Ridespeak

Bust a burgerflip without bailing? Sick!
Translation: Did you perform a crazy, life-threatening trick in a snowboarding halfpipe without wiping out? Fantastic!

No other winter sport has been embraced more vigorously by youth culture than snowboading. And for this reason, the lingo surrounding the sport is colorful and entertaining. Read on for some of the basic terms you should be familiar with, followed by a beginner’s guide to “ridespeak.”

Basic Lingo
The following is the bare minimum vocabulary required to get by with other snowboarders.

• Backside (a.k.a. heelside): The backside of the snowboard is the side where the heels rest; the snowboarder’s back faces the backside.
  
  
• Frontside (a.k.a. toeside): The edge of the snowboard closest to the toes; the snowboader faces the frontside.
  
  
• Freeriding: Recreational snowboarding. No contests, no halfpipe, no gates, no rules.
  
  
• Freestyle Snowboarding: The kind of snowboarding most commonly associated with riding the halfpipe. May also be used to describe snowboarding which includes tricks and maneuvers.
  
  
• Regular Footed: Riding on a snowboard with the left foot in the forward position. In other words, the left foot is closest to the nose, furthest from the tail.
  
  
• Goofy Footed: Riding on a snowboard with the right foot in the forward position.
  
  
• Stick: (1) Another name for a snowboard. (2) A term used to describe making a good landing. For example, “He stuck a huge McTwist off of that jump.”
  
  
• Skating: Like pushing a skateboard or a scooter, the technique used to get around on the flats. With your front foot attached, push with your rear foot on the toeside of the board.
  
  

• Bail: A term used to describe crashing or falling. For example, “He bailed and landed on his head.”
  
  
• Beat: A term used to describe something that is not good. For example, “It’s pretty beat that we have to shape the pipe all day.”
  
  
• Bonk: The act of hitting a no-snow object with the snowboard (e.g., a tail bonk could be hitting a chair-lift pole with the tail of the snowboard).
  
  
• Boost: A term used to describe catching air off a jump. For example, “He boosted ten feet out of the halfpipe.”
  
  
• Bust: Used interchangeably with the verb “to do” only with more emphasis. For example, “He busted a huge air over that picnic table.”
  
  
• Corduroy: When a snowcat freshly grooms a trail, leaves a finely ridged surface. Corduroy is typically good for laying clean turns.
  
  
• Crater: A term used to describe a crash or fall. For example, “He fell off the lift and cratered into a snow bank.”
  
  
• Cruiser Run: A relaxed and mellow run on a fairly smooth trail.
  
  
• Fat/Phat (slang): Used to describe how exceptional something is like a “Phat Air” might be a really good-looking trick.
  
  
• Flail: A term used to describe riding badly and out of control. For example, “He flailed off the jump and hit a tree.”
  
  
• Grommet (Grom): Another name for a small, young snowboarding devotee.
  
  
• Hucker: One who throws him/herself wildly through the air and does not land on his/her feet.
  
  
• Pack: A term used to describe a crash or fall. For example, “He packed into that parked snow cat and broke his leg.”
  
  
• Poach: The only way to eat an egg if you’re a true snowboarder. Also, if the halfpipe is closed, or the powder field is roped off, and you rode it anyway, you poached it.
  
  
• Poseur: One who pretends to be something one is not.
  
  
• Roast Beef Air: After launching off the halfpipe, the rear hand reaches between the legs and grabs the heel edge between the bindings while the rear leg is boned (don’t ask).
  
  
• Rolling down the windows: A phrase used to describe when someone is caught off balance, and they rotate their arms wildly in the air, trying to recover.