Freestyle snowboarding is surrounded by a language all of its own. Those who frequent the terrain parks pick up the language and use it naturally in describing their boards and the tricks they can perform. For those on the outside it can be particularly confusing. So the following is a brief introduction into a few of the more common words and phrases that you might hear and a description of what they mean.
Boilerplate – this is a term given to a type of snow. In fact the type of snow may also be known as ice because boilerplate is usually what you get when the top layer of snow has been scraped away from the trail and the underlying ice is exposed.
Shred – this is what you do on a snowboard. It is the word used in place of saying that you ride your snowboard. In actual fact you shred the mountain on your snowboard.
Ollie– this is a description of one of the most common freestyle maneuvers that is performed. It basically means to get some air using the flex and camber of the board. When you Ollie you should look balanced and your board should be parallel to the ground.
Hot pow – this is another term to describe a kind of snow that you may experience while snowboarding and it refers to powder snow that has been baked in the sun and has turned a slushy consistency.
Butter – this is a trick that you can do while riding at low speed. Basically it means rotating the board through 360 degrees, first by rotating 180 degrees, riding fakie before completing the spin with a second 180 degree spin.
Fakie – this simply means to ride the snowboard with the tail as the lead and the tip at the back. That is to say, backwards.
Rail – this is a piece of equipment you will find at the Terrain Park that you can use to ride your snowboard along. As the name suggests this piece of equipment is actually a rail.
There are many, many more words and terms used by snowboarders. Picking them up may not be necessary but it may get you out of a pickle if you know what others are actually talking about.