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Aerial: Maneuvers performed in the air.
Angle of Attack: The degree to which you steer down the fall line as you
ride across the hill. A shallow angle of attack is mostly across the hill and
slows your decent; a steep angle of attack is the mostly downhill and hastens
your descent.
Backcountry: Any place away from the slopes at a winter resort. The
farther "back" the more "country" is.
Back-side-air: Launching off your heal edge. The bigger the better.
Base: The bottom of a snowboard. Most bases are made of some type of
polyethylene.
Bevel: To file a slight angle into the base edge or side edge while
tuning your board.
Big Air: What happens when you go off a big jump, also known as "catching
big air". Big air contests feature competitors going off a tall jump.
Athletes are judged on height, distance, level of difficulty, execution,
landing, and style.
Bindings: Mechanisms that allow you to fasten your feet to the board.
Bindings are built to accommodate either soft or hard boots.
Booting out: When your boots or bindings overhang your edges, they will
hit the snow when you tilt the board high on its edge or when you ride a steep
slope. You'll boot out - and undergo a body slide -when this happens. Position
your bindings so that no part of them hangs over the edge (or use a fat board),
and you'll never boot out.
Boots: Hard or soft, boots keep your feet warm and dry (Well at least the
good ones do). They also work to transmit energy to your board.
Camber: The arch that is built into your snowboard (easiest to see when
it lies on a flat surface). Camber works like an auto's leaf spring to
distribute your weight along the length of the snowboard, making the board more
stable at speed and on hard snow.
Cap: A type of board construction where the top sheet of the board
extends all the way to the edges. Sometimes the cap serves as a structural
component of the board.
Carve: A maneuvers that uses the side cut design of the snowboard to
turn. When you carve, your board moves straight ahead so that its tip and tail
pass through the same point in the snow, leaving a thin track in the snow.
Crampons: Sharp metal cleats that fasten to your boots and provide
traction while climbing ice and hard snow.
Downhill edge: The edge that's farthest down the hill when your snowboard
is across the fall line. Catching your downhill edge will result in painful
ouchies.
Edge angle: The amount that a snowboard is tilted on its edge. Being able
to adjust your edge angle will allow you to control your speed. In a carved
turn, adjusting you edge angle affects the shape of your turn: the higher the
edge angle, the sharper the turn; the lower the edge angle, the longer your
turn.
Edge change: The action of smoothly moving from one edge to another. The
quicker the edge change, the sooner you'll start a new turn.
Edges: Steel strips the surround the perimeter of your base. Sharp,
smooth edges give you greater control on hard snow and ice.
Face plant: A fall resulting from catching your toe edge. Very easy for
any newbies to do. Nothing like snow in your nose.
Fakie: Riding backward. Your usual lead foot in back as you ride.
Fall line: The most direct path that a ball would take it you released it
on a slope is along the fall line.
Flex: How much, and where, a board bends. Freestylers typically look for
softer, more flexing boards; carvers, for stiffer ones. Softer boards can be
more forgiving but more difficult to control on hard snow or at higher speeds.
Forward lean: The amount that a highback is angled toward the toe edge on
a soft boot binding. Most top riders use between a 15- and 25- degree forward
lean to make powerful heel-side turns.
Freeriding: All-mountain riding, including powder, bumps, trees,
cruisers, jumps, and some tricks.
Freestyle: Acrobatic riding that includes spins, airs, and other tricks.
Freestyle snowboards are built specifically for freestyle maneuvers, with soft
flex and turned-up tip and tail.
Garland: A series of partial turns across the hill without edge changes,
so called because the pattern they leave in the snow resembles a garland strung
on a Christmas tree.
Goofy Foot: Riding with the right foot forward.
Grab: A freestyle move in which you hold a part of your board with your
hand. You can grab the tip or the tail on the board, or the toe or heel edge,
and with your front or rear hand. This maneuver looks especially stylish while
airborne.
Halfcab: An advanced halfpipe move also called a jump-180.
Half pipe: A U-shaped channel in the snow designed for acrobatic aerial
maneuvers. A typical halfpipe is 300 feet long by 30 feet wide, with 6- to
10-foot high walls.
Heel edge: The edge of your snowboard under your heel.
Heel side: A turn made on the heel edge.
Highback: The part of a softboot binding that extends up from the heel
cup behind the lower leg. Highbacks allow you to use leverage to create more
powerful edging movements heel side.
Hit: A jump.
Inserts: The holes on a snowboard that hold the binding screws and allow
you to adjust the position of your bindings.
Lip: The top edge of the wall in a half or quarter pipe.
Plate bindings: Another name for hard boot bindings.
Quarter pipe: One-half of a half pipe. A single wall with a smooth
transition that allows a rider to go from flat to vertical - and then some.
Regular Foot: To ride with your left foot in the front.
Safety leash: A cord used to fasten your board to your leg or foot.
Required by most ski areas, safety leashes help prevent runaway snowboards.
Side cut: The smooth curve that's built into the side of your board from
the tip to the tail. Sidecut helps your board turn. Generally, the bigger the
side cut, the tighter you can turn.
Sideslip: A maneuver in which you slide downhill with your board
positioned perpendicular to the fall line. Sideslips are useful any time you
feel overly challenged by a slope. They allow you to get out of trouble if you
find yourself on difficult terrain or snow conditions.
Sidewall: The material along the side of a snowboard that covers and
protects its internal components.
Skating: Propelling yourself across flats and up to lifts by pushing with
your back foot, which is unclipped from its binding.
Sketch: To have your snowboard slide out from underneath you when
completing a turn or jump.
Skidding: Moving your board sideways as well as forward. Skidding creates
friction between your edge and the snow, which can help you to control speed.
Slam: The dreaded edge catch wipeout. Seismic in nature, you can slam by
catching your toe edge (face plant) or your heel edge (spinal tap). Avoid slams
by familiarizing yourself with edging movements.
Stance angle: The angle of your bindings (and hence yur feet) on the
snowboard. Riders use-stance angles (with the toes pointed toward he tip) for
carving and racing. Low stance angles (with feet positioned across the board)
are more frequently used for freestyle and riding fakie. Freeriders generally
ride somewhere in between.
Stomp pad: An adhesive backed pad that fastens to a board between the
bindings. The stomp pad provides traction for the rear foot when skating or
using lifts.
Switch: Riding fakie on a twin-tip snowboard.
Tail: The back end of the snowboard.
Tip: The upturned part of the front of the snowboard.
Toe edge: The edge of the board underneath the toes.
Top sheet: The material that covers the tope of the snowboard.
Transition: The smooth curve that connects that flat bottom of a halfpipe
with its vertical walls.
Traverse: To go diagonally across a slope, across the fall line.
Twin tip: As the name implies, a twin tip has two tips (and no tail) and
is used primarily for freestyle riding. The bindings are usually mounted the
same distance from either tip, allowing you to ride with equal intensity in
either direction.
Wall: The side of a half pipe. The backside wall is the one you'd hit on
your heel edge if you were riding forward; the front side wall is the one
closest to your toe edge.
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