Snowboard Club UK FAQs (frequently-asked questions)

Air-to-Fakie
A trick performed on the frontside wall of the half-pipe, where the rider rotates slightly back up the pipe to land backwards

Alpine
Usually refers to hard boot riding, where the emphasis is on fast carving edge to edge rather than freestyle trickery.

Backside
Heel edge; also refers to any movement where the rider’s back faces outwards.

Backside Air
An air performed on the backside wall of the half pipe.

Boardercross
A fast-paced snowboarding version of moto-cross, where a number of riders race together over a course made up of banks, jumps and gaps.

Boned
When a rider grabs the board and then extends or straightens his front or back leg to emphasis the style of the grab.

Corduroy
Freshly groomed pistes have pristine lines on them that look like corduroy.

Camber
When a snowboard is placed on a flat surface, only the tip and tail will rest on the floor. The space between the board and the flat surface it rests upon is called camber

Detuning
Riders detune a board’s edges at the tip and tail to make sure they don’t catch an edge when riding

Directional
A directional board has a larger nose than tail as it is primarily designed to be ridden forwards. See also switch and twin tip.

Duck-foot
A stance where both feet point outwards like a duck.

Effective Edge
The portion of the edges that are in contact with the snow when carving. I.e. having an effect in the turn

Fakie
A term lifted from skateboarding meaning to ride backwards.

540
A freestyle trick where the rider spins through one and a half full rotation, inscribing a 540 degree spin in the air.

Flat Bottom
The flat of a half-pipe between the frontside and backside walls

Forward Lean
Binding high-backs can be moved laterally forward to aid turning and edge control.

Freestyle
Any snowboarding trick or manoeuvre.

Frontside
Opposite of backside: the front of the rider’s body faces outwards

Frontside Air
An air on the frontside wall of a pipe.

Grommet
A young snowboarder who is super-keen on snowboarding.

Haakonflip
Invented by Terje Haakonsen, it is an inverted switch frontside 720 on the backside wall of the pipe.

Heelside Turn
A turn on the heel edge

High-back
Part of the binding that extends past the ankle and up the calf on the back of each leg. Provides support and response, particularly on heelside turns

Hucker
A rider who never stomps any of his tricks, or someone who rides without good style.

Inverted
A trick executed while wholly or partially upside down (see McTwist and Haakonflip).

Leash
A retention device that attaches the board to the front leg

McTwist
Originally a skateboarding trick invented by Mike McGill. It’s an inverted 540 mute grab with a frontflip on the backside wall, meaning that the rider takes off and lands forwards.

Misty Flip
Reputedly named by Ali Goulet, the Misty Flip is an inverted backside 540 off a straight jump, meaning the rider lands fakie.

N
900
Two and a half full rotations.

Nose Slide
A trick borrowed from skateboarding. As it sounds, it is a slide on the nose of the board.

Ollie
Another skating trick, invented by Alan ‘Ollie’ Gelfand. It’s how skateboarders and snowboarders get air without a jump: by springing off the tail of their board.

180
Half a rotation

Pipe Dragon
Invented by Doug Waugh, it is a machine used to cut half-pipe transitions into the snow. It’s a piste basher with a transition-shaped ‘arm’.

Rail
A board’s edge is sometimes referred to as the rail. In the jibbing sense, refers to handrails.

Rodeo Flip
An inverted frontside spin off the toes or inverted backside spin off the heels.

Sidecut
Every board has a sidecut radius, which is the measure of the circle radius to which the sidecut of the board corresponds. The smaller the radius the tighter the turn.

Slopestyle
A competition during which the rider tackles a number of obstacles (jumps, tabletops and rails) during the course of each run. Points are scored for consistency and style.

Stance
The way you ride: regular or goofy; duck-foot or normal; and the width between your bindings

Step-In
Bindings without straps that the rider steps into, like ski bindings.

Stomp
To land a trick solidly and with style

Stomp Pad
Placed between the bindings on the topsheet of the board, it provides traction when a snowboarder has to ‘skate’ with his back foot out of the bindings, in a lift queue for example.

Switch
Means ‘switch stance’: riding regular when you are naturally goofy and vice versa.

Tabletop
A jump shaped like a table where the flat tabletop has to be cleared in order to reach the landing

360
One full rotation in the air.

Toe Drag
Big-footed riders suffer from toe drag when their board is too narrow.

Twin Tip
A board with an identically shaped nose and tail. Easier to ride switch.

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Vert
Or vertical. Half-pipes and quarter-pipes have a section of vert to project the rider cleanly upwards into the air.

Wall
In a pipe, each side is referred to as the frontside and backside wall.

Winding The Windows Down
When a rider is out of control in the air and fights with their arms to regain balance, it is called winding the windows down.

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