Masashi Nagai, an associate professor at Tokyo Women's College of Physical Education and a lecturer at the Japan Avalanche Network BSC, is pleased to announce that we are cooperating with the survey.
・Survey overview “Survey on the characteristics of BC ski and snowboard practitioners”
・Website: https://sites.google.com/view/bcsrs
Survey target: BC ski/snowboard practitioners (those who only mountain climb are excluded)
Implementation period: ~ Sunday, March 19, 2020
How to respond: Complete the online survey form
Mr. Nagai, who created the questionnaire, commented on this initiative.
“Before you know it, more than 20 years have passed since I started backcountry skiing. During this time, there are riders who spend their lives skiing, guides who continue to guide guests to wonderful fields, and people who tenaciously work to spread avalanche safety education. I had the chance to meet many fascinating people.
I wanted to make a contribution to this wonderful sport, and when I became a university professor, I realized that there was something I could do from a research perspective, which led me to conduct this survey. Since around 2010, overseas research on BC skiing and snowboarding has begun to increase, and the characteristics and behavioral patterns of practitioners are being clarified little by little. However, in Japan, there is almost no progress in research related to BC skiing and snowboarding, other than research on avalanches in the field of glaciology.
There is not much that can be learned from this survey alone, but first of all, it is important that research related to BC skiing and snowboarding is increasing in Japan as well. We believe that by accumulating various research results, our social influence will increase, and we will be able to contribute to the healthy spread of BC skiing and snowboarding.
I hope that as many people as possible will cooperate with this survey.”
It is true that there are still many aspects of user characteristics that are unknown.
This can be said to be the origin of skiing and snowboarding, where when a certain amount of snow piles up on a mountain, the entire country of Japan becomes a field where you can ski as much as you walk up. The characteristics of such people will surely be of interest to those involved in this activity. I would like to support this activity at STEEP as well.