kaz

Jan.15.2014 Conditions today : Soft (sugar and ice chunks mix on ice-base ) on most of runs, icy on Promenade. Temperature : -4 to -3 degrees They need more snow to recover from rain/warm-temp last weekend. Started snow from 2:00PM. Hopefully they'll get enough snow over night. It was icy on Promenade but I enjoyed it. I'll be there tomorrow too. I called my wife and asked to capture a MSLM webcam picture. (Junk yard)

Hey guys, I heard it's lack of snow there... but we got tons of snow in Ontario. Runs are so short, it's not a mountain, it's small hill, however enough chilly wind and snow and runs are hard-packed almost icy. It's been good condition so far. It's -18 degrees now. My toes will freeze during riding tomorrow. This is MSLM (Mount St. Louis Moonstone) where Bruce from Coiler rides. These guys are who I ride with. I miss Cypress carvers.

Hi jp1, I thought same thing. It's good for beginners to learn making turn and timing and so on. But they should've had step-ins! :rolleyes:

I don't know if you've seen this but it's funny. For 2 people.

He is releasing his new snowboarding DVD "BLUE2" - carving plug-in - in Japan soon. And posted the trailer today.

April 13 Today was a pow day. 30cm of fresh snow on Skychair. This was the first time I've ever been on a pow-board in pow conditions.

Today was a good day! Tuesday was a little bit better than Monday. Thursday was much much better than Tuesday. It was a hero day today! Stayed cool until I left (2:00pm). A weather-channel reporter interviewed Rod on Tuesday and he was on the channel. I passed the interview but I was on air too.

March 12 I stayed until noon. Too hot and too soft. First morning wasn't so bad. Almost clear sky,visibility was clear, light wind, temperature felt like +1 to +2 degrees at 12:00pm. 4 to 5 cm of flesh snow. Seemed like almost recovered from rain. But temperature was too high. (Cypress's report was a bit wrong. They said -1 degree at noon. Visi variable. Moderate to strong wind. Grouse's report was +2 degrees at 1:00pm. WTF?) I don't need sunshine. Need for cold temp.

Sorry John. I couldn't wait for you because my wife was waiting at pass-check entrance. I had to babysit my wife on bunny hill and she gave me a few runs of time before that. I had to rush otherwise my wife's thunder and lighting might have hit on me. me:flamethromy wife :) My wife is super beginner but she did much better than I thought, thanks to Boris.

Kohei Kawaguchi posted a new video on YouTube. Carving Plug-In Green <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RACOnX1qP4I?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> He participated in an SBX race. He is producing 3 DVD titles for next season: Carving Plug-In "RED 2", "BLUE 2" and "GREEN". And he is releasing "KOHEI STYLE 2012" soon as well.

Hi ursle, I got some videos for you. Racers Technical competition riders and racers mix These guys are who I used to ride with in Nagano Japan. I'm not that good like them though. If you check those video's channels, you'll find some more ideas of carving snowboarding scene in Japan.

So many racer joined the carving battle so you can see them in the video. But racers won't enter the technical competitions so much (I think). Carving battle has simple criteria but the tech-comps. In the tech-comps, you ride on a wave run, flat middle slope and stuff. And you go down the run with only short/middle/long turn or free-style in the one run. After you finish one run, Judges give you points. And the winner is the guys who got highest total points. I found the explanation of tech-comps on Wiki but it's only in Japanese and I can not explain everything. It's too difficult for me.:( I put some YouTube videos below. Those are about tech-comps. Hopefully you can get some idea of it. Sorry for bothering this thread.

Hi Gabe. Thanks for replying me the other day. I enjoyed the hard condition at MSLM. That's cool video! I like your riding with low center of gravity. Hopefully I can see you next season. Have fun and ride safe! :) kaz

It's not dance style. And snowboarding technical competitions are not influenced by the sponsors so much. But I don't know the truth. I'm sure those are not bad as much as surf and skate competitions though. In fact, there are so many guys who are aiming to win the competition and practicing so hard to improve their skills. I had been watching some of them in a ski area. So I can't disrespect them. However I do agree with you, indeed. I don't think I need to compete against someone. I challenge myself and the runs even on a bad snow condition. I just wanna carve down the runs cool. English is my second language so I might have misunderstood you guys or exprained with wrong expression. Sorry in advance if I'm so.

Tom: That's cool! I was wondering how you enjoyed the RED DVD. If you have lived in Japan, you or at least your wife can understand their talking. My home town is Yokkaichi Mie. Next to Aichi prefecture. My wife is Canadian and worked in Japan for 6 years. I used to go to Nomugi Touge ski area in Nagano. So many alpine snowboarders there. Its kinda alpine snowboarder's heaven. Anyway, thanks! have fun and ride safe! P.S. A guy wearing blue beanie, black jacket and blue pants with Ogasaka is my friend from Nomugi Touge ski area in the Absolute 2012 DVD. Dave: Pretty much that you think. The carving battle is a tournament. The winner is decided by some judges from participant's technique. I'm not sure this but Participants have to show short, middle and long turns in the one run. And the judging criteria is how cool the riding is. But the technical competitions are run by some Japanese snowboard associations. My believe is they have their own judging criterias and they are bit different from each other. So participants might have to adjust to each association's judging criteria... but I don't know exactly. Put simply, those competitions are like a figure skating. Judging by how cool/beautiful/dramatic the riding is. Not time. I hope you can understand even a little bit of what I wanna say.

I thought I'm the only one guy who has the Carving Plug-In DVDs in North America.:) I'm gonna tell him that you enjoyed those DVDs. I'm collecting carving DVDs. I have and I don't know if there is a carving competition or a technical competition in North America. But those are popular in Japan. This is the carving competition that my friend posted. Kohei Kawaguchi and Manabu Kobayashi are in this viedo. Just FYI.

I've seen him at a ski mountain in Nagano I used to go to but never really talked to him. However, I know he is a quite nice guy and has a great passion for snowboarding and awesome technique as you can see in the video. This video below is same guy and he is riding on a very steep run. He is my hero.

Time to find a job... I have to make money for snowboard gear! Thanks to you guys, I enjoyed riding so much. I'm already looking forword to next season. Finding a job is tougher than the upper part of JJA. Wish me luck.

April 4: Snow was OK until 10:00ish. But snowcat operators are not good at grooming, some gaps on JJ all the way to the bottom. After 10:00 am became too warm from sun shine and runs got too soft (almost slushy). There was a little bit of hard base on Collins, I stayed there about 1 hour. But I had to leave around 1:00 pm because became too soft. April 5: JJ was made by little snow chunks from first track. It was like riding on crackers. Hard surface but too brittle to carve. Snow refused to hold my edges. I tried lions chair side too, but same condition. So I left at 10:30. I saw an unmarked car on Cypress Bowl Rd on my way home two days in a row. It was a black dodge charger. I hard they are switching over their police car from ford crown to dodge charger. I saw a guy caught. And today, there was SUV unmarked car on uphill side too. Watch your speed.

Today was great. I think tomorrow is gonna be good too. I saw 2 accidents up there. One was at the new snow-park (a guy got a concussion). And the other was at middle of JJA. Watch out!

9:30am to 3:30pm Visibility was bad until 11am. After that, cleared up. Colins run was slushy. JJ(PGS) was slusy until 1pm and turned icy. I felt JJ like a skating rink that's why I left at 3:30. We need some natural snow, otherwise this icy condition might continue as it is. Let's ask Santa Claus.

I'm slow when I'm by myself. I'm always thinking what I should do to improve my snowboarding skill. So I stop so often in the middle of the run and correct my bad habit. My task is how to finish toe-side-turn quickly and how to begin heel-side-turn quickly and stable. Catch the snow with front edge and start to weight snowboard early in heel-side-turn. like this ↓ I don't know if my explanation makes sence. It's difficult to explain in English about this topic. Not on Friday:) My ancestors were Samurai. For real.

No way. I didn't want her to think like I'm trying to pick up a girl.:( And also I was going to leave there when I saw her. I wanted to check her gear but I couldn't talk to her anyway 'coz I'm not fluent in English. If I see her next time, I might say Hi. That's it.:( But I wish I could talk to her.

I saw a female alpine snowboarder yesterday:)

I stayed a hotel near kuta beach for 2 weeks. And went to Prambanan in Java, Borobudur in Java, Monkey Forest Temple in Ubud, Batuan Temple, Goa Gajah, Bekasih Temple, Goa Lawah,... Saw Legong Dance, Kecak Dance, Barong & Kris Dance. And also did elephant ride. I had money at this time:cool: I liked Bintang beer so much:)