Aerials: A discipline of freestyle skiing in which competitors perform airborne maneuvers after skiing down a slope and taking off from a kicker (ramp).
Air: A jump in which the skier flies over the snow after taking off from the kicker. A judged category in both moguls and aerials, this jump is measured by takeoff, length and height in aerials, and difficulty, distance and form in moguls.
Back layout: A single flip in the layout position (see layout).
Backscratcher: A trick in moguls in which a skier takes off and touches his or her back with the tails of their skies.
Bump: Another term for mogul; a large hump in the snow.
Boarder cross: Another name for snowboard cross, one of three Olympic snowboarding disciplines. It's the equivalent of roller derby on snow, with four riders racing down a course full of turns and jumps.
Carve: A crisp turn in which a skier applies weight and pressure on the ski edges.
Catching an edge: A term describing what happens when a ski digs into the snow out of the skier's control, sometimes resulting in a fall.
Daffy: A mogul maneuver in which the skier kicks one leg forward and the other backward to achieve the splits position in mid-air.
Double full full full: A difficult aerial trick in which the skier does three flips while twisting four times in total, twice on the first flip.
Fall line: The most direct route from the top to the bottom of a moguls course.
FIS: Fédération Internationale de Ski, the international governing body of snowboarding, alpine, nordic and freestyle skiing.
Freestyle: A type of skiing that comprises four different disciplines: moguls, aerials, ski cross and acro. The first three are Olympic events.
Full Double full full: Similar to a double full full full, except the double twist is done on the second flip.
Helicopter: A move in the air in which the skier rotates his or her body 360 degrees.
Hot dog: An early term for freestyle skiing, and the name of a ski movie from the early 1980s.
Iron cross: A trick where the skier crosses skis in the air.
Kicker: The take-off ramp for aerials.
Kosak: A trick in which a skier combines a spread eagle and Zudnik (see below).
Mogul: A hump of snow on a ski trail, created when many skiers have turned in the same spot. Also called a bump.
Moguls: A freestyle skiing discipline in which competitors are judged on the speed, skill and flair with which they complete a course and two jumps.
Slapback: A landing in which the skier hits the snow on both the skis and back.
Somersault: A maneuver in which the skier makes a full, 360-degree forward or backward turn.
Spread Eagle: A trick in which the skier stretches out the arms and legs away from the body.
Tuck: Bringing the knees to the chest during a flip.
Twist: A rotation of the body along a skier's vertical axis.
Twister: A maneuver in which the skier turns the body one way and the skis the other way.
Zudnik: A trick in which the skier bends both the upper and lower body forward at the waist, toward each other.
