The first Japanese Examiner to join the SBINZ ranks, Ricky began teaching skiing when he was 18 years old in his home country Japan. He moved to New Zealand and started to teach skiing full-time in 1996. Ricky began as a Snowboard Instructor around the same time and became a Snowboard Examiner in 2002.
After many years of back-to-back winters between NZ and Northern Hemisphere, Ricky now spends most of his summers in New Zealand, with the odd riding trip back to Japan. He runs his own business for Japanese tourists and spends his winters as a Trainer at Mt Hutt working mostly with Christchurch Polytechnic.