This post is part of a series of interviews with pro riders.
The focus is predominantly on snowboarding gear (this is a website all about snowboard gear after all!) but there some other questions just for fun.
This week’s pro rider gear profile features Shin Biyajima.
Shin in Mind
Shin is a team rider for Nidecker. You can get a taste for Shin’s riding in the following movie:
Shin Biyajima Interview
Who was your snowboard idol growing up?
Terje, Peter Line, Johan Oloffson, Mike Ranquet ,Jamie Lynn, Ingemar Backman ,Nate Cole, Dale Rehberg, Jean”babs”Charlet, and Regis Roland.
What was your favorite video part to film over the years ?
Mind snowboarding movie. It was my dream trip to AK.
Had to check it out – looks amazing – great job! Snowboarding Profiles is a gear site, so that’s what we care most about here – how important do think it is to get your gear right?
Very important to make your special snowboarding time more excellent.
And for those young riders out there aspiring to be professional snowboarders, what do you consider the most important thing to being successful? Practice? Belief? Desire? Confidence? Gear? Good coach? Good physical shape? Likely a combination of the above, but what would be the single most important thing in your eyes?
Stay focused to think how you wanna spend your lifetime. I saved all my cash for winter and snowboarding. Tried to secure time to go snowboarding. Choose what to do if that’s connects to snowboarding.
Getting back to gear, what do You think is the most important part of your equipment to get right? Snowboard? Bindings? Boots? Outerwear? Safety Equipment? And what would be your 2nd and 3rd choices as to what’s most important?
It’s your stick, wizard buddy, part of your body. You must love your equipment. Your love comes back to you. You choose what you liked, felt most. From the shop stuff or your elder friend’s suggested line ups.
In terms of the snowboard, what do you think is the most important factor or factors – the thing that can make the biggest difference to the feel and performance of the board? Camber Profile? Length? Width? Sidecut? Effective Edge? Flex? Weight? Base? Graphic
This is my thoughts, but wider stance gives you feel like you’re controlling your board, or just better, but adjusting stance narrower gives you more power to carve and brings out the ability of board when riding, less body burden, more style. Changing and trying several stances is good to getting know what’s difference by your feeling and find best stance for your favorite riding style and recent best stance because your favorite stance will change too.
What gear is your go to right now? Board? Bindings? Boots?
Board : Nidecker Instinct Beta 162, Thruster 162, 159, Mellow 160,
Binding: Flow NX2 Fusion or Hybrid
Boots: Nidecker Falcon 11.0 or 10.5
And finally, where is your favorite place to snowboard?
My home area Nagano, Japan, but basically I like to explore, travel based on snowboarding purpose, so I’m happy if I can ride wherever on Earth..
Thanks so much Shin for taking the time answering our questions. Keep shredding!
Keep up with what Shin’s up to on his instragram
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