Master Snowboarding Jump Types: Ultimate Guide to Tricks & Terminology

Snowboarding is an exhilarating sport filled with exciting tricks and maneuvers. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced rider, understanding the different types of jumps and tricks can significantly enhance your skills and enjoyment on the slopes. This comprehensive guide will walk you through various snowboarding jump types, from basic butters to advanced spins and grabs. Additionally, mastering snowboarding lingo will elevate your snowpark game.

Understanding the Basics

Before diving into specific tricks, let's establish some fundamental concepts:

Air (A-CAAir): Any jump or leap where the rider lifts off the ground; alternately called an aerial.
Backcountry: Unpatrolled wilderness terrain with unpredictable topography, random natural obstacles (trees, cliffs) and no marked trails; detached from resort amenities. Also known as off-piste terrain.
Bail: To intentionally abandon a maneuver and fall.
Bonk: Hitting a nonsnow object with the snowboard.
Boost: Catching air off a jump.

Terrain Park Elements

The general term for all elements found in a terrain park is obstacle. These can be divided into kickers or jumps, jibs, and pipes. They come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, and difficulty levels.

Pipes

The half pipe is one of the classic elements in a terrain park. Built into the park's slope, the gradient inside the pipe provides the speed needed to perform tricks. For professional freestyle contests, organizers often go to great lengths and build super pipes. These are often over five meters (16 feet) high and therefore unsuitable for beginners.

Pipes can be found stand-alone as well. These quarter pipes are the simplest variation of so-called verts, where jump and landing are identical. To avoid driving into a wall of snow or simply sliding back down the pipe backwards, you'll have to reach a certain level of speed.

Read also: In-Depth Sundance Snowboarding

Kickers and Jumps

Spectacular tricks like flips and rotations are possible on kickers. They are typically made entirely out of snow and vary in size and difficulty. Mini kickers require less speed to be overcome, making them ideal for beginners. Experienced freestylers will prefer the larger super kickers. They are usually the largest obstacles in the park and require an extensive run-up and high speed to be passed. The time freestylers spend in the air is accordingly long.

Often, several kickers can be found in a row, a so-called kicker line. The larger ones among them are also called big air. Tables are popular obstacles among beginners, since they are some of the easiest jumps in the terrain park and make for great practice obstacles. As the name suggests, their shape is similar to that of a table. If you're going slow, you'll land on the table's even top surface. At a faster speed, you'll be able to jump across to the other side of the obstacle. Tables are often combined with other elements.

Jibs

Jibs often show a resemblance to urban elements. Turning, jumping or performing tricks are also possible while jibbing. The difference between Jibs and Kickers is that Jibs are made of synthetic materials, steel or wood instead of snow. They often show similarities with urban elements, such as railings, tables and barrels.

Freestylers can glide down boxes and rainbows. Snowboarders try to slide down the round or oval metal pipes as long as possible. Especially for freeskiers, wider elements like boxes are easier to handle. Boxes have a larger plastic surface on the top with metal rails on the sides. Here, freestylers are first slowed down and then accelerated again in a curve, so make sure you don't lose your balance!

Types of Snowboard Tricks

There are a few types of snowboard tricks, and you can break them down into four categories: Butters, Grabs, Spins, Flips

Butters keep the board on the ground and utilize spins and presses without the need for jumps or rails.
Grabs involve grabbing the board in various positions.
Spins are rotational tricks around the vertical axis, while flips rotate around the horizontal axis.

The Key to Snowboard Tricks: The Ollie

The Ollie is the foundational trick that opens up everything from butters to corked 10s. It’s the key to unlocking freestyle riding. It’s simple to do but hard to perfect, so let’s break it down. The Ollie is the trick that gets the board off the ground and requires four steps: loading the board with energy, shifting the weight back, springing off the tail, and then poking the nose to level the whole thing out. Get this down tight, and you’ll open up the big bad world of freestyle.

Basic Snowboard Tricks List

Now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s jump into our basic list of snowboard tricks. We say ‘basic’ because the list is ever-expanding as riders experiment and iterate on existing tricks, ever-complicating the job of naming them all! The following list, as such, isn’t exhaustive but is going to take you pretty far.

Butter Tricks

Butter tricks are a great starting point and will teach you basic Ollies and Nollies, board awareness, and rotation. So, beginning with the easiest one, let’s jump in.

Ollie and Nollie: We covered the Ollie above, but the Nollie is the inverse. Crouch, shift your weight forward and then use the nose of your board to spring off.
Tail press: The tail press is initiated by shifting your weight towards the tail of your board while riding straight and lifting the nose clear of the snow.
Nose press: This is the exact opposite of the tail press. The nose press requires your weight to be over the nose of the board, with the tail lifted free of the snow.
Tripod: Riding straight, look behind you. Initiate a heavy tail press, and reach down and touch the snow with your hands, forming the tripod with your tail and arms.
Nose-roll 180: Start a toe or heelside turn, and once you get on edge, lift the tail of your board, keeping the nose on the ground. Then, spin the board to land switch.
Tail-drag 180: The tail drag involves initiating a toe or heelside turn, then ollying but keeping the tail on the snow. The, drag it around and land switch.
Nose-roll 360: Start in the same way as the nose-roll 180, but pop harder and with more rotational force. When your board draws perpendicular to the riding direction, lift the nose from the snow and pop into an airborne spin, coming around into a full 360.
Tail-drag 360: Begin the same way to the tail-drag 180, but, again, pop harder, dragging the tail to perpendicular, before lifting it from the snow to complete a full 360-degree rotation.
Tail-drag/nose-roll to pretzel: Initiate a tail-drag or nose-roll. But, after the initial pop, muscle the board back straight instead of spinning to land in your natural stance. This is known as the pretzel.

Grabs

Grabs are the backbone of snowboard tricks and choc full of style and steeze. Whether it’s one hand or two, grabbing your board mid-flight is where snowboard freestyle was born.

Indy: Grab your board on the toe edge between the bindings with your trailing hand.
Stalefish: Reach outside your trailing knee and grab your board on the heel edge between the bindings with your trailing hand.
Tail: Grab the tail of your board with your trailing hand (right at the tip! Not on the sides).
Weddle (formerly the Mute grab): Named for Chris Weddle, the inventor, grab your toe edge between the bindings with your lead hand.
Melon: Reach outside your leading knee and grab the heel edge of your board between the bindings with your lead hand.
Method: From the Melon grab, extend your legs so your body is almost shaped like a scorpion’s tail and then reach for the sky with your trailing hand. The Method is the most stylish trick, and everyone has their own version.
Nose: Grab the nose of your board with your leading hand.

There are many other grabs and variations. These include reaching between the legs to grab the opposite edges of the board, reaching across the body to grab the tail or nose with the opposite hand, or grabbing with both hands simultaneously. Explore different variations at your leisure. Just remember to never grab Tindy!

Spins, Flips and Corks

Spins are rotational-based tricks on the horizontal axis that will land you in your natural position or switch. They go in increments of 180 degrees. So, 180, 540, 900, 1260, and 1620 are the spins you’ll land switch, and 360, 720, 1080, 1440, and 1800 are the spins you’d land in your natural position.

Flips and corks are rotational-based tricks on the vertical axis. Still, unlike spins, there are a few variations within these tricks that give them specific names. We’ll cover the basics below, so you know what you’re looking at on the mountain!

Wildcat: A Wildcat is a backflip that keeps the board parallel to the riding line, so you’re doing a sort of ‘side’ flip without losing momentum.
Tamedog: The exact inverse of a Wildcat is a Tamedog. This is a frontflip that keeps the board parallel to the riding line. A hard Nollie uses the nose as a springboard to initiate the rotation.
Backflip: A backflip turns the board perpendicular to the snow, so you flip directly backwards, shifting the board straight for the landing.
Frontflip: Much like a Tamedog, the frontflip requires you to nose-press and Nollie off a lip. You’ll then reach forward with both hands to initiate the somersault and shifty the board back into place for landing.
Rodeo: A Rodeo is a frontflip with a twist. Literally. As you come up to the lip of the jump, initiate a frontside turn. Then, pop off the toe edge of your board, continuing the rotation, so you perform a frontflip with a frontside 180, landing switch.
Backside Rodeo: The inverse of the Rodeo, a Backside Rodeo involves initiating a backside turn off the jump, popping off your heel edge, and then performing a backflip with a 180 to land switch. More rotation can be added to make it a Backside Rodeo 540, for example - a favorite among the pros for its insane style!
Corked Spin: A Corked Spin simply adds a front or backflip into a flat spin. You’ll usually hear this in competition settings when pros throw Back Double Corked 10s or Cab Triple Cork 14s. But any spin can be corked, like the Rodeos above.

Rails and Boxes

If air and flatland tricks aren’t your bag, then perhaps you’re a street rider, and your passion lies with rails and boxes! If this is the case, this next part is for you. So, listen up as we break down the common grinds you’ll encounter on the mountain.

50-50: This is riding a rail or box with your board straight on the feature.
Frontside boardslide: Ride up to the rail with it on your front side, and pop with your nose rising over the rail. The rail lands between your bindings, but with your heel edge leading, i.e., sliding the feature backwards.
Frontside lipslide: The same as the above, but you ride up to the rail with it on your front side. You’ll then pop onto it with your tail rising over the rail to land with it between your bindings.
Backside boardslide: This is riding up to the rail with it on your back side, then popping onto it with your nose rising over the rail. You’ll land with the rail between your bindings, your board perpendicular to the feature.
Backside lipslide: The same as above, but you ride up with the rail on your back side and pop with your tail rising over the rail to land with it between your bindings. This is with your heel edge leading.
Tailpress: A 50-50 with an added tail press.
Nosepress: A 50-50 with an added nose press.
Bluntslide: A bluntslide means the rail sits under one of your bindings instead of the middle of the board. You’ll often see this as a frontside blunt boardslide, or a backside blunt lipslide, depending on how you got on the rail and what direction you’re going.

Advanced Tricks

Once you've mastered the basics, you can move on to more advanced tricks:

Backflip: A classic trick where you flip backwards in the air.
Cork: An advanced rotation where your body spins off-axis.
Crail Grab: Use your back hand to grab the toe edge of the snowboard just in front of your front foot.
Seatbelt Grab: Reach across your body with your front hand to grab the tail of the snowboard on the toe side.

Snowboarding Lingo

Knowing the lingo is just as important as knowing the tricks. Here are some common terms:

All-mountain: Snowboards designed for exploring any terrain, from groomed runs to powder to park and pipe.
Asymmetrical Board: Board with unmatched sides designed for regular or goofy stance.
Backside: The area behind a rider's back in a halfpipe or during a trick off a wall. Also, the spot where heels rest on a snowboard.
Blindside: Any rotation in which the snowboarder is blind during takeoff or landing.
Board: Snowboard.
Caballerial (Cab): A trick where the rider starts by riding switch, spins 360° and lands in the original stance.
Carve: A turn using the edge of the snowboard.
Fakie: Backwards, as in "riding fakie;" however, "riding switch" has become the new-school term for backwards riding.
Freeride: Primarily riding powder, through trees and in backcountry terrain; secondarily, riding fast on groomed runs.
Freestyle: Performing jumps, spins and tricks; riding on rails, boxes and in the halfpipe.
Goofy: Riding with the right foot forward (as opposed to regular, or riding with the left foot forward).
Regular: Riding with the left foot forward.
Switch: Riding backwards, opposite of your natural stance.

Table of Snowboard Trick Categories

Category	Description	Examples
Butters	Tricks performed on the ground using presses and spins.	Ollie, Nollie, Tail Press, Nose Press
Grabs	Tricks involving grabbing the snowboard in mid-air.	Indy, Stalefish, Tail Grab, Melon
Spins	Rotational tricks around the vertical axis.	180, 360, 540, 720
Flips	Rotational tricks around the horizontal axis.	Backflip, Frontflip, Rodeo
Rails/Boxes	Tricks performed on rails and boxes in terrain parks.	50-50, Frontside Boardslide, Backside Lipslide

10 Snowboard Tricks To Learn In The Park First

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