Is this the ultimate green event? Japanese crafters make their own boards from natural materials

But these boards don’t have the same sharp edge. They take snowboarding back to its roots, where balance and flow decree your method.

Instead of the ubiquitous snowboard “twin” shape, where each end mirrors the other to the last millimetre in shape and flex, the point of Yuki Ita is constant experimentation, with unique and often rather odd looking shapes. Some look like earth surfboards, with pointed noses and wide tails. Some have swallow tails, rounded pin tails or chopped off block shapes.

Yuki Ita is all about the quest for the perfect glide. With these boards – sans bindings but with a leash like a surfboard – there are no bunny hops, big airs or snow-spraying hacks: the type of aggressive contest riding that you see on the surfing world tour. It’s more about long, smooth carves and graceful speed lines down the slope.

Some boards have channels in the bottom for flow, and are much thicker.

Like riding fin-less surfboards, you have to completely change your paradigm. You have to kneel and lean into the turns in radically different ways, which forces new technique. The proponents are profoundly passionate about their underground culture, and they eschew what they see as the prostitution of pure form in the proliferation of brands and artificiality.

A unique gathering this week piqued my interest. You might think that the Red Bull Yuki Ita is an inherent oxymoron with the non-commercial ethos in mind, but interestingly, I could find no press releases, or mention of the event on the Red Bull website.

It seems that the small group of Yuki Ita riders managed to keep it all low-key. Held on Hokkaido, the second largest island and most northern prefecture of Japan, the “competitors” gathered during a classic powder snow dump.

Choosing raw materials, they shaped their own boards for the event, and then rode them.

With Yuki Ita, you don’t need a fancy alpine holiday package, expensive ski passes and gear worth thousands of rands. You just need warm clothes, and be quite fit.

Yes, you have to hike up the slope you will snowboard down.

WHITE WORLD: A rider glides down a slope at a Yuki Ita event on the island of Hokkaido in Japan.