Japan has long been at the forefront of skiing. The host nation of two Winter Olympics showcased its supreme affinity for perfect carving and S-turns to the world in Sapporo 1972 and Nagano 1998.
Over the decades, though, Japan’s association with disciplined ski racing has given way to a new obsession. That being the loose and chaotic, adrenaline-fueled drive for deep powder exploration. With over 15 metres of Hokkaido snow a season, you can see why.
Gentemstick was one of the first Hokkaido-based brands to begin making revolutionary snowboards in Niseko in 1998. They were shaped like surfboards with fish tails and directional shapes, encouraging powder slashes and a laidback, surfy ride.
OYUKI, which means “big snow” in Japanese and founded by Matt Hampton, came out in 2011 to clothe the Niseko skiers copping freezing face shots and soon went global. Australian Ross Findlay founded the former Roko skis in 2017, running a factory in downtown Kutchan like a surfboard shaper’s shop where you could choose dimensions for your personalised skis.
Two brands born in Japan continue to craft their wares on Hokkaido soil. This is their story.
Offshore Snow Shapes
When Australian snowboarder and graphic designer Josh Monin visited Niseko for the first time in the late 1990s, he thought he had found Nirvana, the Japanese equivalent of Byron Bay in the 70s – laidback, alternative, quiet, slightly hippie. Working freelance as a graphic designer, he found ways to return every year, doubling up with back-to-back seasons in Australia and New Zealand.
Monin grew up in the Newcastle area and loved surfing as much as snowboarding. In Niseko, the designer part of him collided with a surfer’s mentality wanting to shape and ride his own boards. So, that’s what he did.
“I wasn’t thinking about a business approach at first. It was purely just, let’s see how this goes. I was making them out of bits of wood and a hand planer at night in the shed,” he laughs.
Monin refined his craft to begin developing boards that didn’t skimp on any detail. Alongside his business partner Richie Willcocks, he imported fibreglass for topsheets from Australia, steel from Germany for the edges, other components from all over the world. His best Japanese friend Tomohito Yamazaki came on board to help, and later became the brand’s factory manager.
To this day, every Offshore Snow Shapes board is shaped and made in a little workshop at the base of Moiwa resort near Niseko. Monin describes their design as a fusion between high-performance and powder riding. Their boutique nature means just 350 boards are made annually.
“The biggest difference to us versus other ‘powder’ companies is our boards are not only hand crafted but designed for all snow conditions. Our boards are beautiful to ride in powder but are great in variable conditions and handle freestyle terrain just as well,” Monin says.
This article first featured in our Japan Issue e-mag.
Tenko skis
Ian MacKenzie’s first taste of Japanese powder wasn’t in Hokkaido, it was in Hiroshima. The founder of Niseko-based brand Tenko skis had moved to Japan from Scotland to work as a teacher in the Hiroshima prefecture on the large island of Honshu. There, he began skiing the southern mountains of the Chūgoku Range every night.
In 1999, MacKenzie took a school ski trip to Niseko and knew immediately he wanted to move there. The following year he did so, later founding an accommodation management and travel agency and these days running luxury-focused Niseko Wow.
He also met the now-shaper of Tenko skis, Komori san. Komori was behind the most iconic brands in the heyday of Japanese ski manufacturing, and the creator of many race-winning skis. Komori shapes for Tenko Skis but also operates his own brand Kei-Ski, building a handful of unique pairs each year for Japanese racers.
Rather than create the modern, wide, surfy skis that have become synonymous with Japanese powder skiing, MacKenzie wanted the opposite.
“The ski that Mr Komori had when I first met him was called the Komori Dolphin. It was really stiff, only 85mm under foot, 170mm long,” MacKenzie says. “I wanted something that would keep me as deep as possible in the snow.”
MacKenzie makes the point that most of the powder skiing in Niseko – aside from hiking the Annupuri summit – can be short in vertical, through tight trees that you need to be nimble between. In which case, it can be useful to sink deeper and enable the snowpack to slow you down.
The brand manufactures just 100 pairs per year, handcrafted from Hokkaido cedar in just two styles. One is an 85mm underfoot ski based on the Dolphin, called the Myobu 85. The other is 100mm underfoot – the widest MacKenzie will go.
“With Tenko skis, you still get the same sensation, with plenty of face shots but you will be slower and more in control,” he says. “But fair warning – if you’re a bad skier, these skis will find you out.”
