run in my head yesterday and whacked my knee into a tree. Actually waht i did was said "even though this is my second last run, i know that ill be leaving after it! the system works! its not last run, so nothing will happen to me! /ipps looks at a line thats way too tight for him. /ipps picks up a spot of speed. /ipps clatters knee into a tree. Never call last run kids! even when youre pretending yorue not calling it. The last run heebeejeebees will always get you Walked on it today, its hobbling, but its not as bad as i thought it would be. I dount itll be fully healed without a few days rest at least, but screw it, come hell or water high, im not missing the last bit of powder for this season! tomorrow ill be in kamui, and maybe wednesday ill be in tomamu (the dude at the alpine backpackers reckons id like it much more than kamui because of the boot pack face they have). Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Sorry to hear about the knee Ippy! Hopefully you can ride it back into shape soon Was thinking about a Tomamu trip myself but don't think I'll make it back in time for work! & having said what I said yesterday, I enjoyed Furano today! Amazing what a bit of fresh snow can do! Link to post Share on other sites
cheeseman 1 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Did you take your cheese friend out today? Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Nah, like Ippy, it decided to have a few days off Link to post Share on other sites
foreversnow 5 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Only 3 more sleeps and we will be on the slopes of Furano!! Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Have an all-night party tonight (or indeed tomorrow night) and then you can say it's only 2 more sleeps! I think that's a Top Tip. Link to post Share on other sites
kokodoko 67 Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 15-20 cms of snow today. awesome. no photos coz i just skied and skied and skied. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 kamui was awesome. Think i did something nasty to my middle finger, but still didnt do anything to disrupt the fun times had there. You could shut your eyes at 3pm and still find a fresh line of at least knee deep pow. If this is the last day of the season for me i finished on a definite high. Great place and i reckon its got a few bluebirds left before the pow becomes completely tracked out. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 The thread subject says photos, so any visual evidence to put forward ippy-san? Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 alas my shockproof camera has been successfully shocked! Every day i shock! SHOCK!!! Every night i shock! SHOCK!!! (a bit of kpop there for you). Smashed the view screen, but took plenty of pics. Just no idea if any of them are going to come out by the time i get back to kankoku and upload them. Theres going to be a lot of crap pics i reckons. Anyway, tomorrow is tomamu, so we'll see how that one goes. hopefully the wind tonight will fill up the tracks for tomorrow. Looking forward to that free play ridge they have. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Looking forward to hearing about Tomamu! Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 alas you wont be hearing it from me. My middle knuckle is now the size of a small melon so i figured 7500 yen to go on an hour and a half bus ride to a place sans snow to nurse my new claw was somewhat out of the question. Link to post Share on other sites
seemore 66 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 How did you do that Ippy? Sounds like a skiers injusry from a pole. Seemore Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 just a bad fall. I bootpacked out of some sketch terrain, but didnt rest, so had three quick falls straight after. Probably a consequance of wrist guards since the wrists are fine but the fingers probably carried through the momentum of the fall and bent back a bit hard. Nothing too ridiculous, but definitely somethings sprained a bit Link to post Share on other sites
brit-gob 9 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Surely not a water melon? Hope it gets better soon. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Hey Ippy, how's the melon? Couldn't wait for you to go to Tomamu so went there myself today - review and piccies on separate post. Link to post Share on other sites
MummySkier 0 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 The melon! I'm glad we didn't get visuals on that one! Where is the Tomamu review Mick, we are thinking of going there next year. Link to post Share on other sites
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