Seasons of Shred - Big in Japan

Sep 27, 2013
by Seasons of Shred  
Words: Niki Leitner
Photos: Hiroyuki Nakagawa

Every time you hit a new jump that you’ve built the variability of speed pushes your adrenaline to the extreme, especially when you are in the mountains in the middle of Japan. AT and I built a really massive hip jump. It is 6:00AM and the morning light illuminates the foreground and we are ready to drop in for this perfect hip. AT starts pedalling through the floating fog and comes down with perfect speed. He boosts over the kicker and clicked a nice table through the fog into the landing. The whole mountain is sleeping while Hiro screams, “go again!” and the light is unreal…

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

A few days earlier we began our next SOS adventure to Japan with the ideas of monks, temples, different cultures, and sushi. Yet, as soon as we showed up all our ideas were blown away. Hiro, our photographer and tourist guide picked us up from the airport. The first days Hero showed us around Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan with a population of 12 million people. Driving through Osaka felt like a never ending city. He showed us the dangerous Yakuza areas in addition to all the tourist places. After a couple of days we learned a lot about the culture and the characteristics of Japanese people. The culture is so different to us. The people are really friendly, but also really shy. On occasion when we asked someone which way to go, they just smiled and walked away. Hiro told us it is because they live on a big island and don’t really get in contact with many outside cultures. The people are so disciplined, it sharply contrasts what is familiar to us. We had one really funny situation when we went for dinner into a sushi restaurant and they had a small waiting room with some benches. Each of us took his own bench, but Hero told us to sit all together on one bench and be quiet otherwise we wouldn’t get a table!

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

After we spent a couple of days in Osaka we drove to the mountains into a small village called Fukui, to Mr. Hamaya’s place, our base for the rest of the experience. Mr. Hamaya runs his own restaurant and together with his friend, Mr. Yu, the bike park in Izumi became our goal of the trip. Mr. Hamaya gave us a very typical Japanese living area in the upstairs of his restaurant, a big room with sliding doors to the outside.

The next morning Mr. Hamaya woke us at 5:30AM for breakfast. On the first day we had a hard time with rice, fish, and tea so early in the morning, but soon the different culture let us adopt these different styles. After we loaded the car we drove all the way up to the bike park, an hour drive with Hiro, our kamikaze driver. We finally arrived at the the mountain! Everything was a little bit wet from the fog as we watched the sun come slowly over the top of the mountain.

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

We took our bikes and headed to the gondola for the first ride, but the chair lift was out of operation. The government regulations do not allow operation of the chairlift without snow, so they had to improvise with trucks and trailers to bring the riders to the top. The other riders there were super happy that we came over to ride with them and showed us all the different lines they knew. After a couple of runs we had a few strong lines on the mountain and found some really cool spots to build. When we took a break for lunch we saw Mr. Yu coming down the mountain with his digger and asked him if we could use it to build some jumps in the bike park. We were so shocked when he said build whatever you want! As soon as we heard that we were on fire. After lunch we took the digger and started to build a big hip jump at the end of the free-ride line. After a couple hours of hard work in the dirt we were ready with the hip, and drove the digger to a different spot to start building the next big jump. After a couple of days we built two large step downs, two hip jumps, and one wall-ride. We also helped the park by building a dirt-jump set for the upcoming bike festival. It’s an incredible feeling to have a digger with an open landscape of a mountain to create whatever we could imagine, it was unreal.

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

The session on the first hip was really smooth, and after we did a couple of runs we started tricking the hip. Every day we needed a little bit of time to wake up because 7:00AM is early to shoot. After a few trial runs we were ready to shoot. Fabian and Hiro got in position and AT started dropping in. AT was boosting super nice Clicked tables into the landing. It was a flawless combination of a right hand hip into a wall-ride landing, the perfect ending for the free-ride line. Mr. Hamaya and Mr. Yu were incredibly stoked that we created more obstacles and jumps in their bike park.

For the evening session we went to the first step down we built, a snowboard jump with a 40 foot gap. After the speed check and warm up runs we began to kill it on the jump. I dropped into the take off full speed and did a huge Indian Air over Hiro while he was shooting. I heard AT scream “YEAH!!!”, while he dropped in and sent a big superman over the kicker. AT went back to the start and began pedaling. He came into the kicker and pulled a massive flip over the jump! Everyone was screaming and AT came back with a huge smile on his face and proclaimed how unreal it felt.

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

After the long day of riding and building we headed back to our base. In small villages in Japan there are no bathrooms in the houses, so they utilize a public bath. Hiro took us to one of these places and although normally it is not for tourists, only for locals, they accepted our presence and we entered. In the middle was one hot water pool and on the side little basins to wash your body, and we soaked in the hot pool to relax. After the big noodle soup session we had they told us that Mr. Hamaya has a bathroom in his house that we could use for the rest of the trip.

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

For the next two days we focused on the large step-down and hip we built in the center of the mountain. The jump has a distance of 55 feet, a huge jump to trick. In the early mornings it was real windy so we would start off the day at the wall-ride for a warm up session until the wind died down. It was a super smooth wall-ride with a tree at the top, so we started messing around to see who could get closer to the tree. After some runs the wind dropped down so we headed back to the big kicker. It is good that before the big jump we had a 35 foot jump, perfect to set up. After a couple of speed checks we hit the big one. The feeling was unreal, endless airtime and adrenaline that overpowered us immediately. AT and I did some runs and then we had the idea to pull a superman train over the massive jump. After the second try we stretched two superman's over the 55 footer. The jump was so long that we were both in the air at the same time. We were so stoked we went up again and did a couple more runs. We also built a hip jump next to the big jump so we could ride together sided by side on two different jumps. We made some run ins for timing, and then AT did a huge Indian Air over the big one and at the same time I kicked a table over the hip. This was our last shoot at the bike park, and we were so undeniably happy that we were able to ride every jump that we had built before.

Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan
Seasons of Shred in Japan

On the last weekend they held a downhill race at the bike park and we did a few demo shows for all the spectators. We all had an amazing time together and we all became good friends with Mr. Hamaya and Mr. Yu. We were so glad we got the chance to go there, meet all these people, in addition to helping them build tougher sections in the bike park. After a chill out party in the middle of the mountains we made our way back to Osaka where Hiro stopped at a massive Buddhist temple site, our last check point for this trip. The experience was unforgettable with so many impressions of a different culture and lifestyle. I was glad to be a part of it all.

Views: 39,658    Faves: 489    Comments: 33


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Author Info:
SeasonsOfShred avatar

Member since Mar 6, 2012
19 articles

32 Comments
  • 45 2
 Is it only me? But does this article keeps repeating itself in the newsfeed?
  • 11 1
 I m pretty sure that video has been in a news already. Not sure about photos though.
  • 63 2
 Is it only me? But does this article keeps repeating itself in the newsfeed?
  • 6 2
 There was a teaser and a video release previously and now you are getting the full story and pictures from their trip.
  • 24 7
 Is it only me? But does this article keeps repeating itself in the newsfeed?
  • 3 1
 Japan is awesome!
  • 24 0
 i am actually just leaving the house to go there right now! oh, and you wouldn't catch me anywhere near that kicker. I was stood on its lip three weeks ago and is way beyond my skill set. in fact, only two locals have ever hit it according to the guy who runs the place.
  • 27 1
 And I am just back, and no, I did not become the third local person to hit that kicker.
  • 22 0
 2 days in Osaka and they had the entire Japanese culture figured out. Nice work guys!
  • 6 0
 I wish there would be more filming in Japan. I like to think that it helps the scene open up to the world an give us a fresh view of the sport.
  • 8 2
 SICK TRIP! global sport for sure
  • 3 0
 This video is dope!
  • 4 1
 SUSHI!!!!!!!!!
  • 2 0
 @dunkinmcnut stop copying my comments yo
  • 1 0
 What song is that in the video? Sounds like swollen members, but I could be wrong...
  • 3 0
 Judgment Day - Madchild
  • 1 0
 thanks!
  • 3 1
 ...
  • 1 0
 Love these guys! they just keep killing it!
  • 1 0
 What bikes are the 2 guys riding?
  • 1 0
 Clearly looks like an original YT Tues and a Marin Quake.
  • 3 2
 That was really great riding for 2005!
  • 1 0
 "noodle soup" haha double entendre
  • 2 0
 Hitting snowboard jumps
  • 3 5
 "I have an idea. Let's go to Japan and then build the same old crap as every other trip." Same old story. Why not actually show pictures of what the trails have to offer. Like.. actual mountain biking.
  • 3 0
 Reminds me of the backcountry jibbers that go way into the backcountry on a bluebird powder day and spend 5 hours building a kicker..
  • 1 0
 thought i was gunna se some chonggas hittinjg the trails
  • 1 0
 Freeride is not dead!
  • 1 0
 So many wallpapers...
  • 1 1
 foootttbbbawwwwwlllllllll
  • 1 1
 Look at those PODs
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