Kazushige Sekiya and Katsuyuki Kono were born in the snow country of northern Shinshu, and inevitably started skiing. The senior was baptized free skiing in Colorado, USA, and the junior refined his alpine skills in Austria.
■Experience studying abroad for skiing
Kono: I'm one year younger than you in terms of grade. Sekiya, who was born in the same Hokushin area, do you remember when you first started skiing?
Sekiya: I was born in Obuse, where there are no ski resorts. Looking back, I was a powder junkie when I was a kid. A friend of my father was on patrol at the Giant Ski Resort in Shiga Kogen, and since I was in fourth grade, I took the Nagano Electric Railway to Yudanaka Station, changed to a bus, and went to Shiga Kogen by myself. I changed at the patrol station and skated powder all the way until dark. I'm about 120 cm tall, so I can't breathe and I can't see ahead, so it's hard. They bought me a neck warmer so I could breathe. Come to think of it, that's when I got hooked on powder and still skate to this day.
Kono: A very greedy elementary school student (laughs).
Sekiya: I started doing poles in junior high school, read ski journals, ski comps, and other magazines, entered the dormitory of Iiyama Minami High School's ski club, and started competing seriously. That was the year of the Nagano Olympics that I will never forget. When I saw Salomon's famous 1080 freestyle ski on "BRAVOSKI", this is what I want to do! What? then i went into the park with my twin tip plank and started flying. If it wasn't for that, I might have been snowboarding. It was a shock that I could do this with skis.
Sekiya: Katsu was a thoroughbred athlete who was born in Nozawa Onsen Village, which can be said to be a sacred place for skiing.
Do you remember when you put your skis on? Kono: No, I don't remember at all. I wore them when I was conscious of them. Grandpa ran a cafeteria on the slopes, so she would go there every day and skate with her friends and regulars. Then, when I was in the first grade of elementary school, I joined the Nozawa Onsen Junior Ski Club, where I coach now, and started racing. Every day, I was skating all the way from compacted snow to powder on the thin board. My talent blossomed in the 6th grade of elementary school, and I was ranked first in Nagano Prefecture, and even after entering junior high school, I was at the top of the country. It was around that time that I became aware of the world.
Sekiya: I was surprised when I suddenly moved to Austria in the summer of my first year of high school. How old were you in Europe?
Kono: You are 21 years old. I was based in Austria and did Alpine competition for 5 years, and spent the last year going back and forth to Japan.
Sekiya: Did you go to school there?
Kono: Yes, I went to a commercial high school in Schladming to study the ski business. Seigo Kato, an active alpine racer from Nozawa Onsen Village, went to Europe after graduating from junior high school and went to the same high school as me. However, I was working locally as part of the Japanese national team, so I hardly ever went to school. After that, I got injured, so I retired from the front line of alpine skiing and started ski cross.
Sekiya: That was around 2000. When I was 26 years old, TEAM MCV (a ski video production group centered on Masayuki Ueno & Yudai brothers and Katsuyuki Kono & Kenji brothers in Nozawa Onsen) was filming a ski video. You came back and met Katsu again. I lived in Colorado for about 5 years.
Kono: Was your visit to the US influenced by Dad's visit to the US?
Sekiya: My father lived in the United States for about four years in the 70's and was doing hot dog skiing, which can be said to be the origin of freeskiing. He's the first Japanese to go to Vail, my dad. That's why it's blood (laughs). Ever since I was a child, I've heard a lot about skiing in the United States, and my family was running a restaurant at the time.
Kono: Brainwashing (laughs). So you went to Colorado, not Salt Lake, not Jackson.
Sekiya: I started attending community college in Denver, but I wanted to ski, so I went to Breckenridge about two or three times a week and skied the park all the time. I study English with "Freeze Magazine" (laughs). At that time, there weren't many skiers in the park. 90% are snowboarders. Around 2000, when I was there, freestyle skiing in North America was at its peak, and it was really exciting. The things that I was able to experience first-hand at the most interesting times became the sustenance of my skiing life. Candid Tovex and everyone came to practice before the X Games, video games? It's like, "Kurukuru kuru, pita", everyone never makes a mistake. I think I lived in Colorado at a good time.
Kono: So you were baptized into freestyle. So why are you back?
Sekiya: When I was 24, I played soccer for fun and tore a ligament in my knee.
Kono: Soccer, huh? (laughs)
Sekiya: I recovered well, but my knee hurts when I go to the park, so I started going backcountry with my friends and skating powder. Then what? Isn't the snow hard? The snow in Japan was much softer. Moreover, the competition is fierce. By 10:00 in the morning, the good snow is gone, huh? I thought there was more snow in Japan. The people over there were all yelling at the fresh snow about 15 centimeters high.
Kono: It was in Colorado that you first realized the goodness of Japau.
Sekiya: Yes, when I come back to Japan, it's already heaven (laughs). So, she remembers meeting Katsu right away and saying, "Sekiya-san, you have a nice collection." At that time, I was riding the second model of Armada JJ, the signature model of Rhein/Skogen, and it was a maniac board that I did not see in Japan, so I took a bite. Then you started skating together. For me, who came back from America, Nozawa's potential was shocking. With lift access, I can slide so much, and no one is skating. Not possible in North America. After that, I stayed in Nozawa Onsen for about three seasons and skied powder like I was hungry. It was before the foreigners came.
Kono: The Japanese audience didn't ski on powder either. Tools like powder boards and fat skis weren't on the market yet. We were the only ones skating.
Profile｜Profile
Katsuyuki Kawano
Born in 1981 in Nozawa Onsen Village, Nagano Prefecture. He started alpine skiing from an early age, and after graduating from junior high school, went to Austria alone. He returned to Japan at the age of 21 to compete in the Ski Cross World Cup. Currently, he has returned to Nozawa Onsen Village, where he runs the rental shop Shirakaba and Shichiryobei Coffee, while also working as a coach for the Nozawa Onsen Junior Ski Club. https://shirakaba8.com/cafe/
Kazushige Sekiya
Born in Obuse City, Nagano Prefecture in 1980. He devoted himself to competitive skiing until high school, and after graduating, he was attracted to the freeski movement and went to Colorado in the United States to study and enter the world of freeskiing. Currently, based in Kijimadaira village in Hokushinshu, he presides over the private guide service "SKINAGANO" for inbound tourists. https://www.goskinagano.com
Photo / Takanori Ota, Takeshi Wakabayashi (YUKIMI STUDIO)
Interviewer / Shinya Moriyama
Recorded in November 2021
Part 2 is here
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