This one is for the nerds.
Grab names
Naming snowboarding tricks is not as black and white as you might predict. Backside is backside and frontside is frontside right? Yeah..but Nah, not really.
Snowboarding has got a lot of its names from skateboarding. In fact, pretty much all snowboarding grab names, rail trick names and spins derive from Vert Skateboarding. This is where a few problems evolve.
Basically, there is just a sliding scale of how pedantic you dare to be with naming tricks. Skateboarders and snowboarders can be a cynical bunch and naming a trick wrong can be testament to shred treason in certain circles, so it pays to know what you are on about before claiming you have trick naming locked down.
Skateboarders and snowboarders can be a cynical bunch and naming a trick wrong can be testament to shred treason in certain circles, so it pays to know what you are on about before claiming you have trick naming locked down.
The classic of all classics that will probably be debated until the end of time is the INDY vs FRONTSIDE grab debate. Generally, snowboarders in all different regions and languages of the world will call any grab with the trailing hand onto the toe edge of the board between the feet an INDY grab, regardless of which way the spin direction off the jump is. Why would the direction of the spin CHANGE the name of the grab I hear you asking? Well, this is where the vert dogs and naming nerds’ fists close with fury and the debate begins. Officially, an INDY AIR is an air invented by Duane Peters where you grab the board with your back hand while doing a backside air on a ramp. It is ONLY BACKSIDE. So, if sticking to these rules, a Frontside 360 with an ‘INDY’ grab (trailing hand on toe edge) would simply be referred to as a Frontside 360 Frontside grab. This is where context gets in the way of a simple and correct guide to grabs. If everybody is calling something one thing and only a few are sticking to their guns, which do you go with to make it clear and concise? A snowboarding spin off a kicker is a very different thing to a skateboard air on a vert ramp. You could argue the 2 are worlds apart. In saying this, we can't deny our roots.
This debate goes further with the invention of the Backside grab, the Lien Air and the Melancholy grab. These are commonly seen as the same thing in snowboarding. Once again, snowboarders in all corners of the frozen globe call a grab with your leading hand on the heel edge (behind the leg and between the bindings) a Melancholy or more commonly a Melon grab for short. The vert skateboarding community would once again be up in arms about this one. Officially a Melancholy is when you grab and bone (push out) your front leg. A Lien Air is ONLY FRONTSIDE and a Backside grab is when doing a backside air.
In case you aren’t confused yet, let’s try to get a handle on how to name Switch grabs. Is a Switch Backside 360 Indy the exact mirror of a Regular Backside 360 Indy (trailing hand grabs the board) OR is it the mirror image of a Backside 360 Mute? We are going with the latter. When spinning, grab names should stay the same, no matter which stance you start from. For example a Switch Frontside (Cab) 5 INDY is the mirror image of a Frontside 5 MUTE (front hand grab). This is because the grabbing hand is the same in reference to your original stance. Once you have done a few switch spins you will probably realise why this is case, it just feels right.
On the other hand (that pun was too easy) when naming a switch straight air with a grab, this changes. Why? Because when you name the grab, you are referring to the whole trick including the grab being Switch as there is no rotation and you are never back to your original stance at all during the whole trick. So, if you are usually Regular stance and you are doing a Switch Indy grab, you will be grabbing with your left (trailing) hand - the exact mirror image of a Regular (right hand) Indy.
In the Trick Bag app we aren’t at liberty to say which is the best option, but for the sake of simplicity we have stuck to having spins in all directions keep the same grab name. If you are unhappy with this decision and think we should be sent to the gallows for such bigotry please send us an Email at grabprobs@trickbagapp.com.
Rails
Once again snowboarding has taken the way of the skateboarder in naming tricks in the rail game. At the Trick Bag, we are skate nerds so this suits us just fine, but it can also have some confusing elements.
The first being the 5-0 vs Tailpress debate. In skateboarding a grind on just the back trucks is called a 5-0. It comes from the naming of a grind on both trucks, which is called a 5050. Cut that in half and you have the 5-0. However, in snowboarding, to keep things simple the naming has evolved from 5-0 to Tailpress. Funnily enough tailpresses were not a staple in snowboarding realms until after the nosepress was well established. We may be going out on a crazy limb here but Nate Bozung in ‘True Life’ could be the first person to really bring proper tailpresses on down rails to snowboarding. This is one of the only times we go against skateboarding in naming tricks but because, it isn’t a grind as such, we have stuck to calling a press on the tail of the board a tailpress and a press on the nose of the board a nosepress.
Sticking to the rules of skateboarding is a good ground rule. Especially in the case of the 180 to Nosepress/ Tailpress trick naming scenario. In skateboarding a frontside 180 to nosegrind is essentially a 180 to switch 5-0. When naming these tricks in the Trick Bag we have done just the same. A frontside 180 to Nosepress is a 180 to Switch Tailpress, just the same as the skateboarding version of the trick but with a snowboard attached, rather than maple and griptape. The Switch version however, is different. A Switch Frontside 180 to Nosepress is again pressing the original Nose of the board. So, it is a Switch 180 to regular Nosepress. – nobody said this name game would be easy!
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