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 alotted.. 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 andset our sights on Japan for early January, we dialied up our deeply rooted Volcom Japan crew consisting of riders ruiki masuda takaharu nakai 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 arigato gozaimasu to our entire volcom japan family for making this trip one we will never forget.

Higuma are a species of bears that can only be found in Hokkaido. takaharu is a legend yet to be classified in the animal encyclopedia. But for as long as he can lay low on the northern island of Japan, he will keep slaying his secret zones, howling like an arctic wolf after a “cho saiko” (“sick” in Tokyo slang) day. It was an honor to be part of the pack for two full weeks.

ruiki masuda has been a part of the Volcom Family since he was a young boy. He is well on his way through his journey to becoming one of the sensei’s of the Hokkiado backcountry scene by closely following Taka’s veteran steps to sit on top of the food chain of fresh pow pillows, deep in the caverns of the Japanese forest. Always pray in and pray out he would say, and “gambaro!” (“Let’s go!”)

pat moore is the most consistent and on spot snowboarder I’ve ever witnessed. He is definitely not new to Japan, seeing how he masters the chopsticks in his ramen with mitts on. He was landing pretty much everything while dealing with the kindergarden recess vibes Togeir, Arthur and I would put on. I love having Prof. Moore on trips: it’s a mix of him bringing so much knowledge and comfort on spots, and at the same time reminding us how deep down he really is the conductor of the spontaneous express train!

arthur longo sketchy ‘stache has nothing to do with how flawless his riding is. He is pretty much the snowboarders’ favorite snowboarder, the all around tranny sniper. He is not the biggest fan of long builds when it comes to jumps, and with his pop he doesn’t need any big booters to blast anyway! Having this in mind, once again the Higuma legend Taka-san knew exactly where to take us, and he was slaying the zones like it was his own childhood backyard.

Unbelievably torgeir bergrem THIS WAS TORGEIR BERGREM’s first time to Japan. It seemed like the setup was served to him on a platter, a perfect chirachi with freshly cut pieces of the finest raw fish sitting on bed of rice. He was awarded the most loyal convenience store customer of the month, averaging 2 to 3 visits per day. And it paid off: my twin snow leopard was landing PAWS on absolutely everything he tried, obviously getting the howls from the pack after every run. Itadakimas, he would say, before dropping in, meaning enjoy your meal. We probably had the best snow conditions we could hope for this trip!