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Snowboarding Lingo:  Walking the Talk


“You’re phat and sick. So let’s go shred the gnar, gangsta’. But, uh, wait – your gorby-gap is showing.”

Read this article and you won’t need to decipher the above quote, newbie.

Every sport has its own language that helps separate those in the know from those in the dark.  Snowboarding isn’t any different – to be taken seriously, you need to know the lingo.  This primer will keep you from embarrassing yourself.  Honest. After all, you don’t want come off as a two-plank wank, now, do you? (Unless you actually do ski…)

Katie Tichauer is one of the experts from Rude Girls, a snowboarding shop in Banff that caters to female boarders with gear, clothes and all the accessories.  A boarder herself for many years, Katie knows what’s what in the snowboarding community.

Katie has lived in Banff for two years, and wouldn’t trade the snowboarding there for anything.  “The parks are fun, but out here, the mountains just have so much to ride,” she says.  Like most snowboarders, she’s developed a style of her own. “My style is pretty laid back, mixed between a little bit gangster and little bit old school.”

Experts like Katie can spot a pretender a mile away.  Called posers, they have all the gear, but they lack the skill. “You can tell a poser because they can dress the part, but they can’t act the part.  They’re dressed in a whole bunch of gear that a snowboarder would have but they get on a board and can’t do anything,” Katie says.

Cowboys and…Gangsters?

Right now, a theme that is very popular on the mountains and in terrain parks is the gangster look.  Boarders wearing chains with low-slung pants are a pretty common sight – but many of them are posers. “Some of the guys try to be gangster – but they are mostly from suburbia,” Katie says.  “They have snowboarding videos, listen to rap, then they wear their pants super low and put chains around their necks.”

The gangster look isn’t limited to men, though. “There are some women who are like that too, though it’s not as prominent.  When they go snowboarding, they wear their pants super low, and have bandanas over their faces.  A lot of people are trying to do things like this to make themselves stand out.”

The cowboy theme is also popular with many snowboarders, and you can see its impact on the clothing and gear lines that are sold at places like the Rude Girls and their counterpart, Rude Boys.

Want to sound like you know what you’re talking about?  Here are a few key phrases from Katie that will have you sounding like a pro in no time:

* “A newbie is someone who knows nothing,” Katie says. “For girls on the hill, snow bunnies are just learning.”

* “If someone is on the hill and they pull something really good, I’d say ‘that’s so sick’ or ‘that trick was sick’.  It implies that it was a really dope trick.”

* “When people are excited about things, usually you hear ‘they are stoked’.  That’s one of the most common ones.  Stoked on riding, going out on the hill.”

* If someone misses a trick, it’s common to say “they ate it” or “they took it” – or “they bailed.”

* “Cheat from the feet up” – someone who dresses the part, but can’t really snowboard.

* “If someone is ticked off, you’d say “he’s choked’.  I’d also say “they’ve got their panties in a twist.”

* “When someone bails really hard – ‘they flipped their wig’.”

* “If you are really stoked on a hill – you could use rad, or fan-frickin-tastic.”

* When people want to go riding, they say “let’s go shred the gnar,” -- the ‘gnar’ being the gnarly (awesome) powder.

* The gorby-gap is the forehead that shows between your goggles and toque.

There are no borders when it comes to snowboard lingo.  The terms are pretty much universal across Canada and the U.S., and men and women tend to use the same phrases. “It’s pretty unisex, though maybe guys use it a bit more than girls,” Katie says.  “Guys make it a little bit more, they take it to the next level.  They are very gangster.”

The A-Z of Snowboard Slang

This handy, alphabetical guide to snowboard lingo will hopefully help you keep your inner newbie in the closet:

  • Back Side:  Snowboard’s heel edge

  • Bail:  Fall over; escape a trick

  • Base:  Bottom of snowboard

  • Bone:  Straightening one or both legs during a half-pipe trick

  • Bonk: Do a trick and tap something with the nose of your board; also, landing hard

  • Booter:  A large jump that requires plenty of speed to get airborne

  • Bullet proof:  Conditions that are hard and icy

  • Canadian bacon:  Reaching between the legs with the rear hand to grab the heel edge

  • Chatter:  Snowboard’s vibration caused by icy conditions, high speed or tight turns

  • Choked:  Someone who’s angry

  • Clean:  Flawless

  • Dailed:  Completing a trick perfectly again and again

  • Duckfoot:  Standing with toes pointing outwards

  • Fakie:  Riding a board backwards

  • Front Side:  Snowboard’s toe edge

  • Gapper:  Someone who doesn’t know how to snowboard

  • Glade:  Area with only a few trees

  • Grab:  When you’re airborne, grabbing your board

  • Goofy Foot:  Riding with your right foot forward

  • Groomer:  Run that a snowcat has packed or groomed

  • Halfpipe - a ditch or trough-like u-shaped area of snow with vertical walls.

  • Hauling:  Going extremely fast

  • Heelflip - Flipping the board with your heel

  • Hit:  Jump

  • Hucker: Flying through the air wildly, not landing on your feet

  • Indy Grab - Grabbing the board in front of you with the rear hand.

  • Jib:  Rail

  • Kicker:  Jump

  • Mocking:  Going really fast

  • Newbie – Someone who is new to snowboarding

  • Old School – Not current, old-fashioned

  • Ollie - Using the spring of the tail of the snowboard to become airborne.

  • Phat:  Cool

  • Poptart – Riding up the wall doing a half-pipe aerial turn

  • Poser:  Pretender, fake, wanna-be boarder

  • Punch:  Bad crash

  • Quarter Pipe - Half a half pipe

  • Regular:  Riding with left foot forward

  • Revert:  Last-minute change

  • Rodeo:  Inverted trick

  • Rolling Down the Windows: Someone frantically rotating their arms, trying to catch their balance so they don’t fall

  • Shred the gnar:  Go snowboarding

  • Sick (or sic):  Really good

  • Scrub:  Slowing down

  • Sketcher: Someone who flails about and almost falls

  • Slam:  Hard crash

  • Snowbunnies:  Women/girls just learning the sport

  • Speed check:  Quick turn or brake to slow down

  • Stick it:  Landing a trick

  • Tight:  Sweet, impressive

  • Two Plank Wank:  Skier who blocks your path

  • Tweak:  Placing the board past its normal position

  • Tree run:  Outdoor bathroom break

  • Wack:  Something that isn’t good

  • Waggle – Moving your board while airborne

  • Washing Out – Board skips out from under you because of too much pressure

  • White wash:  Face wash with snow

  • Yard sale:  Losing equipment after a fall or crash

  • 360:  Full rotation, like a helicopter

  • 180:  Full rotation that’s stopped by grabbing the board

  • 720:  Double rotation, double helicopter


Think because you’re a skier that you’ve got it all covered?  Think again.  Katie says there’s a world of difference between boarders and skiers – from the gear they wear and the style they adopt right down to what comes out of their mouths. “Snowboarders are more chilled and relaxed,” Katie says, while skiers tend to be a little more…controlled.