Season playback "Tsukasa Home POWDER FREERIDE '25 with Bonz Crew" is now underway! 2025/2/15.16 @ Kiroro Resort

The long season has come to an end by peering into some ski resorts and high-altitude mountains that you can climb on your own feet.
There have already been some talk of early exhibitions for the 25th-26 season and early bird season tickets, but let's take a look back at this season.


This time, the POWDER FREERIDE '25 with Bonz Crew, the oldest freeride competition in Japan, marking its 15th year with the 24th-25 season. A passionate session was held at Kiroro Resort over two days, on February 15th and 16th. The story will be reported by Mikami Taiki, who is also an executive committee member.

A tournament that has written about the history of Japanese freerides

"Tsukasa Home POWDER FREERIDE '25 with Bonz Crew" was held at Kiroro Snow Resort on Saturday, February 15th and Sunday, February 16th.

At that time, news of heavy snow was circulating mainly in Honshu, but there was surprisingly little snow in Hokkaido so that the Sapporo Snow Festival was in danger of being held.
However, the cold wave, which is said to be the biggest of the season, has flowed into Hokkaido three days before the event date, and Kiroro Resort has fallen sufficiently, as if to recover from the light snow that had been in the past.
In addition, on the day of the event, the sky was stunningly blue and in excellent condition.

This is not the first time that the best pattern is that it snowed the day before and the day will clear.
Among those involved, it was secretly called "Take (Kodama Tsuyoshi) Power," and it was in powder condition that was truly worthy of the tournament's name.
What's more, Kiroro's high season powder is 30-40cm! This time, he fully demonstrated his "Take Power."

This event, which began in 2011 by Kodama Takeshi, was the founder of the event, marking 2025, marks its 15th year. It is now the oldest freeride competition in Japan.

The first winner was Kusunoki Taisuke. In the second episode, the current lineage of freerides continues with Endo Junpei, and the boys include Sasaki Yu, Sasaki Gen, and Katsuno Tenkan. The girls are Kanazawa Tomomi, Nakamura Yoko, and Nakagawa Mirai, and it is no exaggeration to say that the series is the history of Japan's freeriding. A number of outstanding members, both male and female, are listed as past winners.

A full 2-day collaboration with BonzCrew

This is the 15th time this year, and it was a joint project with BonzCrew, which is currently a hot topic in the freeride world.
Not only will there be a tournament, but there will also be a freeride session with guest riders the next day, and there will be a new model test ride where you can test freeride models from various companies, and a POW talk by POW Goro from POW Japan.

The tournament slope is the same as usual, powder ride course in the non-pressurized snow area. The course is divided in half and is open burn on the left from the bottom, and the second one is dotted with mash at the top, with stream terrain at the center, making it a course with plenty of highlights. They will compete for the total score of those two.

The scoring criteria are the total scores of four judges, out of 10, each of which is technique, aggressive, fluidity, and originality.
This time, a total of 103 players, including a capacity of 100 people from within and outside Hokkaido and an invited sponsor, were entered. The youngest was 7 years old and the oldest was 74 years old!

Before the start, the team was joined by the three regular judges at the tournament and former Nagano Olympics representatives: Watanabe Shinichi, Imai Takamasa and Sakamoto Godai, as well as Koyama Takashi of BonzCrew, who joined the judges this time, as well as Komatsu Goro, Nakagawa Mirai of POW Japan, and Sasaki Gen and Hirayama Shun of BONZ CREW, with their spectacular front races, from young players to legends.

After that, the competition began in the order of general girls → elementary school students → general boys. Another major feature that adds to this tournament is that the categories are not divided by skiing equipment, including skiing, snowboarding, telemark skiing, and monoskiing. This time, I was surprised at how high the level of elementary school students were.

Yamanoi Zen, the top player in the technical selection, participated in the general men's division, showing his impressive overall strength and liven up the venue. The top 10 players in the first round of the general men's division started last, and the excitement at the venue peaked! It must have been a great inspiration for kids who slid down the same slope!

Freeride World Juinor Tour One of the features of Powdedr Freeride is that it can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of their level or age, from experienced players to weekend fan riders.

Before the award ceremony, a POW talk was held by POW JAPAN representative Komatsu Goro.
The latest models from each manufacturer were lined up at the freeride test drive event held throughout the two days of the event, and together with the professionals, they chose a demo plane.

The freeride session held on the second day also featured guests from Kodama Tsuyoshi, Bonz Crew, and Komatsu Goro from POW, and the participants were extremely excited.

Finally, Kodama Takeshi, the founder of this event and who ran the tournament as a producer, said,
"Even though there are many skiers and snowboarders in Hokkaido, there are few freeride tournaments. There are still many plans to expand the scale towards next year and turn the tournament into a series
.

We hope you look forward to the evolved new POWDER FREERIDE and the opening next year.

*For all results from the tournament,

click here : https://powderfreeride.com/