Recent stuff

been a bit lazy on updating this thing, but not alot of exciting stuff has been happening.

so here are some photos of todays glorious sunshine, the first sunny day in 5 weeks!!

Big air bag

Recently a big-air-bag was installed at the resort as part of the terrain park in Hanazono. The bag is a 15mx15mx4m vinyl pocket that's anchored to the ground, and a massive jump is built to launch you skyward and onto the bag. These bags are used all over the world for freestyle ski and snowboard training. Basically you just mach it into the jump as fast as possible and do any sort of flip or rotation and land with little consequences. I have not been this excited about a feature in the park for a long time so me and the boys have been practicing backflips and rodeos and all sort of super wicked steeeeeeeezed out stunts hahahaha....

This is me chuckin a mad backy

Fantastic friend of the week!!

This weeks friend is Emily....aka embo. Em works at Falls creek as a master of custodial arts (the staff accomm janitor...sorry em). She is also a valued and long term member of the Falls creek snowbike team that i am also a member of. Emily is the only female on the team and is quite the daredevil.....having cartwheeled down summit on more than one occasion during public demonstrations. Emily is also quite crafty, starting her own clothing label with boyfriend Aaron making custom hoodies and hand made beanies. The label, "Ron ermal" can be found on facebook

Parking Fail.

Failed parking attempt in the work van, got super bogged and had to get a massive tractor to pull the van out.....how embarrassing. Me and the boys dug for 45mins and couldn't get it out, then i called t-roy to come and have a look (he is the ops manager and in charge of all company vans) and he had a quick look and said we had no hope.....so we had to call Nakazawa san (he is like japanese Mcguyver!!) and he brought the tyre shovel around to drag the van out. 2 hours of wasted work time, and wasting everyone else's time = FAIL.

She's well and truly sunk under that front right wheel

The front chassis rails were sitting on the raised snow between the wheel grooves, so the front wheels were not touching the ground anymore....time to call Mcguyver!!

Of course due to the camber of the hill, the van was dragged out whilst grinding against this snowbank....lucky it was soft snow and it didnt scratch the van!!



This is what pulled the van out. I dont have any pictures of when it happened as i didnt want Nakazawa san to think it was a big joke.

Sapporo Snow Festival!!!

On friday night me and amanda joined a staff bus trip to sapporo to see the annual snow festival. The fest ival is held in the centre of Sapporo in odori park, which is about 2km long and stretches horizontally across the city. The festival itself is huge, and the ice sculptures are incredible. Some of the massive ones have over 500 trucks worth of snow in them and it takes over 3000 people 2 weeks to sculpt a single display!!!! Its super crazy, they get the snow trucked in from the city outskirts to maintain a consistent 'pure white' snow. it was super cold though, prob about -15 or so, on the bus on the way in ice and frost were building up on the inside window sills of the bus!!

Awesome view of Mt Youtei on the way to work.

Those of you who know amanda well will be shocked to see this photo....SHE IS EATING A BURGER FROM A TAKEAWAY BURGER PLACE!!!! A HAMBURGER!!! WOOOOOOO

I prefer to put a cheeseburger in a bigmac actually!! yeh maccas, no trip to Sapporo would be the same without it!!

crazy big ice sculptures



This was my favourite, its a replica of a korean temple











Random american girl posing with michael jackson sculpture





The boys loving all the food





this sis the qualifying jump for the next Toyota Big Air in sapporo. The finals jump is about 10kms away and 5 times bigger



Ice on the bus window!!! so cold!!

Recent happening and cold temps.

This week in Niseko has been the coldest i can ever remember. It has averaged around minus 15 in the village during the day, and down to -30 on the hill in the wind. This is way below the average mid-season temps we usually have, its like you can kinda of 'see' the cold in the air, the clouds are a light tinge of blue....kinda

doesn't it look really cold..

Its been so cold that the doors to our shop have been freezing every night and have not been opening in the morning. Even the door latches have been freezing!!

This is ange pouring boiling water on the sliding door track in attempt to get the door open!

This is my house where i live with Ange. Its called 'Suzuran' but is more commonly referred to as the 'greenhouse'. Its not a bad place to live, and the location is pretty good, but its a bit old inside and not really holding up against this cold weather, the place is friggin freezing!!!


Yesterday we went to rusutsu again yesterday. It was super cold and i forgot to take my camera up the hill with us (i left it in the car) but it was super fun and the first time i could take the new Fish for a decent ride in some deep snow. The board is unbelievable, so effortless to float on the powder and it turns like an F1 car. This is mine and t-roys fish after the shred.

On wednesday night me and ange, after alot of partying at WildBills, thought it would be funny to go to joel and t-roys house and wait for joel to get home from the pub with the chick he was trying to take home, hide in his room, and jump out when they walked in!! well after sitting in the cupboard for half an hour and joel never coming home, me and ange decided to bail after a dissapointing wait. On our way out of the house we heard giggling coming from troys room, so like any good mates, we busted in there and took a photo of what was going on.... and this is it. T-roy in his jocks dancing to some old school R'n'b like ja-rule or something. it was epic.

hells yeh im getting ready for thailand!!!

Fantastic friend of the week!!

Hello avid memoir fans!


This is my friend Koji. I have worked in japan with koji for the past 3 seasons and we also play on a darts team together called 'The Ninjas'. We are named the ninjas because koji is a legitimate ninja. No word of lie, he once told me he could catch a fly with chopsticks!! i believe him. Koji is always prepared for battle, hence him wearing this chest armour underneath his snowboard clothes.....just incase he needs to do protect himself whilst performing Tornado roudhouse kicks on his enemies.

koji is the real deal. Our K-ninja!!