JAPAN GRABS - Hakuba Blog 2013 / 2014

Marc, do you know how nozawa or myoko is ? snow depth ?

snow depths
Nozawa - yamabiko 70cm
Happo One (Hakuba) - usagidaira 150cm
Myoko - don’t know

sorry about my ignorance about all this, but i though Myoko or Nozawa usually have better snow depth then hakuba etc

I don’t know the exact yearly averages but it’s about the same. The three are quite close and usually get the same systems. Sometimes it misses Hakuba and Myoko gets nailed (happened last year).
I don’t really care about the averages as long as it snows the night before I ride!

Thanks for the props, Koper! Makes me want to work harder!

Report from Happo today: it was thigh deep

From last weekend:

Saturday was the powder day, but I missed it and got the fresh 10cm on top of the leftovers on the Sunday. Doesn’t sound too good, but it was. Here’s a gopro grab:

As you can see, I’m on the new Smokin Team with TTX (Thrash rocker). It’s quite similar to Lib Tech’s C3. It took me most of the day to figure it out - it just felt like a regular camber board! Then, flatbasing on hardpack, I felt it - a slight ‘milky-ness’ in between the bindings (which would be the slight rocker kicking in). Overall, it rode fine. It’s a solid board and I’m looking forward to hitting the park on it. As for extra float in pow, well, not really. I just saw the 2015 catalogue, and it seems they are adding skate kicks sort of like Capita’s flat kick, for extra pow clearance. If mine had that, I think I’d consider it on a not-so-deep pow day, but I think I’d rather ride my Burton Root. I have sweet memories of it from last season, so we’ll have to see how it performs this year. I finally put bindings on it and some Boardworld stickers, so it’s ready to go…except for this thigh-deep pow thing we have right now. So it’s back to the Juice Wagon - ha ha. I love being stoked on all my boards - it’s an addiction.
Some snow was sprayed:

Ok, back to the riding. In the afternoon, Yasu grabbed his Yuki Ita (translates literally to Snow Board) and called up his posse. I wanted a break so I went up to watch them, and ended up hiking an untouched section of Happo. Oh yeah, what’s a Yuki Ita you ask? Well, you know of Noboards, right? Yuki Ita is a similar concept, really popular with surfers. They buy a piece of wood and shape it themselves into small bindingless snow boards.
The other Yasu and his Yuki Ita.

It’s a constant process of designing, sanding, breaking it, then starting a new one. They don’t go as fast as Noboards, and don’t have metal edges, but if it’s deep snow, they can surf it no problem.
If you’re interested, read up about it here
The link is for Yasu and his wife, Angela’s blog. There’s loads of Hakuba info there so it’s good to check out. They also run Yuki Ita tours if you’re ever in the neighbourhood.

So, the other Yasu had a Canon dslr camera which he lent to me for some shots. Good thing Canon and Nikon do everything the opposite!!!!  I kept zooming out instead of in and vice versa. Check out the pics:
Yasu and the back of the Yuki Ita

Kazu

The first Yasu (I’d better call him Yasu Tabitabi from now on) is pretty damn good

It also makes for some good crashes. Check out Yasu lolz

catch ya later!

That looks like pure unadulterated fun!!!!!

Awesome shots, Marc!

Happo is reporting another 50cm today!!!!!

Wow… Get amongst it!

35cm of fresh today!!!! I can’t find any groomers!!!

Seriously though, it’s a typical Happo storm pow day: freezing temps, high winds, snow falling sideways and great terrain.

I wish I can’t find any groomers

Haha Skip! Actually I was wrong earlier about the 35cm. I heard from Happo management that it was 60cm last night!!!

Well… thats a nice surprise haha