This time we invited Yuzawa’s senior Back Country guide - Okany.
Editor: I'm a little curious, why is your name Okany?
Okany: Because my name has the character Okay, people would call me Oka No NiSan, and eventually the abbreviation became Okany (laughs).
Editor: Why did you start skiing?
Okany: Actually, I have always wanted to ski since I was a child , but I was born in Tokyo, which is far away from the ski resorts, and skiing is an expensive sport, so I didn’t officially start skiing until I was 26 years old.
Editor: Then why did you choose Yuzawa instead of other ski resorts such as Hokkaido and Hakuba?
Okany: I was initially choosing between Hakuba, Yuzawa, and Hokkaido, but Hokkaido is too far away from Tokyo, which would make it difficult to find my friends in Tokyo. And although Hakuba can still go to Tokyo, the transportation is compared to Yuzawa. It was still relatively inconvenient, so I chose Yuzawa.
Editor: What was the opportunity to start working on Back Country?
Okany: Some time after I started skiing, I started to be a freestyle ski player until I was about 31 years old. However, because the competition wins and losses were dominated by players who started skiing since childhood, I decided to retire from the competitive career. At that time, I happened to discover BC’s The interesting thing is that my BC career started. Although many people in Europe and the United States were already playing BC at that time , there were still very few people in Japan. I was probably the first person to start BC in Yuzawa .
Editor: Does Back Country have restrictions on single boards or double boards?
Okany: Basically, everything is fine. For example, when I started playing BC, I started with snowboard. At that time, I felt that floating on the snow was very comfortable. But after playing to a certain level, I found that ski can make it easier to reach more difficult areas. place, so later on I started skiing.
Editor: Back country Is there anything you should pay attention to?
Okay:
