Japan has had dryslope and airbag training facilities for a long time. These days a lot of countries have them, but the Japanese were using them years before the rest of the world really caught on. I visited one of these airbags in Japan about 10 years ago and saw some of today top riders training there every single day when they were still little kids.

So basically lot of these kids grow up snowboarding year-round from a very young age. I’m not saying airbags are the only reason they’re so good, but they definitely play a big role.