Snowboarding Styles

Snowboarding styles break down

Snowboarding is categorized into three different categories of Freestyle, Freeride, and Alpine/Carving. They are different styles all to their own with die-hards in each, but most snowboarders blend two or more of these styles together.

Freestyle Snowboarding
Uses man made features to ride on or off of to perform tricks while on the feature or in the air.

• Common freestyle features can include rails, jumps, trees, half pipes, quarter pipes, boxes, barrels, tables, cars, and basically anything a snowboarder can use for style.
• Freestyle Snowboarding usually happens in a designated Terrain Park.

• Freestyle specific snowboards are shorter with a centered binding stance and turned up tip and tail.
• Soft snowboard boots and bindings are used for freedom of movement.
• A common setting for freestyle binding angles is called “duck stance” where the front binding is angles towards the tip (positive) and the back binding is angled towards the tail (negative) example would be +15°/-15°.

Freeride Snowboarding
Is the most common of the styles as it is the most accessible to the common person. Freeride basically refers to riding down any hill even the “bunny hill”.

• Freeriding is the term commonly used to describe backcountry riding and off piste snowboarding.
• Freeride snowboards are commonly longer with a stance that’s slightly set back of center with a longer nose and a shorter tail.
• Stiffer boots and bindings are used for greater control and quicker response to the snowboard.
• A common setting for Freeride binding angles would have less of a negative angle on the back foot or even a slight positive, example would be -3°/+21°, or +9°/+21°.

Alpine/Carving
Is diminishing in popularity with recreational snowboarders or the general public.

• Alpine/Carving is commonly used in gated racing and on groomed hills making big low to the snow turns.
• Alpine/Carving uses hard boots and a very stiff directional board with both snowboard-binding angles being positive example would be +21°/+39°.

Now you can decide for yourself what type of snowboarder you want to be.