Note:The tricks listed below are not for everyone. Start with the easier ones (the ones near the top), and then move on to harder tricks. If you want to see what some of the tricks look like, click on the available link.
Basic Tricks:
MUTE The rider raises both knees, reaches their right hand over the front of their boards in front of the binding and grabs the left edge of the left board pulling both boards up toward the right side of their body. TIP: Once you have your board in hand, yank on it to really tweak it out with style.
MUTE CROSS The rider raises both knees, reaches their right hand over the front of their boards in front of the binding and grabs the left edge of the left board pulling both boards up toward the right side of their body while crossing the tips of the boards. TIP: Pull your left board up to really get a good cross.
SAFETY The rider raises both knees up toward their chest and grabs the center of the left edge of the left board under the binding with their left hand. TIP: Stay in a real tight position, try to focus on keeping your feet together, not crossed, so you are in a tight ball, don't let go.
STIFFY Rider extends both of their legs straight while grabbing the right edge of their right board in front of their binding with their right hand. TIP: Kick both legs out hard.
CROSS STIFFY Rider extends both of their legs straight while grabbing the right edge of their right skiboard in front of their binding with their left hand. TIP: Lean way over your tips to grab and tweak it toward your right side to make it look styled out.
ROCKET Rider extends both of their legs straight while grabbing the right tip of their right board with their right hand. TIP: Stretch way out over your tips and hold it as long as possible.
CROSS ROCKET The rider extends both of their legs straight while grabbing the rip of their right board with their left hand. TIP: Tweak it out toward your left side to make it look cool.
FLYING FISH The rider bends their left knee up toward their chest and extends their right leg straight while grabbing the right edge of their right board in front of the binding with their right hand. TIP: Stretch your arm out over your right board like your sitting on the floor touching your toe.
CROSS FLYING FISH The rider bends their left knee up toward their chest and extends their right leg straight while grabbing the right edge of their right board in front of the binding with their left hand. TIP: Tweak your tight leg to the left side with your arm for maximum style points.
STALE The rider extends their right leg out straight towrd the right side of their body while tucking their left leg underneath. They reach under the base of their left board to grab the center of the left edge of their left skiboard. TIP: You should be in the same position as sliding into home base.
JAPAN The rider extends their right leg out toward the right side of their body while tucking their left leg underneath. They reach their right hand behind their right leg to grab their left edge of their left board in front of the binding. TIP: It is easier to do if you are in a tighter tuck like position.
PARALLEL The rider bends both knees up toward chest, reaches over their left thigh using their right hand to grab the center of the left edge of the left board. TIP: You have to get in a tight ball to reach your arm over your thigh.
TAIL GRAB The rider bends both knees and grabs tail of their right board with their right hand keeping their boots.
NOSE GRAB The rider bends both knees and grabs the nose of their right board with their right hand keeping their boots.
CRITICAL The rider bends both knees and grabs left edge of the tail of their right board with their right hand while crossing their tips and pulling the tail toward their body. TIP: Rotate your upper body toward the tail you are grabbing for style and ease.
LEAN The rider arches their back toward the left side of their body and grabs the left edge of their left board with their left hand. TIP: Really the best if performed on a quarter pipe wall.
GRIND The rider approaches the left side of a handrail then jumps and turns clockwise 90 degrees so the boards land perpendicular to the length of the rail. Rider then slides the length of the rail. TIP: Make sure the rail is directly under your boots and you look at the end of the rail while sliding to help stay centered. Keep your boards both slightly angeld the same way so you are actually grinding on your up hill edges to reduce the chance of catching your downhill edges on the rail.
180 The rider hits the jump forward and rotates 180 degrees on a vertical axis and lands backwards. TIP: After you can land it add different grabs for maximum respect and style.
360 LIU-KANG The rider spins 360 and grabs liu-kang from 90-270 completes the 360 to land forward. TIP: Begin the grab only after you have already started your spin.
360 JAPAN The rider spins 180, stalls the spin to grab stale then completes the 360 to land forward. TIP: You have to stop your spinning at 180 to get a good grab.
360 SAFETY The rider spins 360 while grabbing safety. TIP: Once you leave the jump, grab safety and try not to move a muscle until you are ready to land.
LIU KANG 180 The rider spins 180 and once facing back up hill, extends their right leg straight and bends their left knee up toward their chest while grabbing the left edge of their left board under their binding with their left hand. TIP: First spin 180, then stop and bone out your leg toward the jump.
FAKIE 180 SAFETY The rider hits the jump fakie, spins 180 while grabbing safety. TIP: While approaching a jump fakie, scissor your feet so your back foot is on the side that you will be spinning toward. Barely wind up, just spin real slow, you will come around easily if you keep your head looking down the hill.
FAKIE 360 LIU KANG The rider hits the jump fakie and spins 360 stopping at 180 or 360 degrees to bone out a liu kang. TIP: Swing your arms in the direction you are spinning as you leave the jump and keep your head spinning until you are facing up hill again. Scissor your feet when you land for better balance and try not to drag your hands by standing up.
540 LIU KANG The rider hits the jump forward and rotates 180 degrees then kicks out a liu kang and completes the 540-degree rotation. TIP: The key is to stop at 180 to throw the liu kang, it is real hard to do it while you are rotating.
720 SAFETY The rider hits the jump forward and rotates 720 degrees while grabbing safety and lands forward. TIP: Keep your head spinning, your body will follow, when you are ready to stop spinning, open your arms and legs.
FRONT FLIP SAFETY The rider hits the jump forward and performs a 360-degree forward flip becoming inverted and lands forward. TIP: First do flips without the grab and tuck your head real hard and wing your arms down, make sure you are in the air before flipping.
BACK FLIP The rider hits the jump forward and performs a 360-degree backward flip becoming inverted and lands forward. TIP: Swing your arms upward as you leave the ground and keep your head looking back until you are right side up again.
BACKSLIDE The rider approaches the rail from the left side and jumps 90 degrees clockwise to land onto the rail with their right foot only. The rider slides the rail on their right foot only while bending their left leg and grabbing their left edge of their left board with their left hand. TIP: Be very gentle when landing on the land with one foot, keep your right leg flexed to help balance.
FRONTSLIDE The rider approaches the rail from the left side and jumps 90 degrees clockwise to land onto the rail with their left foot only. The rider slides the rail on their left foot only while bending their right leg and grabbing their right edge of their right board with their right hand. TIP: Keep your board slightly angled so you are only grinding on your uphill edge to keep from catching an edge.
SAFETY 900 The rider hits the jump forward and rotates 900 degrees while holding a safety grab during the entire rotation. TIP: Keep your head spinning and stay in a tight ball, don't let go.
OTHER SPINS If you aren't grabbing with style then don't bother. 1080 (3 total rotations) 1260 (3.5 total rotations) 1440 (4 total rotations)
ZERO Eric Pollard has these perfected. The rider hits the jump fakie, grabs safety and never rotates to land fakie. TIP: After you leave the lip don't look behind you until you are ready to land, just look up the hill at your friends waiting to go and smile.
FAKIE BIO 900 LIU KANG One day Mike Nick decided to combine every trick he knew into one. The rider approaches the jump fakie, spins a bio 900 while tweaking a liu kang while sideways in the middle of the spin and lands forward. TIP: Wind up before hitting the lip, so when you take off you swing both arms from above your right shoulder down toward your left hip to then grab your left board in a nice bio postion.
ALLEY LOOP FLAT SPIN 540 Skogen uses this trick when ever he wants to win a quarter pipe comp. The rider hits the quarter pipe wall and once in the air points their tips toward the top of the pipe positioning their right hip toward the ground grabbing safety and spinning 540 degrees to re-enter the pipe forward. TIP: Sit back and enjoy the ride.
MUTE McTWIST Kris Ostness does these in his sleep on his 193's.. Approach the right side of a quarter pipe wall, once inthe air, tuck your right shoulder down like a misty flip so you do a type of bio 540 with your skis parallel to your friend standing on the deck. Grab mute while spinning then let go right before you are going to land forward. TIP: This trick should feel similar to a misty flip but on a pipe wall.
LIU KANG MISTY FLIP The rider hits the jump forward and throws a front filp tweaking out a liu kang while inverted and spinning 180 degrees to land fakie. TIP: First master misty safetys.
MISTY 720 SAFETY The rider hits the jump forward and throws a front flip while spinning 360 degrees and grabbing safety to land forward (total vertical and horizontal axis rotation = 720 degrees) TIP: Don't open up from your tucked safety position until you are facing forward again, spin faster than the regular misty and go a little bigger to have time to get around.
RODEO JAPAN The rider hits the jump forward and performs a back flip while spinning 180 degrees grabbing japan while upside down to land backwards.(Total vertical and horizontal axis rotation = 540 degrees) TIP: Master backflips first than add a 180.
720 RODEO LIU KANG The rider hits the jump forward and performs a back flip while spinning 360 degrees grabbing liu kang while upside down to land backwards.(Total vertical and horizontal axis rotation = 720 degrees) TIP: Master this trick 540 first, adding an extra 180 just requires more air and a faster rotation.
SKODEO Named after Skogen by Squaw locals. Combine a rodeo with a flat spin, a Skodeo is exactly in between the two but the bonus is a skodeo can be thrown 360 unlike a flat spin or rodeo. Skogen throws them 360, 540, and 720. TIP:Sit back while taking off and let the skis pop off the lip while leaning your hips to the side opposite your rotation. Think about sitting on your butt when you are at a 180-degree position.
MCGINTEE Named by Pete Mithoefer this trick is also often called an underflip. Approach the jump forward and spin 180 as soon as you are in the air while tucking your head down toward the lip of the jump. You should then go into a normal misty flip except starting with your head facing up hill. After completing this 720 degree rotation you should land forward. When it is properly performed it should look like one fluid motion with a tight grab the entire time, not a bunch of tricks. TIP: You should be very wound up leaving the lip similar to a snowboarder throwing a corkscrew and spring into the rotation.
FAKIE RODEO This is the trick used by Skogen to win silver in the X Games. Check out Mike Laroche throwing a fakie 540 toxic in the Line ad in the Dec issue of Freeze. Approach the jump fakie, as you leave the lip rotate your left arm down across your body and up while tucking your head and looking up and around your back. Grab your boards and let your body become slightly inverted to land 540 or 720. TIP: The key to this trick is all in your approach, ride fakie with your feet scissored so the foot closest to the jump is on the same side that you are rotating and the same shoulder you are looking over, swing your arms and stay relaxed.
FLAT SPIN You will see Jean Gagnon throwing these all the time with a mute grab. Approach the jump forward and sit back like you are going into a rodeo except don't let yourself get inverted. Instead rotate onto your side when you are 90 and continue the rotation on your hip with your body horizontal to the snow. Don't forget to hold your grab and then come out of your rotation by dropping your legs back to the ground. This trick is most comfortable when when rotating 540 although it is possible to pull flat 360's and even 720. TIP: Grabbing safety on the edge closest to the sky when rotating helps you come around.
FAKIE LIU KANG BACK FLIP The rider hits the jump fakie, throws a back flip tweaking a styled out liu kang while inverted and lands fakie. TIP: Do fakie back flips without the grab first and make sure you are really, really skilled. 270 ON - RAIL SLIDE The rider approaches the rail and spins 270 degrees to land on it and grind. Remember that you will be blind (unable to see the rail) for a split second so you want to rotate your head around as fast as possible. TIP: Keep your head turned and keep your eyes focused on the rail where you are going to land for as long as possible.
FAKIE 270 ON TO 270 OFF - RAIL SLIDE The rider approaches the rail fakie and spins 270 degrees clockwise to land on it and grind. Then at the end of the rail spins 270 off to land fakie. TIP: Spin in the direction that you are already looking over your shoulder. This will allow you to keep your eyes on the rail at all times.
450 OFF - RAIL SLIDE Slide the rail normal but get ready to rotate off by winding up your head and shoulders as you approach the end. When you are about one foot from the end rotate 450 off the rail while grabbing safety or any other grab. TIP: Make sure you can first slide the rail in your sleep so you can focus purely on the spin at the end. Keep your head rotating once you start spinning off and your body will follow.
SWITCH UP The rider approaches the rail spins 90 and grind the rail then spins 180 while sliding to slide it switch then jumps off forward. TIP: Keep your shoulders moving in the direction you want to switch up to the whole time so your lower body natural rotates when you are ready.
SOUL GRIND The rider approaches the rail, jumps on so the front leg is extended out straight with the board perpendicular to the rail. The back foot should stay parallel to the rail with the soul plate resting on it and the back leg bent so you are sitting as low as possible. TIP: It works with a soul plate, any other way is sketchy.
