Details
Order directly from Gentemstick in Japan:
Gentemstick XY 153
The discovery of the Japanese Snow Surf scene was like a rebirth for me. Snowboarding and music were my whole life when I was young. When I was 17, I dropped out of high school to move to Washington State to snowboard, and I enrolled in Audio Engineering school. Most of the year was spent in the snow, playing records, recording music and learning about sound. I was living my dream, but by the end of the 90s I had to admit that I was already getting too old to throw myself off of cliffs and jumps. The snowboarding industry was getting away from the soulful spirit of free riding and moving to sports drink sponsored daredevil acrobatics. I quit snowboarding cold turkey to focus on sound, art and design. But then, I discovered the work of Taro Tamai, and the Japanese Snow Surfing movement--style, flow and grace in the backcountry and on piste. This is exactly what I had been looking for.
Alex Yoder's pro model, the XY, has become my one board quiver for the last 4-5 seasons. It is equally at home on east coast groomers and chest deep Hokkaido pow. Yoder and I have snowboard travelled together extensively from the Tetons to Alaska to Hokkaido. Taro Tamai is also an audiophile. This season, Yoder, Taro and I decided to connect the dots, installing an Ojas Tokyo listening space in the Gentemstick showroom, and I did the graphics on the 26-27 XY.
