Tricks

Over the years that slopestyle has been around, the tricks have evolved drastically. When riding slopestyle, skiers’ tricks mainly fall into 4 categories: spins, grabs, grinds, and flips. Spins, just as they sound, are rotations in the air. The biggest spin ever done in a competition is a 1620 degree spin, which is 4 and a half rotations, done by TJ Schiller. Grabs are anytime the skier grabs his or her skis. Grab tricks differ depending on where the skier grabs their ski, and where their ski is when they grab it (crossed, underneath them, behind them, in front of them, etc). Grinds are when a skier slides on a rail. There isn’t too much variation when it comes to grinding, but many skiers spice up their grinds by jumping and rotating onto and off of the rail. The last major trick variation is a flip. Flips range from just being front or back-flips, to something that’s called a “corked” spin. Corked spins are hard to describe, but in essence, they’re just off axis spins where the skier is spinning with their feet in front on them on an off axis degree.  :)

Skis

Slopestyle skis are slightly different than downhill skis. Just like downhill skis, slopestyle skis, or “freestyle skis,” are continuously evolving and getting better. The freestyle skis that skiers use for slopestyle are shaped similarly to down hill skis, except they bend up in the back, as well as the front. This allows the skier to ski or land backwards without having to worry about their tips getting stuck in the ground. Freestyle skis are also wider than regular downhill skis. Also, where the skier mounts their binding (the part that attaches the boot to the ski) is in a different place for slopestyle skiing. If you divide up the ski into thirds, downhill skiers usually mount their binding between the second and last third, towards the back of the ski. Slopestyle skiers mount their bindings more towards the center of the ski. This allows the skier to maneuver more easily on the ground, and in the air.

Terrain

Slopestyle skiing is performed on specially made trails at ski mountains. These trails, called “Terrain Parks,” are filled with various types of jumps and other obstacles. The goal of the skier is to use all of these to his advantage while skiing down. One obstacle that can be found on most terrain parks is the jump, or “kicker.” Ski jumps on a slopestyle course can be as big or small as needed, but most range from 20 to 80 feet long. This measurement is taken from the end of the face of the jump all the way to the tip of the landing. Another common obstacle in a terrain park is a rail. Rails come in all shapes and sizes, from long straight ones to rainbow shaped ones. The skier tries to perform tricks onto or off of the rail in combination with sliding the whole length of the rail. Similar to a rail is a feature called a box. Just as it sounds, a box is literally a wooden or metal box placed on the mountain where its top is covered with a slippery material. This allows skiers to ride onto the box and slide the length of it back onto the snow. Although these are the most popular features at a terrain park, depending on where you are you may find other things such as busses buried in the snow, or barrels stuck in the snow, or even naturally made obstacles like small cliffs.

Riders and Competitions

One of the most popular Slopestyle competitions is the winter X Games. There are also other different competitions held all over the world for slopestyle skiing. The first Winter X Games took place at Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California in 1997[3]. Since 2002 the Winter X Games have been held at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, and according to ESPN they will continue to be held there through 2012. At these competitions, skiers compete for medals and as is the case of the X Games, cash prizes. The skiers usually get more than one try to impress the judges. In order to be given a high score, skiers must maneuver the course without falling and while performing the most difficult variety of tricks. Some of the most popular slopestyle skiers are: Tanner Hall, TJ Schiller, Simon bumont, Bobby Brown, Sammy Carlson, Håtveit, Phil Casabon, Tom Wallisch, Jossi Wells, Charles Gagnier among many others.