Tachypsychia 13 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 So when did you start getting into winter sports? Was it a yearly vacation your family always did? Or did you see some crazy big mountain snowboarding video? Did you get into skiing in college as an elective? Lets hear your story! For me- As a child I really wanted this video game called 1080 Snowboarding for Nintendo 64. I couldn't get my parents to get it for me, but it was on display as a demo at the local toys r us. I would walk there every day after school before my parents got home and play the game. I loved imagining me doing the tricks and big mountain jumps. Took me over a month but I eventually beat the game on my own save file. I went back one afternoon and it was replaced by some other game. Unfortunately, the controller didn't allow you to put a memory pak in it and get the save file, so I never wanted to play it over again after that. The first opportunity I had to actually snowboard was about a year after that with my dad. We went to a resort in the Appalachian mountains where I eventually went to college. I had a lot of fun but was terrible and got really frustrated with the learning curve. The desire to snowboard stuck with me from childhood so when I moved there for college I signed up for classes and got the seasonal night pass several years in a row, enjoying nightly sessions several times a week. Now that I live in Japan I have an even greater opportunity to hone my skills and continue this passion. Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan#Andrew 6 Posted January 31, 2014 SnowJapan Admin Share Posted January 31, 2014 Came to Japan on the JET Programme in 1992 and placed in Yuzawa. Never really thought about skiing before I came here, first ski at Mitsumata that year. Been in the area ever since. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I bet there's quite a few people who went over to Japan and had their first ski there. Ii ne. My first time was in Austria. Really wanted to go and managed to with friends during college. Hooked straight up! Link to post Share on other sites
Chriselle 158 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Never skied...other than the odd school trip or trip with friends until my early twenties. From 3 to around 18 my life was hockey. I played AAA rep hockey all the up and it was pretty serious with always the pro scouts out keeping tabs on us. Lots of traveling and a huge commitment by our parents. After Uni... I lived in Vancouver and was up at Whistler every weekend but I didn't get really hardcore about skiing until my three years in Hokkaido. I've been at it pretty much ever since. If I had a rink closer to me I'd be dawning the blades still, too. Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 When did I get into winter sports? Well, it all began when I was born in Canada. The end. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Chriselle 158 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 When did I get into winter sports? Well, it all began when I was born in Canada. The end. Haha....I was being modest at "3"... In those days even Victoria got quite a bit of snow. Link to post Share on other sites
MagSeven 40 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I was really lucky as a kid that my parents were (still are) keen skiers. I started when I was 4 and went every year till I turned 18 and left school. Then worked for a few seasons in the French Alps and one in Whistler before and after uni. Then got a real job, a girlfriend who became the wife, bought a house and kind of resigned myself to being just a week or two a year skier. Then decided to sack that in, quit our jobs and head to the snow again. I'd always wanted to ski Japan, so we applied for JET, requested a Hokkaido placement, got it and have been here for 3 and a half years now. Luckily my wife is a keen skier too, otherwise we'd never see each other in the winter! 1 Link to post Share on other sites
TsugaikeKogen 79 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Tsugaike Kogen Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Well, I was born in London Ontario and we got shitloads of snow in the winter because of the lake effect. My dad used to make skating rinks in our backyard each year with dreams of me being the next Gretzky. When I was 8 or so we moved to a small town at the top of the Niagara escarpment where we used to set up runs with Mogul Monsters (plastic super cheap snowboards). While I was in Canada though I pretty much only ever skied. It wasn't until I came to Japan that I started boarding. Link to post Share on other sites
onehunga 26 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I was mid twenties, living in London. A friend was going to the Italian Alps with her friend. Friend pulled out, so I went instead. First taste of skiing, and probably about the third or fourth time I'd even seen snow. However it's taken over 20 years to actually be semi serious about skiing, moving here and the abundance of ski fields has helped. 21 days skiing over 49 years, so only semi serious Link to post Share on other sites
Rock-hand 0 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Coming from southern Aus I lived too far away from any mountains to even think about going to the snow regularly. I always surfed with my dad and skated a bit with my friends but always wanted to see what the snow was all about. Finished high school, got my first decent tax return and spent it on a ten day trip to NZ. Picked up the basics of snowboarding and the bug. Two years later got in another few days at Hakuba. Now on my second season boarding up here in Iwate, been 23 days so far this season, trying to get in 50 days. Link to post Share on other sites
634-maru 4 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Came to Japan! Link to post Share on other sites
seemore 66 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Bumming around Europe at 21 and got a job in the French Alps Link to post Share on other sites
snowdude 44 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Came to Japan in 1999 had never skied in my life bit always enjoyed watching it on TV back in the UK. Winter 2000/2001 went to Nagano over the new year with my wife as I have always loved snow. Decided to try skiing. I absolutely loved it and that was it I got the bug instantly. From that year on I went sking a few times every year and soon bought all my own gear. In the last five years been going more and more and have been really getting serious about my skiing these past few years. Now really concenrtrating on getting perfect form and being able to ski any terrain thrown at me. Moguls are my new challenge to try and perfect. Actually did a lot of that today. And that is how I got into skiing and now I am crazy about skiing so much so I annoy my wife. But skiing it just has to be done. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I envy those who found snow young. In my 37th year PB took my eldest two sons to Niseko on a 'boys' trip with a couple of keen skier/boarder mates. While they all had seen snow once each before, they were rank beginners. I visited SnowJapan at this time as I knew nothing, and was terrified of all the usual numptie fears. In April that same year we all returned (with two other families) The younger two and myself saw snow for the very first time. Hokkaido snow! I was determined to be the hot chocolate maker. Skiing was not for me. But after much bullying from my skier girlfriends we all took a group beginner snowboard lesson. I sucked. I literally praised god that the bed was a futon and I could roll off it and then slowly pull myself upright using the bedside table and the wall. But I was hooked. Since then I have not missed a Southern or Northern Hemi season. I'll be 45 this year. And SJ has been there since the very beginning. Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I was 14 and spending a year boarding at Timbertop school up in the foothills of the mountains around Mt Buller in Victoria . Some of the Brits may have heard of the school as Prince Charles spent a year there when he was a younger lad. During the winter we went up skiing at Mt Buller every Friday and we also did a 3 day ski tour on nearby Mt Stirling. It was the backcountry tour that I really loved and for the next 25 or so years I was a telemark skier and spent most of that time skiing backcountry. In more recent years I've given in to failing knees and general lack of fitness and gone to an AT set up and of course during my years in Niseko I enjoyed using chairlifts (might as well when you get a season pass as part of the salary package). I still love backcountry though and prefer it to skiing at resorts. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Brother went to college to study sports coaching, at the last minute he chose winter sports as opposed to summer (like he originally planned to), he got into skiing, from there snowboarding and then aged 19(me) me and him clicked, started hanging out all the time said he'd started snowboarding, I asked what that was.....sounded cool, went up to the lecht in Scotland, hooked....3 years later I'm in Japan and doing it regularly Link to post Share on other sites
Mike Pow 52 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Graduated university at 27 and spent the next winter working in Ellmau, Austria as a Chalet Boy. Cooking, cleaning & running the chalet for the season. Did Resort repping for UK tour operator Inghams in Big Mountain, Montana for two seasons and Park City, Utah for one season. Trained to become a ski instructor at Kicking Horse, BC, Canada and after two seasons there spent one season in Civetta, Italy and one season at Keystone, Colorado. Came to the Niseko Resort Area in December 2006 and aside from a season and a half back home in Wales been teaching here since. Love it. Link to post Share on other sites
gozaimaas 61 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I was 28 and decided I wasnt living enough. Bought a full kit and perisher season pass and off I went. I first fell in love with snowboarding, then I fell in love with car camping at the snow. Maximum bang for buck which allows me to spend more time on the mountain. First japan trip 10 days. Second 14 days Third 6 weeks car camping Fourth 8 weeks car camping Edit: since finding snowboarding I have made so many good friends. I love that just as much as I love snowboarding Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Grew up in a ski resort town. One of the ski areas let local elementary school kids ski for free. For parents in town it was hey, free babysitting! So I spent weekends, untutored and unsupervised, bombing the runs on second-hand skis. Once it started costing money (post-elementary school), I stopped. Fast forward twenty-something years, wife scores free or discount tickets to SSAWS. Hit it on a lark, discover that it is like riding a bicycle, never forget. Vow to take it up again some day. Another decade later, the kid starts getting old enough to be taught to ski, so I grab the chance. Got the kid hooked (wife decides not really her cup of tea), and family history is made. Of course, in many ways I still ski like a 10-year old... Well, trying to polish my skills some, especially in the moguls department, which were always the bane of my existence as a kid. Plus trying to look more my age on the slopes. Link to post Share on other sites
Tachypsychia 13 Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 Great stories guys! Keep em commin! Link to post Share on other sites
SantaCruz 0 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Grew up in San Diego I'd been to the snow a few times a few hours east but always just to check it out or sledding. Moved to Seattle for work in 2006 and as a Southern Californian I was having a hard time adjusting to the constantly grey, drizzly weather that tends to dominate for 6+ months of the year. Instead of being bummed out about the winter I decided to make it a good thing - hopefully if it's raining in the city it will be snowing in the mountains. Bought all of my gear and made myself go as much as I could. Link to post Share on other sites
@tokyo 14 Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Another 'came to Japan' one here. Link to post Share on other sites
echineko 1 Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Brought up in Akita and so from early age taken by parents. Link to post Share on other sites
WeekdayWarrior 0 Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Never boarded before coming to Japan. 10 years ago came here and was taken out to Nozawa. Hooked instantly. Well, after a few hours. Japan is great. Link to post Share on other sites
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