Snowboard Slang - Piste, Park & Pow

2 April 2017

New to snowboarding? If you need a crash course in some common snowboard lingo or slang, this will get you started;

Shreddin, Ridin & Cruisin

To a snowboarder all these words mean one thing — snowboarding down the hill. ‘Shreddin’ tends to be used when a snowboarder is going all out on the snow, ‘ridin’ or ‘riding’ is used in all scenarios for snowboarding, and ‘cruisin’ or ‘cruising’ is associated with taking it easy as you snowboard. Whether that be ‘cruising’ through the park, ‘cruising’ down the piste or ‘cruising’ through pow.

Pow

Pow is simply powder, the fresh fluffy and non-groomed snow you find off-piste.

Kicker

A kicker is a jump. Man-made or natural, kickers are used by snowboarders to get some airtime.

Hit & Hittin

If you hear a snowboarder say they’re going to ‘hit’ a kicker, jump, rail or the piste, they mean they’re going to snowboard down or on it.

Stomp

Stomp is when you land a trick well, or snowboard that bit of piste with ease. A snowboarder might say, “We stomped it.”

Zeech

You’ll hear the term ‘zeech’ or ‘zeechy’ in the park. It means failure to commit to a trick, usually on a rail. You might have completed it, but it was bit ‘zeechy’ — put simply, it wasn't that great!

Bail

A ‘bail’ is when you fall over whilst snowboarding.

Wipe-out

A ‘wipe-out’ is also when you fall over whilst snowboarding.

Toe or Heal Drag

Toe or heal drag, isn’t really slang, but it’s definitely snowboarding lingo. It’s a technical term used for when the toes or heels of your boot hang over the toe or heel edges of your snowboard. It’s not a good thing and can affect your snowboarding.

Cut

‘Cut’ is used in a number of ways. You could ‘cut’ someone up on the piste, by coming across their path and creating a collision or nearly causing a crash. Alternatively, you could ‘cut’ across the piste to reach the other-side, by making a hard turn on either your heal or toe edge.

Jib

‘Jib’ or ‘jibbing’ is a freestyle term used to describe jumping, sliding or popping around the park, slope or off-piste whilst doing small ‘fun’ tricks.

Sick

‘Sick’ means awesome, and has nothing to do with actually being sick in the physical sense.

Knarley

Knarley and gnarly mean hardcore, challenging or risky.

Rad

‘Rad’ means amazing.

Knuckle-Dragger

Knuckle-dragger is snowboard slang for a craving snowboarder.

Park Rat

A park rat is someone that spends all their time in the park on skis or on snowboard.

Face-Plant

A face-plant describes falling onto your face.

Bombing

Bombing it down a slope or through a park refers to speeding downhill past everyone else on the slope.

For a list of trick names and how to do them, check out The Snow Centre’s Freestyle Trick Jargon Buster.