CONTRIBUTORS 01 05 03 02 04 NIKI AYAKO (01) Niki Ayako splits her time between Hokkaido and Nagano, Japan, where she works as a photographer, shooting outdoor sports for various brands and publications. Niki aims to capture the atmosphere felt in nature throughout the four seasons—the sound of frost on a snowy mountain, the morning mist from a quiet lake—as well as people’s emotions. Ultimately, she hopes her work leaves a lasting impression on the viewer. In addition to outdoor photography, Niki also does commercial shoots and works in graphic design. You can see more of her work online at nikiimages.com and on Instagram @247nikiimages. STEPHEN HARE (02) Originally from Toronto, Stephen Hare has been contributing to the snowboarding community for nearly three decades. Whether it be through photography, content development, product de-sign, or sales and marketing, Stephen is a bit of a jack of all trades. He now resides in the British Columbia Interior with his wife, Lindsay, and son, George. Stephen operates Pillar Trading Ltd, a sales and marketing agency that currently represents Nitro, Au-tumn, L1 Premium Goods, Eivy, and 100 Percent. See his work online at stephenhare.ca and pillaragency.ca, and on Instagram @sharephoto. Born and raised in Burlington, VT, Ralph Kucharek has spent his life surrounded by mountains and water. He started snowboard-ing in 1998 and prior to that had already found his passion for an-gling. Growing up in a place that nurtures these pursuits, Ralph has been able to make his living as a snowboarder and flyfishing guide for the past decade. Ralph has spent his snowboarding ca-reer mostly riding and highlighting the East Coast and produced and directed 100 North—A Vermont Snowboard Movie . He cur-rently sits on the board for the Sidesurfers Banked Slalom, guides for the Alaska Steelhead Company, hosts for WhistlePig Whis-key, and rides for Rome Snowboards, Bonfire Outerwear, Coal Headwear, and Woolf Merino. You can follow him on Instagram at @ralphkuch and see his fishing at @vtflyco. RALPH KUCHAREK (04) TOM HSIEH (03) Tom Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) is the founding editor of Inter-national Snowboard Magazine (1984-1991), the first regularly published snowboard magazine. A San Francisco, skater and ski-er, he took to snowboarding in 1982 like a duck to water. Hsieh would hike with friends around the backcountry of Donner Sum-mit in Lake Tahoe, finding slopes that had shapes reminiscent of the greatest skate parks of that era. Hsieh set the editorial voice of the magazine to be a rider’s advocate, defending our right to access ski resorts, protecting the soul of snowboarding, and call-ing out huckster charlatans trying to make a fast buck in our new sport. He now resides in San Francisco with his family and oper-ates a legendary golf course called Gleneagles. JASON ROBINSON (05) Hailing from Whitefish, MT, Jason Robinson is a veteran profes-sional snowboarder and man of many talents who has cultivated a unique flow through life. From street parts with Think Thank to Big Mountain Rider of the Year with Absinthe Films and a recent re-emergence in Teton Gravity Research’s Flying High Again , his riding speaks for itself. What you may not know is that he also works as a writer for various brands and publications to help support his con-tinual growth through experiential pursuits. Now residing on Wash-ington state’s Olympic Peninsula, “JRob” is currently supported by Cardiff Snowcraft, Karakoram, Bothell Chiropractic Clinic and Airblaster. Follow him on Instagram @jrobble. 098 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.4: Page 98
