Glossary

Here is a glossary of Skiboarding terms:

• Air or Airs - The time spend while skiboards are not touching the ground, usually done while performing a trick.
• Alley-Oop or AO - Ussually done in a halfpipe or quarter pipe, spinning out of the pipe turning uphill first.
• Bank - An obstacle that usually sticks out of the side of trail like a triangle, looks like a tabletop angled at 45 degrees.
• Beater - Wipeout or fall.
• Boards – Universal term for a pair of skiboards.
• Butter - Changing from Fakie to regular, or regular to Fakie, while skiboards still touch the ground.
• Nose / Tail Butter - Doing a butter while only the front / back tips of the skiboards remain on the ground.
• Digger - Similar to a beater, but usually results in an injury.
• Fakie - Riding backwards, sometimes referred to as Switch.
• Fruit Booters – Derogatory term for skiboarders mainly used by snowboarders and alpine skiers. Also a term used by skateboarders for in-line skaters.
• Gap - It is like a tabletop without the snow in the middle. Or it is a jump that has a take-off ramp that is higher then the table below it. A gap is the distance or space between two objects.
• Grab - Grabbing either or both boards with one or both hands. Frontside or backside.
• Grind - Sliding on a handrail or other object.
• Hit - A jump
• Halfpipe - Snow structure that consists of opposing walls the same height and size. Skiboarders use them to do tricks.
• Jib - A object which is used to do any kind of slide or grind.
• Landing Fakie - Landing backwards.
• Late - Used to describe doing a trick or style late into the jump. Also known as stalled.
• Launch - The moment a rider starts to execute a jump, and or the time when he is actually flying through the air.
• Obstacle - Jumps, hits, handrails, etc., anything a rider uses to throw tricks.
• Pretzel - Spinning off a jib, or switching up on a jib, the opposite way you previously spun on.
• Poser - Anyone who looks and acts the part, but can’t back it up in performance.
• Off Axis - When a rider is not straight up and down but tilted slightly to the left or the right, front or back.
• Quarter Pipe - A halfpipe with one wall; a banked hit
• Rider - An acceptable name for a Skiboarding athlete.
• Shifty - When riders cranks the top and bottom half of their body in opposite ways in the air.
• Slide - What a rider does when he “slides” across a handrail or mailbox, etc.
• Skiboarding - Preferred name for sport.
• Skiboarder - One of two acceptable names for Skiboarding athletes. The other is Rider.
• Slopestyle - It is a competition format derived from snowboarding. Should include quarter pipes, spines, tabletops, gaps, banks, handrails, mailboxes, etc. Riders are expected to utilize all of these to score maximum points.
• Snowlerblader - Derogatory term for skiboarders, mainly used by snowboarders and alpine skiers.
• Spine - Two-quarter pipes placed back to back
• Switch – Used by some to describe Fakie
• Switch Up - Changing slide while on a jib, sometimes includes spins.
• Stalled - When a maneuver is intentionally started late into a jump/trick.
• Table Tops - Type of jump where ramp goes up, then is flat on top, then there is a landing ramp on the other side.
• Transition - The area from the bottom of a take-off ramp to the point where a rider actually initiates a jump at the end of a take-off ramp.
• Tweaked or Tweaked Out - Adding some style, accentuation a grab or trick.
• Unnatural or Unnatty – Spinning oppostire way of what is natural to the rider. May be referred to as Switch.

Tricks
For the most part, skiboarding tricks and maneuvers have evolved from in-line skating, snowboarding or skiing. As the sport continues to progress, so does the invention and difficulty of new tricks.

Grinds and slides

• Grinds or Slides - Both mean sliding on a rail or jib.
• Rails – What riders slide and grind on, looks like and is a handrail.
• Backside - Jumping with back towards rail and sliding.
• Backslide - Whatever foot is downhill is up.
• Frontside grind - Jumping up facing the rail and sliding.
• Fastslide - Grind handrail, whatever foot is uphill is up.
• 270 on /270 off - Rider either does a 270 degree rotation onto or off of handrail.
• Mailbox - Looks like a mailbox, but is extended about another 10 feet. Riders slide on it.
• Box - A wide and long obstacle used for sliding.
• Nose press - Sliding on a jib with only the front end of the skiboards.
• Tail press - Same as Nose press but the the tails.
• Kind Grind - Uphill foot is parrallel to the jib and sliding direction facing uphill, downhill foot is perpendicular.
• Mizou - Downhill foot is parallel to jib and sliding direction facing downhill, uphill foot is perpendicular.
• Soul Grind - Uphill foot is parrallel to jib and sliding direction facing downhill, down hill foot is perpendicular.
• Makio - One foot slide, where foot is parrallel to the jib and sliding direction, facing uphill or downhill

Flips

• Backflip - Flipping backward off a jump.
• Frontflip - Flipping forward off a jump.
• Misty Flip - Front flip with a 180 twist. The rider either goes off the jump backwards or lands backwards. Similar to a snowboarding misty flip.
• Rodeo Flip - Going off the jump, the rider rotates to do an almost back flip with a twist.
• Lincoln Loop – Rider approaches jump forward, does what looks like a cartwheel through the air, then lands forwards. Sometimes referred to as the Maheu Flip, after Serge Maheu (when landed fakie.)
• Lame Flip - Fakie backflip with a late 180. Created by Ethan Mitchell.

Spins
During a regular spin, a rider is totally straight up and down.

• 180 - 1/2 rotation
• 360 – 1 full rotation
• 540 - 1 and a 1/2 rotations
• 720 – 2 full rotations
• 900 - 2 and a 1/2 rotations
• 1080 - 3 full rotations

• 270 - 3/4 rotation onto or off a jib
• 450 - 1 and a 1/4 rotation onto or off a jib
• 630 - 1 and 3/4 rotation onto or off a jib

• Flatspin - Rider is parrallel to the ground, while rotating around like a helicopter propeller.
• Double Flatspin - Two Flatspins in the same trick.
• Flatspin 540 - Flatspin while completing 1 1/2 rotations and landing backwards.
• Flatspin 720 - Flatspin while completing two full rotations and landing forward.

• Cork Spin – Spinning while parrallel to the ground, keeping head uphill and feet downhill.
• Bio’s - Spin done by dropping head forwards downhill bringing feet up so body is parrallel to the ground.
• Zero Spin – Taking off a jump fakie, and landing fakie without spinning.

Grabs

• Grab - Grabbing either or both boards with one or both hands. Frontside or backside.
• Liu Kang - Safety grab where free leg extends out to the side. Can be combined with both a misty and rodeo flip.
• Flying Fish - Similar to a Liu Kang, where either foot is brought into a 45° angle so that it hits the inner thigh of opposite leg.
• Method - Grabbing right foot with right hand.
• Mute Grab - Grab (with the right hand) over the top of left foot, and pull the feet off to the opposite side. Works with left hand on right boot, too.
• Nose grab - Grabbing the front tips of the skiboards.
• Parallel grab - Reach over knees and grab the left foot with the right hand. Works vice versa.
• Safety - Introductory grab where rider grabs the outside of either boot.
• Stale or Japan Grab – Similar to a mute, but instead of grabbing across the body, reach behind and under the right leg and grab the left foot.
• Stalled grab - A rider starts a 360 (or higher spin), and halfway through the turn, the rider grabs and then completes the spin.
• Tail Grab - Grabbing the rear tip of either skiboard.