When planning any Snowboard trip abroad there are always so many unknown aspects of the trip planning to consider before pulling the trigger and dropping in on booking flights. Where to go? How to get around? Where to stay? Best time to go? And so on...
When the planning involves a top notch motivated crew to film and pretty much banking on "epic" conditions with good spots to hit a specific timeframe allotted.. the pressure is on and hits quick.. Having great connections and local knowledge of the location you want to go can make or break the adventure and are worth their weight in gold. Lucky for us Arthur Longo, Torgeir Bergrem, Pat Moore, Olivier Gittler and myself and set our sights on Japan for early January, we dialed up our deeply rooted Volcom Japan crew consisting of riders Ruiki Masuda, Takaharu Nakai, photographer Tsutomu Nakata and Yoshiaki "Goose" Masuda to join in and put the trip in motion.
With a tough snow season starting off the year in Japan's north island of Hokkaido, Ruiki, Taka, Tsutomu and Goose easily collected the intel from around the island and had no problem putting us right where we needed to be to absolutely score. In Japanese "Tsunagari" is a word for a special connection in bonds of friendship, this trip left us all feeling a strong sense of Tsunagari that will resonate for a very long time. A huge Arigatou Gozaimasu to our entire Volcom Japan Family for making this trip one we will never forget.
