Like many snowboarders these days, we have a soft spot for a riding style that’s been making a comeback of late – a style that distills the experience on the hill to its most foundational component: the humble turn.
Since the early 1970s, over in Japan, this style has been referred to as snowsurfing for its resemblance to riding a wave. Featuring long, sweeping, drawn-out lines and crouching toe-edge turns that mirror a Larry Bertlemann bottom turn at Rocky Point, it’s no wonder why.
The originator of that term and style, Shinzo Tanuma, recently told us that compared to a skateboard-inspired approach on the mountain, snowsurfing is about greater unity and harmony with nature. About finding fun in the natural dips and banks the mountain provides – whether in powder or on groomed runs – and riding as the terrain dictates.
Some four decades since Shinzo Tanuma founded Moss Snowstick and began making surfboard-inspired shapes for the mountain, Japan’s next crop of dedicated snowsurfers continue to emanate the spirit of that approach around the world.
Moss’ latest short film, Vibes Communication, is simply an extension of that idea. In the flick, Japanese snowsurfers Naoto Kotsugai and Naoya Wada journey through the frozen waves in and around Tahoe with their guide Eric Messier.
We’re proud to partner with Moss Snowstick in the exclusive online premiere of Vibes Communication that will be streaming exclusively above for 48 hours only. We hope you enjoy it! And if it doesn’t make you yearn for some high-velocity surf-inspired carving, nothing will.
Film and edit by: Kyle Schwartz
