The Adult Beginners’ Guide to Snowboarding Terms
When my friends and I first started riding in the terrain park, we didn’t know what to call any of the features. Rails were pretty obvious, but we called the boxes “tables” because we didn’t know better. Knowing the terminology can help you when you want to look up tutorials for riding specific types of features or doing specific tricks, talking to your friends about your progression, or trying to warn someone about a hazard on some part of a jump.
This guide covers the snowboarding terms you’re most likely to hear as an adult beginner snowboarder or when you’re just getting into freestyle snowboarding. I’ve organized them into categories to make them easier to learn and remember, and I’ve included some graphics as well as links to other resources to help you go deeper into the topics that matter most to you.
Terrain Park Term Glossary
Jumps
You’ll find different kinds of jumps throughout the terrain park (and sometimes on regular slopes).
Roller: A rounded snow mound built into the slope usually four or five feet high. You can ride over it smoothly without getting any air or get a little air if you ride fast and pop off the top. It’s the most beginner-friendly kind of jump.
Tabletop Jump: A jump with a flat "table" between the takeoff and landing. These are great for progression in snowboarding because you can ride over them without catching air, but they can also launch you many feet into the air if you bring in enough speed.
You can do a scoping run at a speed just fast enough to make it over but not to catch any air, and then on your next run, you can bring in more speed to start getting a few inches of air, and add more speed (and more air) with each run.
Gap Jump: A jump with space between the takeoff and landing.
Gap jumps are the most committing and advanced style of jump because you must bring enough speed to clear the gap or risk falling into or landing on the wrong side of the knuckle.
If you don’t have enough speed and fall into the gap, you may have a pretty hard impact, depending on how big the kicker is.
As a beginner, you should avoid jumps that look like this.
(Note: My diagram is sort of a worst-case scenario. Most terrain park builders try to make the backside of the take-off less of a sheer cliff than what I drew here, making it less disastrous if you bungle the take-off. But I have seen jumps that were this dramatic in real life, and for the purpose of learning the terminology, I think it’s a valid diagram.)
Kicker: The upward ramp that launches you into the air; often used as a synonym for a small-to-medium jump.
Booter: A big jump, usually built for sending riders high and far.
Knuckle: The rounded area at the top of the landing slope, just after the kicker. If you look at a jump from the side, the knuckle looks like a standard roller that sits underneath the “kicker” portion of a jump, which smoothly flows into the landing area. Landing on the knuckle in the space 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).
Hip: A jump with a landing that angles to the side instead of straight ahead
Features
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.
Tube: A cylindrical metal rail, usually more challenging than a box but less technical than a square rail.
Wallride: A vertical or sloped wall used for riding up and sometimes spinning off.
Spine Wall: A jump or feature with two angled sides and a shared top, allowing hits from either side.
Check out this catalog of terrain park features from this fabrication shop to see pictures of the many types of features you may encounter in the park, including boxes, shotgun rails, battleships, rainbows, fatbars, wallrides, and spine walls.
Tricks & Grabs
Switch: In snowboarding, riding switch means riding with your non-dominant foot leading. (In skiing, riding switch means riding backwards. It’s a little easier for us snowboarders because we have equally good visibility riding switch or regular!)
Jib: To slide, ride, or grind on anything that isn't snow, like a rail or a box.
50-50: Riding straight over a box or rail with your board parallel to it. This is often the first trick riders learn on park features.
Boardslide: Sliding sideways over a rail or box with your board perpendicular to it. 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.
Grab: A trick where the rider reaches down to grab a specific part of the board while in the air. Each grab has a different name depending on which hand you use and where on the board you grab:
Indy grab: Grabbing the toe edge with your backhand. Usually the first grab a rider learns.
Melon Grab: Back hand grabs the heel edge between the bindings, behind the front foot.
Mute Grab: Front hand grabs the toe edge between the bindings, in front of the front foot.
Stalefish Grab: Back hand grabs the heel edge behind the rear foot.
Nose Grab: Front hand grabs the nose of the board.
Tail Grab: Back hand grabs the tail of the board.
Method Grab: A tweak on the melon grab where the board is pulled behind the rider, knees bent, often with a stylish arch of the back.
Seatbelt Grab: Front hand reaches across the body to grab the tail.
Butter: Pivoting or spinning on snow with either the nose or tail lifted.
Press: Lifting the nose or tail of the board while sliding. It helps to have a more flexible park board.
Rotation Tricks
Shifty: A quick counter-rotation in the air before landing.
Frontside 180/360/540/720/980/1060/1240 etc.: Spins where you initiate rotation facing downhill. If you watch a snowboard competition, like the X Games, you’ll hear the commentators frequently abbreviate the degrees of rotation down to the first digit. A “frontside 7” refers to a frontside 720.
Backside 180/360/540/720/980/1060/1240 etc.: Spins where you initiate rotation facing uphill.
Cab 180/360/540/720/980/1060/1240 etc.: A frontside spin that starts from switch position.
Front Lip: The rider approaches a rail from the side and spins frontside onto the rail, with the board locking on perpendicular to the rail.
Back Lip: The rider approaches a rail from the side and spins backside onto the rail.
Aerial Tricks
Tamedog: A front flip with a stretched-out, laid-back style—think cartwheel over the nose of the board, with your body extended rather than tucked. It differs from a traditional front flip in both trajectory and posture.
Wildcat: A backflip done in a similar cartwheel fashion over the tail, where the rider stays more extended than in a tucked backflip. It's typically initiated straight off the tail with a lateral axis.
Front/Back Flip: Standard, fully inverted flips performed with a tucked body position, rotating end-over-end either forward (front flip) or backward (back flip), typically off larger jumps.
Cork: An off-axis spin.
General Snowboarding Terms
Riding off-piste.
Groomer: A trail that's been smoothed out by a snowcat.
Corduroy: The ribbed texture left behind by grooming machines.
On-piste: Groomed and maintained runs.
Off-piste: Unmarked, ungroomed terrain; includes powder, trees, and natural features.
Side hit: A jump on the edge of a groomer, usually created by riders repeatedly dropping off of the lip of groomed terrain onto the natural terrain and riding back onto the groomer. These are a great place to practice getting a little air and maybe even trying a 180 since they usually shoot you out at an angle.
Surface Lifts
Rope Tow: A rotating rope that you hold onto as it pulls you uphill.
T-Bar: A horizontal bar you rest behind your thighs (a trap for beginners).
Poma/Disc Lift: A disc you place between your legs that pulls you uphill.
Chair Lifts:
Single/Double/Triple: Refers to number of riders per chair.
Fixed-Grip: Moves at a constant speed.
High-Speed Quad/6-Pack/Super Chair: Slows down at stations for easy loading/unloading, then moves quickly uphill.
Snowboard Construction Terms
Camber: A traditional upward curve between the contact points. Offers pop and edge hold.
Rocker (Reverse Camber): Downward curve between the contact points (like the base of a rocking chair); Gives a board a more playful and floaty feel and makes turning easier, but usually performs worse in hard pack or ice than traditional camber.
Flat: A flat profile between contact points; stable and forgiving.
Hybrid Camber: Combines camber and rocker elements.
Flex: The board's stiffness. Park boards usually fall in the soft to medium range (3–5 out of 10).
Sidecut Radius: The arc shape of the edge; affects how tight you can turn.
Edges: Steel strips that run along the board's side; used to grip the snow.
Sidewall: The vertical material on the side of the board, usually made of a rigid, durable plastic called ABS.
Topsheet: The graphic-covered top layer.
Base: The underside of the board; comes in extruded (low maintenance) or sintered (fast, but needs waxing).
Magne-Traction: Wavy edges used for better grip in icy conditions (by Lib Tech & GNU).
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