
Glossary
Here is a glossary of Skiboarding terms:
- Air or Airs - What it is called when riders clear jumps or obstacles.
- 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.
- Digger - Similar to a beater, but usually results in an injury.
- Fakie - Riding backwards.
- 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 - When riders bonk or tap their skiboards on handrails, garbage cans, logs etc. “Jibbing” usually takes place in the terrain parks, it is derived from in-line skating.
- Joey - Same as a poser.
- Linding 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.
- Mailbox - Looks like a mailbox, but it is extended about 10 feet long, riders slide and grind on it.
- Obstacle - Jumps, hits, handrails, etc., anything a rider uses to throw tricks.
- 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.
- Quarter Pipe - A halfpipe with one wall; a banked hit
- Rider - An acceptable name for a Skiboarding athlete.
- 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 or Unnatural-Spinning in the opposite direction of what is natural
- 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 Out - Adding some style.
- WSA - World Skiboarding Association
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.
- Rails - What riders slide and grind on, looks like and is a handrail.
- Backside grind - 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.
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, like a corkscrew.
- Lincoln Loop - Rider approaches jump forward, does what looks like a cartwheel through the air, then lands backwards. Sometimes referred to as the Maheu Flip, after Serge Maheu.
- 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 1/2 rotations
- 720 - 2 full rotations
- 900 - 2 1/2 rotations
- 1080 - 3 full rotations
- Flatspin - rider is neither totally inverted nor upright, but spinning sideways.
- Flatspin 540 - spinning sideways while completing 1 1/2 rotations and landing backwards.
- Flatspin 720 - spinning sideways while completing two full rotations and landing forward.
- Bio’s - spins where rider is off axis.
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.
- 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.

















