What exactly is a ‘goofy Betty’? Are you familiar with an ‘Ollie’? These are only a few of the expressions used by snowboarders, from the very young to the very young at heart.

Airdog: A snowboarder who prefers jumps and aerial tricks.

Bail: Crashing or falling.

Beat: Something that is not good.

Betty: Female.

Boost: Catching air when performing a jump.

Bonking: Hitting an object really, really hard.

Chatter: Snowboard vibration which happens at high speeds and through turns and can cause loss of control.

Corduroy: The ridged surface of a freshly groomed trail; good for clean turns.

Crater: A crash or fall.

Cruiser Run: A relaxed and mellow run on a fairly smooth trail.

Doinklet: Something that can’t be described.

Effective Edge: Length of metal edge on a snowboard which touches the snow and is used to make a turn.

Fakie: Rding backwards from a normal stance.

Flail: Rding badly and out of control.

FreeCarving, Alpine Boarding Carving, Alpine Boarding: Aa type of snowboarding focused on speed, preferred by many former skiers who are accustomed to riding the full length of the mountain and making slalom-style turns. The high speeds require a lot of strength in making the turns. This is usually not a beginner’s choice.

Freeriding, or All Mountain Riding: A style that allows you to ride, carve and jump on any terrain, on and off piste. The focus is not on aerial tricks. Freeriders are usually beginners snowboarding for fun.

Goofy: A regular-footer uses the left foot on the front of the board, while a goofy-footer uses the right foot.

Grind or 50/50: To slide with the board parallel to the coping.

Freestyle: A spectacular style of snowboarding involving tricks. These consist of twists, turns, grabs and other radical aerial movements and are done in snowboard parks, halfpipes and any challenging area of the mountain.

Grommet (Grom): A small, young snowboarder.

Halfpipe: Snow structure built for freestyle snowboarding with opposing radial transition walls of the same height and size used to catch air and perform tricks.

Hucker: A wild boarder who does not land on his/her feet.

Huckfest: Gathering of snowboarders riding as hard and wild as possible.

Jib: Riding on something other than snow, i.e. rails, trees, garbage cans, logs, similar to skateboarding tricks.

Kicker: A jump ramp which throws you up into the air rather than give you distance.

Kink: Abnormal surfaces that cause problems when riding over them.

Moguls: Bumps formed on slopes by skiers continually skiing the same line.

Ollie: A technique to obtain air without a jump by lifting the front foot then lifting the rear foot as you spring off the tail.

Pack: A crash or fall.

Phat: Exceptionally good.

Piste: A ski run densely packed with snow as opposed to fresh loose powder snow.

Poach: To ride a closed off area.

Punch: Bad crash.

Rolling down the windows: Being caught off balance and rotating arms wildly in the air to recover.

Sick: Exceptionally good.

Sketching: Riding along precariously and almost falling.

Snake: Someone who cuts in front of you in the lift line or in front of you in the halfpipe.

Stoked: Excited.

Stomp: A good landing.

South Shore Birthday: A beating.

Tail: Rear tip of the snowboard.

Tele skiing, or telemark skiing: Bindings do not have a fixed heel which allows you to lift the heel of your foot from the ski at any time. Telemark boots are flexible, unlike rigid alpine boots. While this may sound similar to cross country skiing, the technique is very different.

Tight: Extremely good.

Wack: Not good.