We’ve had a great bunch of people come and go at the lodge, seasonaries and short stay guests have now started to head home either willingly or through injury, so before the next seasonaire Matt headed back to Oz, we all headed to a nearby resort called Kashimayari to spend the day at the airbag in the lovely spring like weather we are getting at the moment.

The airbag is basically a giant, slightly deflated bouncy castle positioned after a rather large jump. You simply shoot off the jump, try and pull any crazy spin/backflip you can and land on the airbag relatively unscaved. We all had good fun trying various tricks off the jump, for me i was keen to get some decent grabs and generally get comfortable in the air and others had a go at slightly more adventurous double backflips and 360 spins.

Airbag supervisor and by far the coolest ski patrol guy we’ve met

Although you were landing on an airbag, it still wasn’t the most comfortable of landings and it still hurt if you didn’t land cleanly on top of your board. A few times i had some nasty landings, and even though i was wearing a helmet it still hurt when you whacked your head.

My final and favourite trick of the day. A steezy back 1 melon (if that makes any sense to you)

Writing this now i honestly feel like i’ve been in a car accident. All the airbag landings seem to have given me some nasty whiplash, so waking up this morning i could barely lift my head out of bed. A day off from riding was definitely needed, so i headed over to the local onsen to see if i could soothe my aching neck and shoulders. The onsen was really nice, with a large indoor bath, and a slightly smaller one which was open aired. It was the quietest onsen i’ve been to so far, and for most of the time i was there i had the whole place to myself. Fingers crossed it has done the job and tomorrow i can head out riding again. Overall the airbag was so much fun, so hopefully we will all head over there again soon.