THE SNOWBOARDING MASTER
WHO, WHERE, WHAT, WHY, HOW ?
HEY THE SNOWBOARDING MASTER LIVES IN ONE OF THE SNOWIEST
PLACES IN THE WORLD...
IT AIN'T SO COLD HERE...
BUT IT SNOWS AND SNOWS AND SNOWS...
HERES ANOTHER HINT...
ON THIS ISLAND THERE IS A
CITY OF ABOUT 2 MILLION PEOPLE AND
IT HOSTS A HUGE SNOW FESTIVAL
EVERY YEAR IN FEBRUARY...
CAN YOU GUESS WHERE IT IS ?
STILL CAN'T GUESS?
ChEcK OuT Da MaStEr AnD fEw FrEiNdS oN tOp Of AnNuPuRi,DrInKiNg pArTy iN dA bOx !
USE YOUR MOUSE and DRAG your cursor around to move around inside the box and see who and whats inside !
Maybe you can guess the country from the graffiti on the columns ?
OK OK OK I'LL TELL YOU NOW
I live in Hokkaido Japan near NiSeKo. One killer place to live !
Ok...Heres my history....I sat in bed in the morning on 10/28/2004 watching the first snowfall
of the season and thought about my history and how I came to be a snowboarding master...Well... that deja vu brought back lots
of cool memories ...
Some of which I will share with you now...
My first day snowboarding was actually a nighta session....back in the winter season of 1978/79...I was workin in ALTA UTAH as a snowcat driver and waiter... Lodge name to be unmentioned...
Ok what went down was me and a bunch of guys from the lodge decided to "BORROW" the snowcat for a nighta session...as both the boss and the mechanic were going to spend the night in SLC and wouldn't be back until late morning ...I was one of 2 drivers who had the keys...
Some guys were gonna slide on waiters trays as we were gonna hit the Canyon which has steep walls, a natural half pipe...fun to ride on a tray...some guys using skiis...
One guy had a demo WINTERSTICK... which he said I could try if I wanted...seeing as I surf too......... I said...." sure I do" cause I am a snowboarding master....NOT NOT NOT...YET
Well there was 4 inches of pow on groom and to make a quick go of it....I ended up crashing and burning numerous times at high speed.....YUP I was a snowboarding master...master of crash and burn... Definitely not a snowboarding master.
You gotta remember...this was a prototype and a demo board ,there were no bindings and I was wearing Sorel boots...
Well... I finally gave up and spent the rest of the night drinking and cruisin on waiters trays down the canyon........ It (wintersticks) wasn't perfected yet and although this guy said snowboarding was gonna be BIG....I didnt see it that way...I said sure DUDE....Whatever you say!!! OH... ALSO... FYI ...We didn't get caught... I got the cat back in the garage no damage ...
...END OF STORY...
NOW..fast forward to 1990's ...
I was livin in Maui working,windsurfing and surfing whenever I could...No Snowboarding master yet! A buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to hit CANADA as he had a place near Red Mountain BC ... He said come check it out...I said OK..So I ended up in Red Mountain with my old pow pow skis and gear...I spent my first day at Red
Mountain powder skiing some killer deep and fluffy pow pow......After an early lunch my friend set me up on his rig and the rest is history...
I gotta laugh when I look back on that... I definitely was not the snowboarding master more like snowboarding disaster ...
....Now my first 4 hours 11:30 am to 3:30 pm... It was snowing hard and lots of deep pow....lucky for me as I crashed and burned getting off the mid -lift and again on the TOP LIFT... My friend laughed and said its cool dude...You will get it son...I spent the next four hours learning to ride and turn and was getting the hang of it
My friends...?? bailed on me after about 15 minutes ...they said we will meet up later and then take the 5 km cruise to the lodge around 3:30 pm.....ok cool.......I crashed about 100 times average 25 times every hour.......about once every minute in the first hour and slowly improving my up time....minimizing my down time......
Yah I thought...Im a snowboarding master....Not Yet...
Well the 5 km cruise went well until I got tangled with another grom newbie and went down hard on my face....This time I had cracked my goggles all the way through both lenses....I had to cruise 2 more km in blinding snow with no goggles.....
I called it a day and we went off to the pub to celebrate not having to go to the hospital in TRAIL... Snowboarding master??? no way not even close!
...Next DAY...
The next day I was so sore I couldn't sleep...I slid out of bed onto the floor and crawled /dragged myself to the bathroom.....from 5 am to 7 am sank into the hot bath and tried to massage a million aching muscles from my fingertips to my toes
ASPIRIN....ASPIRIN......MORE ASPIRIN...Snowboarding master??? NO WAY!
Sh@%#! dang.....I couldnt barely walk or drive!!! I had to lift both my legs into the car to drive....
My friends rolled up a BC green fatty and said you just hang on to this and take some hits.... you will be fine soooooon......ok YUP... they were right... sort of !!!
Time to hit the slopes all day on my rental board....My friend wanted his board back... Sorry the snowboarding master has gotta go rent some gear today...
The second day went alot better with plenty deep powder and alot less falls.....
By then I was hooked...
I knew then I had fallen back in love with an old flame but in a new way... I felt so alive that week..sore but alive..
I soon started going to Canada alot and hitting lots of the smaller resorts with deep pow......every chance I got...Got to the point I knew what I was doing and had a handle on it ... but a snowboarding master ??? NO WAY JOSE...not yet...
2 years ago...I cruised over to Asia cause Canada was havin a drought season... met my wife on a chairlift in a blizzard and in my killer Japanese... said.......
I am an earthling... please take me to your leader...She and her friend laughed and said in english where are you from.....???
I said I am from PLANET EARTH and I have come to sample the deep powder please take me to your stash.....They did ... and we cruised all day in some incredible pow...
They said you are pretty good at snowboarding... mister...Of course I thought they said snowboarding master...
So for 2 winter seasons I came back here to snowboard...In 2004 I made the move permanent and I am living here in Hokkaido Japan...Snowboarding master in snowboarding paradise, snowboard heaven. I get lots of deep pow all the time because south western Hokkaido is one of the snowiest places on earth.....
The storms come from SIBERIA across the JAPAN sea and slam us with snow, snow and more snow...
Its not too cold here , but it snows almost every day and I mean alot of snow. I sometimes have to shovel 2 times a day...
So while doing the teaching thing ...
I always had people ask me what to buy and what to wear and what to do....I decided to start this website to give people good solid
KNOWLEDGABLE INFO ON SNOWBOARDING...
ONE OF MY FRIENDS said to me one day while hiking out
after a super deep and steep run off the top of ANNUPURI...
"YOU are a SNOWBOARDING MASTER !" I told him,sure man, sure I am...This time he was right !
I decided to base this snowboarding info site on my years of knowledge of powder skiing and backcountry and snowboarding so people can enjoy snowboarding as much as I do... But I want to say you gotta BE CAREFUL...
Even the snowboarding master got his ass whooped in January 2005...I made three or four real bad decisions...
TITLE : The Snowboarding Master gets lost... and found in a blizzard...
THE WHOLE STORY!!!
READ about My friend Ian and how he lost his life at TAHOE SNOWBOARDING......in the safety gear section...... SNOWBOARDING SAFETY GEAR
Here's a few Videos done in March during the 2010/2011 Season Just before the great 3/11/11 quake !
IT HIT ME HOW SHORT LIFE CAN BE...
LIVE YOUR LIFE ON THE EDGE, BUT HEDGE YOUR BETS...
PEOPLE ON THE EDGE NEED SAFETY GEAR!!!!
So this site is dedicated to riding hard and fast but as safely as possible...
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