What you ride and how you choose to ride is such a dynamic part of what this contest [ Ultra Natural] is built for.

When your location is a snowy mountain in the winter the obstacles are pretty extreme.

I love to snowboard with no cameras: 100 percent.

Shin [Biyajima] rides down with this big ol' Japanese grin and giggle and I'm like what? Two years later, when I started planning the trip, I knew Shin was from the Hakuba area, and I didn't want to come film in Japan without a Japanese rider. Shin had the time and availability, and it worked out perfect.

Inevitably it's always a set-up; you go somewhere, bring your own expectations, you think you have an idea of what you want to do but then the minute you get there everything changes, so trying to work with people who are able to ride in a lot of different conditions, sub-par conditions, people who are able to make the most of any situation.

It was just on a whole other level, getting to experience and ride that terrain. We spent a fair amount of time in the Hakuba Valley.

I realized pretty quickly just how big and aggressive some of the mountains were down in Nagano Prefecture.