For a few years now, I’ve been a big fan of snowboarding. Have ‘been meaning to do it’ for years, and with only one day on a dry run slope near Sheffield to show for my enthusiasm, I finally got my chance to do the real thing in early 2000 with a friend of mine, ZJ, who is a great boarder. I kicked of my career at Rusutsu in Hokkaido, but since then, I’ve been to so many places across Japan I can’t remember all the names - I also spent a few week’s on New Zealand’s south island doing some back country boarding in July 2000 which was just amazing. I’m not great, or even good - I can’t do tricks, I don’t even know what most of them are called, in fact the closest I get to that is on my PS2 playing SS3. I’m not much of a jumper either, but I do love mountain boarding and the peace and quiet of being in the mountains, and by Tokyo standards, the clean air. Of course mad tree runs in waist deep powder (at night) don’t make me feel bad either!
Snowboarding in Japan
Japan is gifted with some amazing terrain for snowboarding, both on Honshu (the main island) which is home to Nagano, hosts of the last Winter Olympics, and on Hokkaido, the northern island. To see some of the resorts, check out Snow Japan. Access styles and times are varied. For Hokkaido, from Tokyo you fly from Haneda to Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport (or now even Hakodate), and then travel by bus for a few hours - the scenery is awesome though - not much reason not to look out of the window the whole way. For Honshu resorts you can either drive or take the shinkansen (bullet train) and a bus. Most trips can be organised by one of the many travel operators who will arrange pretty much everything. The resorts generally have a couple of different types of places to stay: from the Prince Hotels (big, near the slopes, with very so-so food), traditional ryokans (a lot more expensive, small, but usually have good onsens), and some hybrids of the above. Generally, there’s little specific night entertainment with the exception of maybe a karaoke box, and a few small restaurants though this has changed in recent seasons, especially in Niseko since the Australian’s took an interest in the resort. Generally, I advise taking a book, a laptop or a Playstation 2 for something to do … or spend all night in the onsen or rotenburo (outside hot water spa). In Tokyo, there’s an area called Jimbocho which is to outdoor sports what Akihabara is to electronics - it’s just a huge area of shops devoted to outdoor sports. In the summer, it’s all surf and hiking equipment, and in the winter, it’s all snow-sports. On the main road, it’s a few big shops, mainly owned by Victoria broken up by lots of small places. The side streets are home to a lot of great shops - often with a better selection of more specific items.
Buying tips
I hate doing ‘buying tips’ - I’m no expert! Unlike things like computer cards, snowboarding gear is something you wear - you can’t really read a couple of reviews and buy over the net having never seen them based on some kind of ‘spec’. Unless you’re really sure about something, you’re going to have to trek to a shop. As I mentioned, in Tokyo, or most of Japan I suspect, that’s no too hard - your mileage may vary. The bottom line is that everybody’s body is different, and different things make us feel comfortable, therefore, something your friend likes, or a magazine likes may not work for you at all, and when you’re on the mountain in a whiteout, no-one can hear you complain that you’re cold or your feet hurt. Bear in mind that I’m only on my ‘second generation’ gear (third in some cases).
Outer wear:
I would recommend trying as many items as you can, and ‘simulate’ as much as you can: if you’re trying on trousers, and plan to wear pads underneath - get the shop staff to lend you some pads - they add a couple of inches under the trouser, so a pair of trousers which felt OK against leggings, might be tight with pads on. Feel free in the shop to get in stance - if you’re trying a jacket on, flail you arms about like you would on the slopes (or is that just me?). Make sure all your interfaces work. OK, I couldn’t think of a better way to phrase that but what I meant was, make sure your trousers and jacket (and under layers) keep a snow proof barrier when you stretch, bend over, even fake hilarious wipe outs in the middle of a shop. Just as importantly, make sure the gloves you choose have a very good fit over (or under if that’s the design) the jacket sleeve. Personally, I try to get longer gloves - snow down your wrist will make you feel a lot colder than you might think. Also, make sure all pockets and seals can be done whilst you’re wearing your snowboarding gloves!
For boots
The same goes, try them on - stomp around. See how easy they are to tighten up - is the ’tightness’ even all the way up the boot? After a couple of minutes, can you still feel you toes? My first pair of boots were horrible and cheap, but were the only ones in my size, yet somehow, after a random period of time, my toes would get numb. Not fun. Also, remember, to get them snowboard tight - not killing the blood flow tight. Don’t forget too that you’re standing up a lot whilst snowboarding, so your feet will swell a little, and of course, you’ll likely have thicker thermal socks on that normal. The boot you choose may be affected by the binding: if you’re buying a ’normal’ pair of strap binding, or Flows, then you can choose from a fairly large selection of sizes and styles; if you’re choosing a variation of ‘clickers’, then you’re likely going to have a narrower selection. I would actually rank boots as the most important part of the kit, with bindings and gloves close behind.
Gloves These are very important in my humble opinion. You’d be surprised how a pair of cold wet hands can dominate your mind when you’re trying to get down a mountain when everything else is fine. I prefer the longer types of glove, which for me are very useful ‘pushing up’ after I’ve fallen, even in deep powder without dragging a few kilos of snow into the wrist. I now avoid gloves with Velcro fasteners since my old Burton ones just fell to pieces. Make sure that one of the gloves has a little ice scraper (aka snot scraper) on it to clean the outside of the goggles - this is a lot more useful than I thought it would be. Also, make sure that whatever glove you have, you can operate your jacket, bindings and so on to a reasonable extent. If you can’t then you’ll either need to seek a building to close that zip, or risk taking the gloves off which will chill them. A half way house is the ‘glove in a glove’ design, which is nice providing the inner glove is well made and holds in position. Again, my old Burton gloves failed both of these points after just one season of about 20 days.
Goggles
I’m only on my second pair of goggles, and to be honest, I only bought a new pair because the foam p[adding fell off my old ones. I spent many hours choosing my goggles for fit etc., and will repeat that this is a very personal thing. Make sure the foam fits well around your face and doesn’t pinch anywhere. Try to look down the side of your nose and see if there is any gap around your nose. If you’re lucky and/or wealthy, you can buy different lens colours. There seem to be lots of trendy names for colours now, but basically, from what I understand, it works like this: Clear is good for nighters and whiteouts (though, let’s face it, the latter is not really a benefit); amber is better for normal cloudy day conditions, and I’m told the ‘graphite’ of gray ones are good for sunny days. Personally, I could only afford one lens so I went for the amber, banking on the fact that that is where I’ll be doing most of my boarding hours. I can honestly say that they didn’t adversely affect me in the other conditions much either.
Bindings
I’m now on my second set of bindings - the first were ‘straps’, with a strap at the toe and the ankle, though now I’m on Flows, which have a drop heel system, so you slide your boot in under an adjustable carapace and being the heel up to lock the boot in. Personally, I love my Flows; true, they’re heavier and not quite as ‘accurate’ as the straps, but they’re comfortable and once you’ve set them, they’re good for the whole trip. Many people also go for clickers; their benefits are that they’re very fast to get in of and out of, but have the disadvantage that your boot selection is smaller and sometimes ice gets in the base. Bindings and boots are a chicken and egg situation in some ways as to which to buy first: should you buy a boot and then make sure the binding fits OK, or choose your binding style first and then buy the boot? They’re both valid. I bought my boots first and then used them to help make sure I got the right size of binding. I’m just a general rider, but many binding companies offer a variety of bindings to cater to specific needs - light, low back bindings for half pipers to bigger high heel bindings for all mountain boarders, and a range in between.
Boards An old friend of mine told me once that boards were the most expensive part of the snowboarding kit because they’re pretty much the same, and the manufacturers don’t want you to know. To be honest, there’s more than an ounce of truth in that in my opinion, or at least certainly for the general snowboarder (and if you’re a serious half pipe freak or back-country boarder, you’ve probably already clicked away from this page thinking I’m a bit simple. many people buy because of the graphic on the board, but I would say the main parts of a board to me are the length, and the width, obviously enough. Later on you can think more about the incut and all that, but for now, just these two measurements are probably the more important to look for. The length, for a no frills, ‘get from the top to the bottom’ mountain board should stand about the height of your nose. For example, I’m 175cm (yeah, short, I know) and my board is 156cm. Why would you go different? Well shorter boards are generally easier to turn ([insert sidecut radii argument here]) , and longer boards should ride powder a bit better. Generally tricksters will likely be on a shorter board. The width of a board is also important, especially to someone of my rather stocky frame - my boots are 29cm, so a ’normal’ width board would leave me with heel and toe hanging over the edge of the board. I did that on a rental on my first ever weekend and it was a bit annoying as your toes act as brakes, and when one side brakes, you start spinning a bit. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for a wider boards - more and more companies are making them, proving that the need is there. Your only other option is to really point your bindings and boots forward, which I don’t recommend unless you’re a real racer, in which case, again, you’ve probably stopped reading already. The ‘flex’ of a board is also important, whether it rides small bumps or whether it bangs over - it depends what style you think you’ll like.
layers On the subject of layers, on top, I have a long sleeve thermal T-shirt (from Helly Hanson I think) - it breathes and doesn’t hold sweat. In fact, avoid cotton on that first layer - it’ll get wet and heavy). Then I have a thermal fleece, and then of course my jacket. If I think it’s going to be really cold, then I’ll pack an extra first layer in my backpack. On my legs I have a pair of nice thermals which keep me really warm, then the trousers add to that. Again, I have another pair of lighter leggings I could put on underneath which sometimes goes in the backpack too if it’s a bit chilly on the mountain. Optional extras: Here are a few things I generally like to have with me. A backpack. I know, it looks a bit odd on a normal piste, and it’s a little uncomfortable on a chair lift, but I really recommend one. I stuff mine with a small towel, an extra top and bottom first layer, and my face mask/scarf if I’m not wearing it. I also stick my camera in there, and a small toolkit. really, that tool kit has saved me on occasion. I also put a small torch in there for nights. ironically the torch often got mocked until I actually had to use it one night helping a friend down the mountain. Make sure it’s padded well on the back - if you fall on it, you don’t want anything sticking in your back, and this is usually better than it sticking in your stomach if you had it in your jacket pocket. Don’t bother with bum bags (fanny packs, whatever) there pointless because you’ll sit on them! Padding is something which shouldn’t be ignored. personally I don’t wear any, but that’s not because I have some unhealthy macho dislike of them, it’s just because I struggle in Japan to find a comfortable set in my size. People also forget that the number one benefit to knee pads is that you can kneel down in snow for quite a while before your knees start to get cold. Th same applies to a rear pad, though make sure you get one which protects up to the coccyx (tailbone). Even then, there’s no guarantee as my friend found out, and we had to get her off the mountain on a sled/stretcher. It HURTS! Helmets are getting more popular, which I think is a good thing - I like mine because I find it more comfortable than a woolen hat - and trees can’t pull it off!
My current setup:
Board: A 2000 season Nitro Atlas 64, grey upper with red and black phoenix on the bottom. Nitro aren’t too well known it seems , but I love their boards, as they make a lot of varied sizes - wider boards too. Bindings: After 3 years on some Nitro bindings, I’ve just switched over to Flow Pro FL11s (2004 version). It’s been it bit odd going from straps to Flow’s as they have a very different design, but they’re very comfortable, and pretty easy to get in and out of. On the slope they feel good and I’m looking forward to hitting some bigger slopes with them.
Boots: Burton Rulers 2002. I finally got rid of my cheap boots (which hurt my feet every run!) and got these great new boots - a great fit, and the inner lining is well constructed. Warm, comfortable and pretty hard wearing. Clothing: I’ve got a 2004 season Sessions Summit Variation jacket which I recently got a good deal on after my original jacket’s seams and waterproofing started having issues, which is not a great thing when it’s blowing up in the hills. In 2002 I bought a new pair of trousers, and went for the Burton Ronin Cargo trousers, which have a loose cut, which give a lot of freedom. I also have a pair of Sessions gloves, long cut to the forearm for a better seal. Unlike my previous Burton gloves, these have no Velcro on the outside, which on those gloves, just ripped away after one season. I can’t recommend Burton gloves, but the Sessions are excellent (my first pair of sessions went missing in New Zealand a few years back). I have a woollen hat too, though that’s usually just for walking around, as for the 2004/05 season, I got a helmet.
Goggles: In 2003/4 season, I traded in my cheap old goggles which I got at a roadside stop in Hokkaido somewhere for a pair of Dragon DX. These fit really well, and the amber lens is great - not as dark as my old ones, but no where near clear (which is useless apart from on nighters).
Helmet: For the first time ever, the 2004/05 season, I was trying a helmet and see how it felt - I got a Giro S4 model. I have to say that it was much better than I expected. Benefits included: more stable head temperature (sometimes in my old balaclava it would get a bit sweaty - which isn’t good), no pressure around the brow - the helmet just sits there and is very comfortable, goggles are attached at the back - no more loosing them in a fall, it’s much lighter than I thought and when I’m doing tree runs, small branches don’t pull on it like they did on the hat.