Antti autti interview answers
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Taro Tamai is not only the most iconic Japanese freerider, he is also the founder of Gentemstick snowboards and the father of snow surf culture.
I first met Taro in San Sebastián –in the Spanish Basque Country- in 2015 during his visit to the 13th edition of Surfilmfestibal with a Japanese film crew. We talked about surfing, snowboarding and his dream of traveling to the Pyrenees to ride our mountains, then crossing over to the Atlantic coast to surf the Basque Coast and the world-class beach breaks in Les landes, France. I also shared with him my longtime dream of riding the iconic Japanese powder, so we agreed to get in touch as soon as any of our dreams were on their way to come true. And so I did: last January, I arrived in Hokkaido on their best winter in 10 years, I had the chance to taste the epic Japanese snow, which met and exceeded all my expectations, and also to chat with Taro in his beautiful brand new Gentemstick shop located in Niseko.
Our conversation took place in
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Backcountry Essentials | The Jeremy Jones Interview – Part Two
Interviews
How to ride to live another day
Follwing on from part one of our interview with the world’s most famous freerider, we pick his brains on how to venture beyond the resort while staying safe.
What’s your routine for any given day when you’ll be riding the backcountry?
I’ll have an idea the night before of where I’m going. I’ll check the avy report, specifically looking for photos of avalanches that happened that day. That’s the number one thing that I look for in an avy report: photos.
I’ll ask: “Is there terrain that I’ve crossed off the list?” Meaning we know that there’s been a bunch of avalanche activity at, say, north east aspects between 8000 and 9000 feet. That’s off the table. If you can cross it off the night before, great; or maybe you wake up in the morning and the avy report’s changed, so I’ll ask that question again: Do I cross any terrain off the list?
“That’s the number one