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Skiboarding In The Land Of The Rising Sun
By: Ben Wannamaker
I love Japan. The people, the climate, the mountains, the cities, the food and the skiing are all top of their class.
The trip was organized by Canon Skiboards, and the International Skiboard Federation. Canon took care of the funding, and the ISF took care of all the store and media visits.
On Jan. 7, I was off to Rochester to meet with the CEO of the ISF who was going to be my translator and tour guide for the trip. Dean Kistler began the ISF three years ago in an attempt to bring the sport of skiboarding into the public eye, and hopefully to Olympic glory.
I got to Deans place late on Wednesday and met up with my team rider, Ethan Mitchell who was to be joining us on our trip. With a 14 hour flight ahead of us the next day, we stayed up all night drinking green tea and talking about the trip to come.
Our flight left on time, but our stopover in Chicago was delayed for a mere six hours, so Ethan and I spent the time shooting some lifestyle shots and sleeping. After psyching myself up for the 12 hour flight, we boarded the plane. All in all it went well and we had a fantastic view of the Alaskan mountain range.
We arrived at the Narita airport in Tokyo at 9 pm Friday. Friday? Yes, apparently Thursday got bored on the plane and decided to head home. We were met at the airport by Denzo the Canon Japan rep and our host for the trip without wasting further time, we blasted to Tokyo.
Being in Tokyo is surreal. There's no other way to describe it. The lights, the people, the organization and the efficiency are to be admired.
"You never have to worry about crime in Tokyo," Denzo said. "All the graffiti comes solely from westerners who come over, it's really all about respect in Tokyo."
We arrived in Tokyo, and immediately began out search for grubs. We find a second story Japanese bar/grill that looks appealing, so we climb the spiral stairs to an authentic, yet modernized eatery. Denzo took the liberty of ordering our food, and got us a nice mix or western and eastern dishes. We dove right into our battered octopus with fish shavings, garlic bread, pork neck shish kabobs, french fries, seaweed and pork cutlets.
We finished up, thanked out hosts, and headed back to our hotel for a few quick hours of shut-eye.
Before jumping into bed I heard nature call, and little did I know this was going to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. MY GOD, the toilets are beyond words. Featuring heated seats and remote controlled bidets. It's impossible to go to the bathroom in North America again without feeling a little disappointed.
We woke up early the next day, quickly packed our gear and headed to Shigo Kogan, the mountain range 3 hours north of Tokyo. The transition from big time Tokyo to the huge time mountain ranges is astounding. The skiboarder in me was practically jumping out of my skin, all I could do was think about the mountains and how big they were.
Canon was sending Ethan and I to the Ichenose (Ee-cha-know-say) resort in Shigo Kogan to do some exhibitions in their terrain park to spark the interest in the public to demo or buy the new Canon Skiboards. When we arrived at the base of Ichenose, it was already past dark. We quickly pulled up to our place of rest for the next 4 days. We pulled into the back of the parking lot, and saw a huge 33 ft. Class A motor home.  As we pulled up beside this towering beast, out jumped the craziest, most sporadic Japanese man I have ever seen. Dubbed 'Crazy Danny', he was the proud owner of the 33ft beast. He showed us our beds, his internet access, his touch-screen GPS, and many other features he had. Tomorrow was going to be the first day of exhibitions for the Japanese crowd, so Ethan and I decided to drink a few beers and hit the sack. I had the floor, and Ethan had the couch.
We awoke early at 530am to an absolutely stunning sunrise over the entire Shigo Kogan range. I took full advantage of the time to shoot some photos and get some video for the upcoming flick. As the sunrise slowly became daylight, me and Ethan saw a georgous ridge that was surrounded by waist high powder. Our only option? Lets jump off it and get some deep turns in. I went first, tossed a little spin with a safety, hip checked and rode the ridge out. Ethan chose a different line, blasting through some trees with a textbook mute. He landed a little deep and ragdolled for a few feet. I decided to hike the ridge again. I stomped the 360 reverse safety and rode away.
We grabbed some breakfast and headed up the mountain at around 8 am. Ethan and I were surprised to see a nice 35 foot table top; a 25 foot long double barreled rail, a smaller table, and a big rainbow rail at the base of the park. We took advantage of the soft morning light getting some footage on the untouched terrain. I got some shots of Ethan and got used to the terrain myself. Ethan surpised the hell the hell out of me, tossing mistys, rodeos, cork 7s, straight up 9's all with a style and versatility not seen since Brinton transferred to snakeboarding. I worked on my fakie unnatural stuff on the rail, and tossed a few chillin airs on the big table. The light was fantastic so the shots were great.
We headed into the chalet were Denzo and Dean were setting up customers with demo boards. I quickly saw that posters of Ethan and I were posted all over the chalet inside and out. When the general  populace of the chalet saw us walk in, we were immediately hit up for a few autographs that we were more then happy to give out.
At mid-afternoon we began our exhibition for a relatively large group of Japanese skiers. With Ethan being the jumper, and myself being the jibber, we stuck to our respective obstacles and hiked for the crowd. Ethan nailed a bunch of switch tricks, and I got my blindside switchups as clean as I could. We then headed down towards the chalet for some more autographs and photos. The jetlag soon kicked in so we decided to head back to the motor homes.
We awoke early on our second day of exhibitions early, and saw that a storm came in and gave us about a foot and a half of fresh snow. We headed to the mountain as soon as we could to take advantage of the fresh snow. I was riding the new Neal Lyons pro models with a riser plate and Bomber binding, and my god did they float. Anyone who digs an all mountain skiboard must get this set-up. The riser plate is great for tricks, and laying down phat carves in the powder.
Our second exhibition went as good as it could have, the storm kept coming, and the visibility was very low. Ethan still managed to toss some sideflips, lame flips, and he learned underflips. Will this kid ever stop? He made a great impression, and is a to contender for becoming the Bent Films rookie of the year. The lighting was to bad for shooting so we decided to pack it in after the exhibition.
The third and final day at the Ichenose resort would turn out to be the best of the three. It was completely bluebird and it was warm enough that I could wear my tip2tp zip hoodie all pimped out. (Thanks Bailey) Ethan and I got up a little later, but began shooting as soon as we could. It was my turn in front of the lens, and I jibbed around on the rail, learning some fakie unnatural switchups, fakie unnatural 450 offs and a few other jibbing gems.
 We were soon informed that we would be starting our exhibition an hour early and going an hour later, so this meant a 2 hour exhibition. And let me tell you, it went OFF! Our female company from the night before joined the crowd and were cheering there hearts out as Ethan and I hit the table, and the jibs, Ethan landed consistent misty 7s, straight 9's and lame flips, and I got my fakie 5's and nose grabs down.
Our last night at Ichenose we had the pleasure of spending with an absolute hoard of fine young Japanese girls who were more then happy to meet the acquaintance of some young talented western boys.
The next morning we began our trek back to Tokyo in Crazy Danny's motor home. We toured around Tokyo until 3pm doing store visits and promoting Canon Skiboards and the ISF with Denzo and Dean.
On our way to the airport we stopped at an authentic Japanese shrine. I took the opportunity to get some lifestyle shots of Ethan on old-time super 8 film. We arrived at the airport and said our goodbyes to Crazy Danny and Denzo, luckily, were heading back in March to do more promotions and shooting so it was not the last we would be seeing of them.
There is an aura around Tokyo, and in fact, all of Japan. An unmatched work ethic and a strange mix between the unrelenting protection of the old ways with the complete Americanization of the Japanese youth. Downtown Tokyo is the only place in the world where you will see a fruit market that has been around for generations sandwiched between a Starbucks and a McDonalds.
I would like to thank everyone who made this trip possible, most importantly: Tibor and Denzo from Canon Skiboards and Dean Kislter from the ISF.
(Pictures courtesy of the ISF.)
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