Generating a complete list of all snowboarding tricks is difficult. First of all there are many tricks, second, there are many variations on individual tricks. For example, you can spin a frontside 360 off your heels or off your toes. Do both variations need to go into the list?

However, starting out, you can go a long with just a little basic knowledge:

Airs and Spins

A straight-air is simply a jump. Leaving the snow, jumping in a straight direction. With your first airs it’s enough to ollie from the flat snow. Don’t know what an ollie is? Read on and pay particular attention to the Snowboard Addiction section – that starts from the ground up.

Following from the straight air, you have spins: 180, 360, 540, 720, etc. The number simply refers to the amount of rotation. For example, a 360 is a jump where the rider spins 360 degrees, one complete rotation. In the case of a 360, the snowboarder will land riding in the same direction they started the jump. So if they ride with their left foot forward (regular rider), they land a 360 with their left foot forward.

A 540 on the other hand, is one and half rotations. In this case the rider lands with the other foot forward. They land switch.

Note that the spins are often shortened to just the first number. So a 180 becomes a “1″, a 360 becomes a “3″, etc. So a trick may be referred to as a “frontside 3″, or even just a “front 3″.

Basic Snowboard Grabs

• Indy Grab = back hand on your toe edge, between the bindings
• Mute Grab = front hand on your toe edge, between the bindings
• Melon Grab = front hand on your heel edge, between the bindings
• Stalefish Grab = back hand on your heel edge, between the bindings
• Nose Grab = front hand grabbing the front/nose of your board
• Tail Grab = back hand grabbing the back/tail of your board

Rails and Boxes

A 50-50 (said: “fifty fifty”) is the most basic of rail tricks. The snowboarder rides straight down the rail, and rides straight off the end. In a boardslide, the snowboard is perpendicular to the rail or box. In a simple boardslide, the rider’s feet will be either side of the rail as the board slides down the rail. Beyond that, there are many variations of tricks on rails and boxes. The next section looks at one of the key factors: frontside vs. backside.

Putting those basics to one side, wikipedia does make a good attempt at a list. I won’t duplicate it here, but afterbang does have some other pages that take a deeper look into some of the other aspects of snowboard trick terminology, so that you can work things out for yourself. Consider:

• How To Work Out If It’s Frontside or Backside
• Trick terminology: What is Switch?
• Freestyle Technique: Rotation and Counter-Rotation

Snowboard Tricks Guide

This article is part of the afterbang Guide to Snowboard Tricks.