Freestyle Snowboarding 101: The Adult Beginner’s Guide to the Terrain Park
If you learned to snowboard as an adult, you may think you missed your chance to try freestyle snowboarding. Freestyle snowboarding refers to doing snowboard tricks in the terrain park or off of natural features anywhere on the mountain.
While the risk of injury is definitely higher when you’re an adult than when you’re a kid (you’re higher off the ground, your bones aren’t made of rubber anymore, and there’s often more alcohol in your veins), I’m here to urge you not to write it off completely.
If you’re over the age of 20 and you find yourself gazing longingly at those glistening metal rails as you glide above them on the chairlift, or dreaming of soaring through the air and landing smoothly on the backside of a jump, this guide is for you.
What You'll Find in This Guide
This guide is your one-stop resource for getting started in the terrain park as an adult beginner. While I’m not a certified instructor, I’ve compiled everything I wish I knew when I got started—and I hope it helps you take the leap (literally and figuratively).
Here’s what I’ll cover:
Why Ride the Terrain Park as an Adult Beginner?
Protective Gear for Freestyle Snowboarding
Choosing a Snowboard for the Terrain Park
Terrain Park Rules and Etiquette
How to Ride a Terrain Park Rope Tow
Terrain Park Glossary for Adult Beginners
Freestyle Snowboarding Progression Guide
Best Midwest Terrain Parks for Beginners
My Snowboarding Story (So Far)
Before we begin, here’s a little bit about me: I’m an adult beginner, just like you, but probably (if you’re reading this guide) a few years further along.
I got into snowboarding in 2020 at age 28. I’d lived in the Midwest for five years at that point, and I knew there were ski hills in the area, but I thought there was no way that sliding down a 300-foot tall ski hill hidden in the woods could possibly be worth the time or money. Then one day in January (I specify because I know you’re out there wondering if this was a pre-COVID or post-COVID discovery), a friend invited me and my wife to Tyrol Basin for the day.
We showed up to Tyrol with low expectations. At the time, it was my fourth day on a snowboard (with each of those preceding days spread out over several years). I made it down about half of the resort’s 24 runs and got hooked immediately. The following year, we bought the Indy Pass for its inaugural season and started exploring resorts throughout the Midwest.
Between the Indy Pass and making full use of two of the local hills’ weekly discount nights (Tuesdays at Tyrol and Thursdays at Devil’s Head Resort) we’ve been able to get in an average of 20 riding days per year.
Why I Wrote This Guide
From the very beginning, the terrain park called to me. It just looked so rad, and I could tell pretty quickly that learning to ride in the park would be a great way to keep things interesting when I got tired of the 15 or so trails at the small hills we have access to in the Midwest.
Not long after we’d decided to embrace this hobby by buying our own gear, I ventured into the park at Tyrol. It was the first day of our first full season, and I timidly pointed my board onto a gently curving box. I lost my balance as soon as my board hit the metal surface, started to fall on my butt, and tried to stop my fall with a hand. Crunch.
I jumped up from the snow, my hand smarting in pain, afraid to look too closely to assess the damage. I joined my wife at the bottom of the slope and took a look. Nothing seemed out of joint, although there was already some swelling around my thumb that made it hard to close my fist.
I felt incredibly stupid. Why had I risked ending my season on our first day out? What was there to gain?
It turns out there's a lot to gain if you're willing to take the risk. For some riders, the risk is absolutely not worth it, and that's totally OK.
But for me, there’s more than just glory at stake.
My efforts in the park have fast-tracked my development of skills that are incredibly useful outside the park—flat-basing, riding switch, precise steering, and more. And if I can do it, so can you.
So take a look around, dive into the topics that interest you most, and maybe I’ll see you in the park someday.
Why Ride the Terrain Park as an Adult Beginner?
Riding in the terrain park can help you develop a lot of skills that are useful all over the mountain. Some of those skills include:
Flat-basing (great for maintaining speed on flat catwalks)
Landing jumps (great for landing side hits or those moments when you get launched by a bump you didn’t see)
Riding switch (great for resting your back leg on powder days, and navigating out of hairy situations in natural terrain)
Speed control (great for staying in control in tracked out or icy trees)
Precise steering (great for trees, great for avoiding other skiers and riders on crowded groomers)
Jumping over obstacles (great for trees)
Improved balance (great for unpredictable snow conditions)
Protective Gear for Freestyle Snowboarding
Since riding in the terrain park comes with a higher risk of injury than outside the park, it’s a great idea to get some basic protective gear.
I hope you already have a helmet. Beyond that, I highly recommend impact shorts, knee pads, and durable gloves or mittens for riding the rope tow.
Want to know what gear will protect your knees (and your ego) in the park? Read my full terrain park gear guide.
Choosing a Snowboard for the Terrain Park
Any snowboard can be ridden in the park, no matter the shape, camber profile, or length. Want proof? Check out Zeb Powell’s insane custom seven-foot swallow tail board. If you don’t have a “park board,” don’t let that stop you from trying park stuff.
However, some boards are designed for park riding and may help you progress a little faster on certain tricks.
The ideal park board for adult beginners is a true twin, flat camber, flexible board that you don’t mind getting a little beat up. For that reason, I recommend starting with a used snowboard if you can.
I walk through a few more considerations and some popular brands in my guide to Choosing a Snowboard for the Terrain Park.
Terrain Park Rules and Etiquette
While falling onto or off of a feature is an obvious safety hazard in the terrain park, running into other riders is a huge concern as well. The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) has developed the acronym Park S.M.A.R.T to make terrain park safety rules easy (ish) to remember.
Start Small
Make a Plan
Always Look
Respect
Take it Easy
While those are the official rules, what actually happens in the park can look a little different. For more on that, read my guide: Terrain Park Rules and Etiquette (What Park S.M.A.R.T. Won’t Tell You).
How to Ride a Terrain Park Rope Tow
One of the most challenging aspects of getting into park riding is getting good at riding the rope. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it: the first time (or 10) you try it, you’ll probably fall, either while trying to get on, while riding, or while getting off.
I’ve got a few tips that will help you learn faster in my guide to riding a rope tow, but here are the basics:
Stay strapped in with both feet.
Try to ride into the rope without stopping at the bottom of the park and grab the rope before your momentum stops.
If you can’t ride on, position yourself with your shoulders squared to the rope while standing still, take a deep breath, and hop forward and grab the moving rope with both hands the way you’d hold a rope in Tug of War.
Actively steer to keep yourself in the tow path.
Give yourself a push at the top of the slope before the ropeway ends by tugging hard on the rope and leaning in the direction you want to go.
Give yourself grace if you fall. Everyone falls! Clear out of the way of riders behind you as fast as you can and try again from the bottom.
Terrain Park Glossary for Adult Beginners
Getting into a new sport often means learning a bunch of new lingo. I have a more complete glossary of snowboarding terms, including diagrams and examples from feature manufacturers, but I’ll share the ones that I think are the most important to know for terrain park riding here.
Park Size
Terrain parks come in sizes, which you may notice if you look at the trail map of your local resort. They're usually rated Extra-Small, Small, Medium, and Large, based on the size and difficulty of the features they contain. I've also seen the most beginner-friendly parks labeled "Progression Parks" or "Mini Parks." As you approach the entrance to a terrain park, you'll often see an orange sign that says Freestyle Terrain Ahead, with an S, M, or L indicating the size of the features.
Jumps
There are several different styles of jumps that you’ll find both in the park and occasionally on groomed slopes, each with varying levels of risk and progression potential:
Rollers are small, rounded mounds built into the slope. You can ride them without catching air or use them to practice small pops at speed.
Tabletop jumps have a flat deck between the takeoff and landing, making them safer for progression since you can ride over them without getting airborne until you're ready.
Gap jumps require full commitment. You’ll need enough speed to clear the space between takeoff and landing. Beginners should steer clear of these until they’ve built more experience and confidence.
Want to see diagrams? Check out my full terrain park glossary.
Features
These are some terms you'll hear used to describe the man-made features in the park.
Rail – A metal bar, often round or rectangular, that riders slide across using their snowboard. Rails come in different shapes, heights, and difficulty levels.
Box – A wider, flat surface (often made of plastic or metal) that is easier to balance on than a rail. Great for learning tricks before moving to rails.
Kicker – While the “kicker” can be specifically the take-off portion of a jump, it can also stand for the whole jump itself, especially for small-to-medium jumps. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with "booter," but kickers tend to be smaller.
Booter – A large jump in the terrain park, built for big air.
Hip – A jump that has a landing to the side instead of directly in front, allowing riders to turn in the air before landing.
Knuckle – The roller underneath the “kicker” portion of a jump, which smoothly flows into the landing area. Landing on the knuckle in the gap between the lip and the landing area can result in a hard impact. Alternatively, some riders skip the kicker and use the knuckle alone to get airborne and do a trick (see examples from the Knuckle Huck competition to get a better understanding of this).
Tube – A cylindrical metal rail, usually more challenging than a box but less technical than a square rail.
Pipe - Short for half-pipe, meaning a u-shaped slope with sheer walls and a rounded bottom.
Basic Tricks & Grabs
Jib - To slide, ride, or grind on anything that isn't snow, like a rail or a box.
50-50 – A trick where the rider slides straight along a rail or box with their board parallel to it. This is often the first trick riders learn on park features.
Boardslide – A trick where the snowboard is perpendicular to the rail or box while sliding forward. The rider approaches the feature from the side and jumps onto it, turning the board at least 90 degrees in the air or on the rail.
Indy Grab – A trick where the rider reaches down with their back hand and grabs the middle of the snowboard on the toe edge while airborne. Usually the first grab a rider learns.
Butter – A trick performed on the snow where the rider shifts weight onto one end of the board (nose or tail) and pivots or spins while keeping the other end lifted.
Press – Similar to a butter, but done in a more static way, holding the nose or tail up while sliding over a feature like a box or rail.
Freestyle Snowboarding Progression Guide
I’ve already mentioned the skills that freestyle riding can help you develop. To build those skills, there’s a handful of drills you can work on outside the park.
Flat-Basing
Flat-basing means riding with your weight perfectly centered on the board directly down the fall line of the slop. It’s critical for building up speed on the take-off of a jump, riding safely across rails and boxes, and landing jumps.
Ollies
An ollie is a simple jump on a snowboard, where your nose leaves the snow before your tail. They’re fun and stylish and you’ll need them in order to jump onto features like rails and boxes, as well as to get air off of rollers.
Penguin Walking
Penguin walking means hopping forward from one foot to another while keeping both feet strapped in. It’s a great way to cross a flat section of the slope, which you might need to do in the terrain park if you fall right before getting onto the rope. Penguin walking also builds up your leg muscles and helps you develop edge control.
Riding Switch
Riding switch means leading with your non-dominant leg. You need to be comfortable leading with both legs in order to do any kind of tricks that involve rotations.
I share a lot more tips about how to develop these skills outside the park in my guide to freestyle progression, as well as a suggested list of features to start with.
Best Midwest Terrain Parks for Beginners
Now that you’re stoked about riding, have assembled your gear, and have some ideas about which tricks to try out on the snow, you just need one more thing: a ski resort!
Since I’m based in the Midwest, I can only really give you advice about ski resorts in the Midwest, as I have much less experience elsewhere (although I have snowboarded in 10 U.S. states and five different resorts in Japan, lest you get the idea that I’ve never seen a real mountain).
Fortunately, you don’t need much elevation to build an amazing park. Midwestern ski areas often have amazing terrain parks, equipped with features that are fun for all ability levels. Larger mountain resorts sometimes just mean longer chair lift rides in between your park runs.
Here are my favorite parks in the Midwest:
Little Switzerland in Wisconsin has the best beginner terrain park of any ski hill I’ve visited so far.
Trollhaugen is super well-known for their terrain parks. They have every size park, but the big ones attract pros from near and far.
Granite Peak consistently sets beginner features in the Grom Park below the Blitzen Lift. The only downside is how slow the Blitzen Lift is.
Nordic Mountain consistently sets beginner features, and they have a rope tow, although for snowboarders, it’s almost impossible to get onto the rope without stopping and unstrapping, so it’s not ideal.
Devil’s Head consistently sets beginner-friendly boxes in the little park at the end of the blue runs in the middle. No rope though.
Tyrol Basin definitely doesn’t cater to beginners, but in recent seasons they’ve been putting some beginner boxes and rails at the base of the Tobel run next to the A Lift. You can hike the park to get more laps in, or just hit it at the end of all your A Lift laps.
Final Thoughts
As a member of the geriatric park rat society, it probably goes without saying that you should let the snow conditions determine which tricks you’re going to try. If it’s a super hard-packed/icy day, it might be better to just work on some fundamentals like flat-basing outside of the park. When you get warm and soft “spring skiing” conditions, get in the park and start hurling your body at some metal! The metal won’t hurt any less, but the snow will.
I hope this guide inspires you to (safely) get out of your comfort zone on the slopes this season!
