Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and boxes on their skis. Known as "hot-dogging" in the early 1970s, it is also commonly referred to as freeskiing, jibbing, as well as many other names, around the world.
The kickflip is a skateboarding trick, in which the rider flips their skateboard 360° along the axis that extends from the nose to the tail of the deck. When the rider is regular footed the board spins counter-clockwise if viewed from the side.
Tanner Hall is an American freeskier.
Freestyle BMX is bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes. It is an extreme sport descended from BMX racing that consists of five disciplines: street, park, vert, trails, and flatland. In June 2017, the International Olympic Committee announced that freestyle park was to be added as an Olympic event to the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Freeriding is a style of snowboarding or skiing performed on natural, un-groomed terrain, without a set course, goals or rules. It evolved throughout the sports' formative early years as a contrary response to the highly regimented style of ski competition prevalent at the time. Snowboarders primarily refer to freeriding as backcountry, sidecountry, or off-piste snowboarding, and sometimes big mountain or extreme riding.
A modified version of their alpine counterparts, twin-tip skis are designed to enable a skier to take off and land backward while jumping and to ski backwards (switch) down a slope. The name "twin-tip" comes from the dual shape of the ski. While most alpine skis have a defined, curved-up front end as well as a flat rear end, twin-tip skis have a curved-up tip and tail.
A freestyle skateboarding trick is a trick performed with a skateboard while freestyle skateboarding. Some of these tricks are done in a stationary position, unlike many other skateboarding tricks. The keys to a good freestyle contest run are variety, difficulty, fluidity, and creativity. This is an incomplete list, which includes most notable tricks.
Sarah Jean Burke was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a five-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in Utah in 2012.
The misty flip is an off-axis backside 540° rotation performed in freestyle sports such as freeskiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, inline skating or trampolining. The misty flip was first done by Jason King out of the Sugarbush half pipe circa 1991. The trick was later named by professional snowboarder Ali Goulet, an original member of the Vermont Snowboard Posse that included Jeff Brushie, Chris Swierz, and Josh Brownley. Unlike in acrobatic disciplines where athletes remain in the same plane in space during the trick, the backside 540 rotation and off axis spin are combined. Not unlike a McTwist but off a straight jump rather than a transition. Misty flips can be performed in many variations with bigger spins, grabs and even double misty.
Liberty Skis Corporation is one of the ski industry's largest independent ski manufacturers, and a leader in the manufacture of carving, touring, powder, and twin-tip skis, used primarily for a style of skiing known alternately as newschool skiing or freeskiing. Founded in 2003 by James Satloff and Dan Chalfant, Liberty Skis has grown to be one of the largest independent ski manufacturers worldwide, with shops and distributors in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Jon Anders Olsson is a former professional freeskier and alpine ski racer from Sweden. Born in Mora, Olsson started his career as a ski racer but at age 16 he switched his race skis for twin tips and quit ski racing. Eight years later, after a 50 000 SEK (US$5826.22) bet with fellow skier Jens Byggmark, Olsson started ski racing again with the goal of the bets being to make it to the Olympics in 2014. He now competes in both freestyle and ski racing. Olsson is known for his invention of several new double flips, including a D-spin 720 into a flatspin 540, a switch double rodeo 1080, a double flatspin 900, and a switch cork 720 to flatspin 540.
4FRNT Skis is an independent brand of alpine ski equipment that helped to pioneer the development of the freeskiing movement. 4FRNT introduced the model of a rider-owned and operated ski company to the sport.
Michael David Wilson is an American professional freeskier. Wilson is recognized as one of the leaders of the freeskiing movement, and is known for pushing the limits by hitting bigger jumps and doing bigger rotations than almost anybody else. In 2004, Wilson introduced the first off axis double-flipping rotation to skiing, revolutionizing freeskiing competition.
Charles Russell Johnson III was a professional skier and a pioneer in the freeskiing movement. He became a top competitor and a favorite in ski films and was known for his progression, fearlessness, and passion for skiing. Johnson died in 2010 in a ski accident.
Line Skis, commonly shortened to Line or stylized as LINE, is a new school skis company owned by K2 Sports. Line Skis was founded by Jason Levinthal in 1995 to produce short, twin-tipped skis for freestyle skiers, and has since moved to produce full-length freeskis.
Tom Wallisch is a professional freeskier.
Dane Tudor is an Australian / American freeskier born in Sydney, Australia. He spent his time growing up between Palmer, Alaska and Rossland, British Columbia. Tudor still resides in both British Columbia and Alaska.
Alexis duPont is an American professional big mountain freeskier. She is a Freeskiing World Tour contender and former Junior Olympics competitor, who has been featured in several films such as Warren Miller’s Wintervention and Tracing Skylines. Her mother, freestyle skier Holley duPont, was one of the first women to land a backflip on skis.
This glossary of skiing and snowboarding terms is a list of definitions of terms and jargon used in skiing, snowboarding, and related winter sports.
Cody Townsend is an American professional skier and outdoor adventurer recognized for his contributions to the field of freeskiing and backcountry skiing. Townsend has gained attention for his descents on challenging and unconventional mountain terrain, earning him prominence within the extreme skiing community.
