What Are The Coolest Snowboarding Trick Names And The Lore Behind Them?
BY
Sibashree
Jun 12, 2026
Freestyle is the main foundation of snowboarding. However, every rider has to learn the basic snowboarding tricks, from grinds to spins and grabs to butters.
Furthermore, you need a roadmap for becoming a park-ready snowboarder.
Also, you have to maintain your style equally before and after the drop. So, along with knowing the tricks, you need to choose snowboard jackets and snowboard pants that ensure superior performance with freestyle readiness.
What Are The Coolest Snowboarding Tricks?
You can divide the snowboarding tricks into four categories, and these are:
Flips
Spins
Grabs
Butters
Flips mean rotating around the horizontal axis. On the other hand, spins are ideal for showcasing rotational tricks centering around the vertical axis.
Furthermore, in the grabs technique, you can grab the board in more than one position.
Moreover, butters means placing the board on the ground and using presses and spins for rails and jumps.
However, Ollie is the basic or main trick behind snowboarding.
The Ollie: The Basic Snowboarding Tricks
From corked 10s to butters, you will find the simple Ollie trick. However, this is a trick that can only be perfected with practice.
Furthermore, this trick involves four stages:
You have to energize the board.
Then, you have to center the balance backward.
Next, you have to drive off the back.
Finally, you have to tuck the nose to square up.
Now, here are the four tricks a snowboarder needs to master. However, before getting into the details of the tricks, I want to define what a switch is.
What Does Switch Mean?
As a rider, you will have a natural leading foot.
Left Foot Forward is Regular.
Right Foot Forward is Goofy.
Also, riding “switch” means riding with your non-dominant foot forward, essentially riding your board backward from how you normally would.
Many advanced tricks either require a switch landing or start from a switch stance, which is why you'll see it mentioned constantly in trick names and descriptions.
A switch is not an optional detail. It changes the difficulty of the trick fundamentally.
1. Butter Tricks
If you have to learn about the basic tricks of Nollies and Ollies, rotation, and board awareness, butter tricks are the best.
Tail Press
You can initiate the tail press with the shift of your weight toward the board’s tail. You have to ride straight and lift the nose out of the snow.
Ollie And Nollie
Ollie is the foundation, and Nollie is the same in the opposite direction. In Ollie, you shift the pressure backward, and Nollie is the trick where you need to shift the pressure forward.
Then, you will have to press down on the nose for spring.
Nose Press
Nose Press is the inverse of Tail Press. Here, your weight has to be over the nose of the board. Thus, the tail remains free of the snow.
Tail Drag
You have to start a nose roll or a tail drag. Furthermore, once you get the first pop, you have to keep the board straight.
Here, you will not spin to get back to your natural spin. This is also called the “Nose-Roll to Pretzel.”
Nose-Roll 180
Begin a toe or heelside turn. Once your edge engages, lift the tail while keeping the nose down, then spin 180 into a switch.
Tripod
When you are riding straight, you have to look behind. Then, you can start a heavy tail press.
Next, you need to go down and touch the snow with your hands. Thus, you will use your arms and tail to form the tripod.
Tail-Drag 180
You have to start a heelside or toe turn and do ollying. Thus, you can keep the tail on the snow.
Then, you can drag the board and land the switch.
Nose-Roll 360
The start for Nose-Roll 360 is very similar to the Nose-Roll 180. However, here the rotational force is greater, and the pop is harder.
In this trick, when your board is at an angle of 90 degrees to the direction you are riding.
Then, you can lift your nose from the snow and go for an airborne spin until it becomes a complete 360 degree.
Tail-Drag 360
Here, the start is the same as the Tail-Drag 180, and here, you need to drag the tail to perpendicular and pop harder.
Then, you will lift the board from the snow to finish a complete rotation of 360 degrees.
2. Grabs Tricks
Grabbing the snowboard in the middle of a flight is the space where freestyle was created. This is a stylish trick for snowboarding.
Indy
Reach down with your back hand and grip the toe edge between your feet.
Stalefish
In this grab trick, your back hand reaches past your back knee to grab the heel edge between the bindings.
Tail
Here, you can use your trailing hand and grab the tail of the board right at the tip. This grab will not be on the sides.
Melon
Grab the heel edge between your feet using your front hand, reaching outside your lead knee.
Weddle
Earlier, the Weddle trick was known as Mute Grab. It got its name from Chris Weddle, who invented the trick and tried for the first time in 1981.
The change of name happened in 2021, and as The Guardian reported,
“For almost 40 years, the “mute grab” has been part of a skateboarder’s bag of tricks: the lead hand grabs the toe side of the board between their feet.
Now, the trick is being renamed to better honour its inventor, Chris Weddle, a deaf skater who was never actually mute in the first place.”
In this trick, you will have to use your lead hand and grab your toe edge between the bindings.
Method
If you want to master a more stylish move than Melon, you can try the Method trick. In this move, you have to stretch your legs from the Melon Grab stance, and thus the shape of your body will be like a scorpion tail.
Then, you will have to use your trailing hand before you aim high. The beauty of the method is that in this, everyone can try a different version.
In snowboarding, Method Grab has one of the most fascinating stories of origin.
The most amazing part is that it was not discovered on a mountain.
Rider Neil Blender started on a skateboard vert ramp in 1985. He was then taking part a highest-air contest.
The rules were to measure the air height from the lowest point of the body of the rider on board.
So, to squeeze out extra height, Blender arched his back and pulled the board up. He called it his best “method” for winning.
Thus, the method trick got its name and became very popular by the late 1980s. Even today, it is one of the most recognizable moves of snowboarding.
Nose
In this trick, you will have to use your leading hand to grab the nose of your board.
Roast Beef
Skateboarder Jeff Grosso invented this trick, and he called it the worst maneuver in skateboarding.
He admitted that he only started grabbing there because it was easier for him than a stalefish.
However, today, it is one of the easiest “through-the-legs” grabs to learn.
In this trick, your rear hand reaches between your legs and grabs the heel edge of the board between the bindings, with your rear leg boned (straightened) for style.
Chicken Salad
Because of the same through-the-legs motion, Roast Beef is often seen as the same as the Chicken Salad trick.
However, this trick is different because here you will grab the heel edge with your rear hand while your front leg is boned and your wrist rotates inward.
So, you will reach between the legs with the rear hand to grab the heel edge while keeping the front leg extended.
Many snowboarders also casually call the variations of the Chicken Salad Chicken Wing on the mountain.
However, in standard competitions, Chicken Salad remains the standard name.
3. Spins, Flips, And Corks
The tricks based on rotations are called spins, and as you try spins on the horizontal axis, you will land in a switch or natural position.
Spins happen in 180-degree increments. Furthermore, the following variations will offer you a switch landing.
180
540
800
1260
1620
On the other hand, the following spins will ensure a natural landing.
360
720
1080
1440
1800
Moreover, corks and flips are rotations on the vertical axis. However, they are very different from spins, and each of the variations has a distinct name.
Here are the tricks you are going to try.
Wildcat
Wildcat is a backflip trick. Here, you will have to keep the board in a parallel position to the riding line.
Thus, you will do a side slip but will not use the momentum.
Tamedog
Tamedog is the exact opposite of Wildcat. It is a frontflip trick, and here also the board remains parallel to the riding line.
However, you will also use the hard Nollie trick so that the nose becomes your springboard and you start rotating.
Backflip
In the backflip trick, the board will create a 90-degree angle to the snow. In this, you will flip the board backwards directly.
Thus, the board will have a straight landing.
Frontflip
Frotflip has many similarities with Tamedog. Here, you will have to do a Nollie and a nose-press to initiate the lip.
Then, you will use both hands and reach forward to start the somersault. You will also shift the board back into the landing place.
Rodeo
It is a frontflip but with a difference. Launch a frontside turn off the lip, pop from your toe edge, and pull a frontflip 180 to a switch landing.
It has become such a building block that riders now stack difficulty onto it. A “Backside Rodeo 540” is a genuine flex in the competition.
Backside Rodeo
It is just the reverse of Rodeo.
Start a backside turn at the lip, pop off your heel edge, and execute a backflip with a 180 to land switch.
Moreover, if you want to showcase the maximum style, you must try a Backside Rodeo 540.
Corked Spin
A corked spin is a simple addition of a backflip or a frontflip to a flat spin. It is a popular trick in competitive settings.
In these tricks, professionals “Cab Triple Cork 14s” or “Double Corked 10s.”
However, like the Rodeos, you can make any spin corked.
Rails And Boxes: Some Tricks For The Street Riders On A Mountain Encounter
If you don’t want to try flatland and air tricks, or if you are a street rider, you surely love your rails and boxes.
Here are the common grinds you can try while snowboarding on the mountain.
Trick NameApproach DirectionBoard PositionTakeoff/Pop StyleLeading Edge/Feature Placement 50-50Straight OnParallel (Straight)Standard Pop Flat Base on the Rail or BoxFrontside BoardslideRail on the Front SidePerpendicular (Sideways)Nose Rising Over the RailHeel Edge Leads with Backward SlidingFrontside LipslideRail on the Front SidePerpendicular (Sideways)Tail Rising Over the RailCentred between the BindingsBackside BoardslideRail on the Back SidePerpendicular (Sideways)Nose Rising Over the RailCentred between the BindingsBackside LipslideRail on the Back SidePerpendicular (Sideways)Tail Rising Over the RailHeel Edge LeadsTailpressStraight OnParallel (Straight)Shift Weight BackwardFlat Base with Tail Pressed DownNosepressStraight OnParallel (Straight)Shift Weight BackwardFlat Base with Nose Pressed DownBluntslideWill Vary Based on the EntryPerpendicular (Sideways)Ollie or High PopRail Sits Directly Under One Binding
Know The Glossary Of The Coolest Snowboarding Trick Names
If you want to know what are some of the coolest snowboarding trick names and the lore behind them, you can begin with the glossary I shared.
However, you can also master these tricks.
1. Switch McTwist
Switch McTwist was originally a skateboard trick. Skater Mike McGill first landed the move.
It was a combination of a front flip and a 540-degree rotation on a halfpipe in 1984. His teammate, Rodney Mullen, named the trick in his honor.
He took “Mc” from MacGill’s name and combined it with “twist.”
This trick came into snowboarding when Shaun White performed in the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, defending his title.
In a Switch McTwist, the same flipping 540 is required, and you need to perform it from a switch or a backward-leading stance.
So, it is a much harder variation, combining an already-difficult invert with reversed footing.
2. Double Crippler
You can perform a double crippler on the frontside wall of a halfpipe and not on the backside wall, which is a more common option.
So, it is disorienting, and you can't spot your landing the same way.
Add a second flip, and you get the Double Crippler, a very difficult trick.
Maddie Mastro became the first woman to land it, at 18 years old, during her 2019 Burton U.S. Open win.
No matter which trick you try, learn and practice it properly from professional trainers and wear the helmet to stay safe during the real adventure.
Learning The Basics And Building On It
The snowboarding tricks and the lore behind them can feel overwhelming at first.
However, if you want, you can build your vocabulary logically.
Start with the Ollie and butter tricks to build board awareness.
Then, move into basic grabs like Indy and Melon once you're comfortable in the air, and only chase spins, corks, and flips once those fundamentals are second nature.
Furthermore, most of today’s iconic tricks, the Method, the McTwist, and the Roast Beef started as one rider's happy accident or stubborn experiment.
So, learn the basics properly, and eventually you might invent something worth naming yourself.
Read Also:
How Is It Possible For Ski Jumpers To Stay In The Air Long And How To They Train For That?
Minus 40°C Or Minus 40°F: What To Know Before Planning Your Next Mountain Escapade?
Ski And Snowboard Ride: A Journey Into The Heart Of Winter Adventure
Related
