Snowboard trick

Snowboard tricks are movements or turns in the air or on the ground that snowboarders perform on the ski slope , in a fun park , a half pipe or on rails . These are freestyle boards used. This article is an in-depth look at snowboarding . It requires a certain basic knowledge of the sport.

structure

Snowboard tricks can be broken down as follows:

'air' (English for air)

'spin' (English for rotation )
'flip' (from 'to flip'; English for to turn around)
'grab' (from 'to grab'; English for grab)

'ground'

'slide' (from 'to slide'; English for glide )
'press' (from 'to press'; English for press)
'lip' (English for edge)

All tricks can be performed switch , spin tricks also backside (bs, backwards) or frontside (fs, forwards).

Kinds of tricks

Air

Air tricks, as the name suggests, are performed in the air, usually after jumping off a kicker (jump) or in a half pipe . Air tricks are seen as particularly beautiful if the execution of the trick is as long and safe as possible and the snowboarder lands cleanly without, for example, reaching into the snow with his hand.

Spin

Spin tricks consist of turning around the body's long axis (screws). The number of rotations made is given in degrees and counted in 180 ° steps. Often only the first number of the degree is given here, the rest is also shortened. Example "Back-three-Tail", designates a backside three-sixty that was dug at the tail (see ff.). Backside Spin and Frontside Spin describe how the spin is performed. The side that points in the direction of travel (downhill) during the first 180 ° of the spin is significant. A regular struck Backside Spin is therefore rotated clockwise, a goofy struck counterclockwise. In a frontside spin, you rotate regularly counter-clockwise, goofy, on the other hand, clockwise. If you start a spin switch, the name of the trick is reversed: A switch backside spin is turned regularly counterclockwise, goofy clockwise.

Spins:

Half turn = 180 ° (one-eighty)
One turn = 360 ° (three-sixty)
One and a half turns = 540 ° (five-fourty)
Two turns = 720 ° (seven-twenty)
Two and a half turns = 900 ° (ninehundred)
Three rotations = 1080 ° (ten-eighty)
Three and a half turns = 1260 ° (twelve-sixty)
Four turns = 1440 ° (fourteen-forty)

Etc.

Flip

Flip tricks consist of rotations around the other two body axes. Combined with spins and grabs, there are other ways to perform a trick. If you do a flip twice in a row, a 'double' is added as a prefix in front of the trick name .

Standard flips (rotation around an axis of rotation):

Front flip (you flip over the nose of the board)
Back-Flip (you flip over the tail of the board)
Front roll (the actual "forward flip")
Back-Roll (the actual "backflip")

Rotations around two axes of rotation:

Misty Flip / Mc Twist (backside turn with front roll "forward somersault")
Underflip (frontside rotation with back-roll jumped off the backside edge)
Backside inverted
Frontside inverted
Haakon Flip (frontside rotation with front flip)
Backside Rodeo (back-roll and backside rotation jumped off the front edge)
Frontside Rodeo (back-roll and frontside rotation jumped off the frontside edge)

Rotations around three axes of rotation:

Backside cork (backside turn with front flip and front roll "forward somersault")
Frontside cork (frontside rotation with back flip and back roll "backflip")

dig

Grave variants

Grabs consist of different handles on the board. After jumping off a hill (the "kicker") or a half pipe, you hold on to one side of the board for as long as possible. There is a variety of grabs here, as the board has innumerable ways to 'grab' it. Grabs with both hands are also possible, tweaking ( bending your legs as far as possible) and boning (stretching one or both legs).

A selection of grabs:

Mute (the front hand digs in the middle on the front side)
Melon (the front hand digs behind the front foot on the backside edge. The front leg is stretched (boned))
Taipan (the front hand digs from behind between the legs in the middle of the front edge)
Chicken Salad (the back hand digs between the legs in the middle of the backside edge)
Roast Beef (the front hand digs between the legs in the middle of the backside edge)
Beef Curtains (both hands dig through the legs in the middle of the backside edge)
Crail (the back hand digs the nose)
Rocket (both hands grab the nose - the board is pulled towards the body)
Seatbelt (the front hand digs on the frontside edge at the height of a stalefish)
Indy (the back hand digs in the middle of the front edge. If the grab is carried out during an FS rotation, it is called FS Grab - Indy is only used for flips, straight airs and BS rotations)
Stalefish (the back hand digs behind the hind foot on the front edge)
Japan Air (the front hand digs behind the front foot on the front edge - the body is stretched into an arch (tweaken))
Lien Air (the front hand digs behind the front foot on the backside edge - the knees remain drawn in)
Method (the front hand digs behind the front foot on the backside edge - the body is stretched (tweaking))
Nose grave (the front hand digs the nose)
Tail dig (the back hand digs the tail)
Stiffy (back hand digs an indy - legs are stretched (boned))
Shifty (no actual grave - you put your board in the air across the direction of travel)
Tailfish
Monkey (both hands dig in the middle of the frontside)
Flying Squirrel (the front hand digs in front of the front foot on the backside - the back hand digs behind the back foot on the backside - the body is stretched into an arch (tweaken))

Ground

Ground tricks are diverse and are often performed on the ground, on fun boxes or on rails. However, the lip tricks are performed on halfpipes or quarterpipes.

Boardslide on a rail

Slide

“Sliding” or “jibing” refers to driving over objects that are not made of snow. Mostly these are so-called "rails". In almost every ski area there are so-called "boxes", boxes in various shapes with a synthetic surface, which are designed for sliding. All tricks can be performed on both “boxes” and “rails”. Almost all snowboard slides are based on the corresponding skateboard tricks. Since a snowboard has no axes, however, some tricks are not possible. Nevertheless, snowboarding on rails in practice offers at least as many possibilities as skateboarding, especially because the snowboard is strapped on, which enables significantly longer slides and more technical combinations.

Differentiation frontside and backside

In principle, each slide can be executed “frontside” or “backside”. The difference is from which side you jump onto the rail. With a backsideslide, the rider, regardless of whether regular or goofy, has the rail in front of him when jumping. When performing a frontside trick, the rail is accordingly behind the driver when jumping. So he jumps blindly onto the rail. It is always written from the back.

Differentiation Switch - Normal - Nollie

Furthermore, each slide can be executed “normal”, “switch” or “nollie”. Unless otherwise stated, every trick is basically carried out normally, i.e. according to the driver's preferred direction of travel (“Regular”, “Goofy”). A “switch” trick means that, for example, a “regular” driver performs a “goofy” trick and vice versa. With "switch" trips, the names on the board also change. For example, the "nose" in the "switch" becomes the tail. "Nollie" slides mean that a trick jumped over the "nose" instead of the usual "tail". Here, too, the trick "normal" ("Nollie") or "switch" ("switch Nollie") can be performed.

Different slides

"50:50": The most basic slide on the snowboard. At 50:50, the driver just jumps off and lands straight on the rail, i.e. in the position in which he would go down the slope.

"Boardslide": With a boardslide, the rider jumps straight off, but turns 90 degrees in the air and lands on the rail. So the board is at a right angle to the rail. A distinction is made between backside boardslides and frontside boardslides. With a frontside boardslide, the rider has the rail in front of him when jumping, but turns his board backside by 90 degrees, whereby he lands on the rail blind to the direction of travel. With a backside boardslide it is the other way round, the rider has the rail behind him, but turns 90 degrees forwards frontside, so he has the rail in front of him and can see its end.

"Lipslide": At first glance, a lipslide is very similar to a "boardslide". The crucial difference is that with a "frontside lip slide" the driver has the rail in front of him again when he takes off, but he turns 90 ° frontside. With the "Backside Lipslide" it is the other way around. However, by turning backwards, the driver lands blindly on the rail, like a "frontside boardslide".

"Noseslides and Tailslides": "Noseslides" and "Tailslides" are modifications of the "Lipslides" and "Boardslides". The difference is that you don't land in the middle of the rail, i.e. between the bindings, but rather on the "nose" or "tail". For example: “Frontside Noseslide”: The rail is in front of the driver when jumping. In order to land on the "nose", it jumps off almost like with the frontside boardslide, but does not land in the middle, but on the front part of the board, the "nose". In order not to slip off, the driver now has to shift all of his weight onto the "nose". Therefore the frontside nose slide is much more demanding than the frontside boardslide.

"Presses": There are two different presses, the "Nosepress" and the "Tailpress". With a press, the driver jumps straight off like a “50:50”, but shifts his weight to the “tail” or the “nose”. As a result, he only slides on part of his board, similar to the "wheelie" when skateboarding or cycling.

"Bluntslide": With the "Bluntslide", the rider jumps completely over the rail and lands on the outermost part of his board. With a "frontside bluntslide", for example, the driver jumps off with the rail in front of him, but in contrast to the frontside nose slide, he does not land on the "nose", but jumps over the rail and lands on the "tail". In the broadest sense, the bluntslide is also a "nose slide" or "tails slide", only because of the jump it is clearly more demanding.

"Spins on" and "Spins off"

The tricks mentioned so far can be combined with "spins", ie turns on and off the rail. Before landing on the rail, the driver turns not just 90 degrees, but 180 degrees, for example. The 180 degree rotation can again be carried out “backside” or “frontside”. Assuming the driver turns with a "frontside" 180 on the rail, the trick would be called "Frontside 180 to switch 50:50". If he turns 90 degrees further, it would be a so-called “Frontside 270 to Frontboard”, since the driver does not land straight on the rail after a 270 degree rotation, but across it. Theoretically, all imaginable "spins" are possible, in practice "spins" of over 450 degrees are very seldom seen. If the driver turns down from the rail at the end of it instead of jumping straight down, it is a "spin off". For example, if a rider performs a "frontside tailslide" and turns his board by 270 degrees instead of 90 degrees in order to continue straight ahead, one speaks of a "frontside tailslide 270 off", and more rarely of a "270 out". Since both “frontside spin on” and “backside spin on” can be performed from two sides (with the rail in front of and behind the driver when jumping), a distinction is made between normal “spin on” and “hardway spin on”. Every "backside spin on" that is jumped off with the rail to the right of the driver is a "hardway backside on spin". Every “frontside spin on” that is jumped off with the rail to the left of the driver is called a “hardway frontside spin on”.

Other special features

"Change / Sexchange": The driver turns his board 180 degrees on the rail without jumping off.

"Jump": The driver jumps from a certain slide position to another. For example: "Frontside Boardslide to Backside Boardslide"

“To fakie / to normal”: Every trick in which the driver slides 90 degrees across the rail can be ended in two ways: At the end of the rail, he turns back in his preferred direction (“to normal”, is usually left out ) or "to fakie". With a "to fakie" trick, the driver turns off the rail so that he continues to switch. Example: "Frontside Bluntslide to fakie".

Combinations

All of the above tricks can be combined with one another. Some examples:

"Backside 180 on to switch Nosepress switch backside 180 out" "50:50 to backside Sexchange to switch backside 180 out" "Frontside 270 on to Frontside Boardslide front 270 out"

Press

With the nose or tail press, you lean on the nose or tail while riding so that the tail or nose is in the air (see also: Freestyleboard ). The difficulty is in keeping your balance. This type of trick is also called a wheelie or manual (as in skateboarding ). This is often done on the slopes or on fun boxes .

Creation of tricks

Most of the tricks were adapted from the existing skateboard tricks . However, some, e.g. B. the Misty and Haakon flip (the name comes from its inventor Terje Håkonsen ), were invented by snowboard professionals.

Contests

Freestyle contests are competitions that are about who does the best tricks. The jumps / runs are judged by a jury.

A distinction is made between at least three types of contest:

Big Air (Air Tricks)
Half-Pipe / Quarter Pipe (Air Tricks, Lip Tricks, Grinds)
Funpark / Slopestyle (Air Tricks, Ground Tricks, Rails)