A Beginner’s Guide To Freestyle Skiing

Freestyle skiing began in Scandinavia, but it was developed and enhanced in North America. It was first used for training skiers but later evolved into a competitive sport. It was only in 1979 when the FIS (International Ski Federation) recognized freestyle as a skiing discipline and it has since been sanctioned by the same organization.

Freestyle skiing involves specific skills like jumps and tricks and doesn't emphasize slope descent. If you’re interested in freestyle skiing, get to know its different disciplines first to familiarize yourself with the diversity.

Freestyle Disciplines

The Aerials
The goal of an aerial is for a skier to take off from a ramp into the air and perform tricks. They use the momentum and perform turns and spins in the air. In a competition, each skier is allowed two jumps and a jury awards him points depending on execution and difficulty.

The Halfpipe

A skier attempts to perform a succession of jumps, maneuvers and tricks to earn points.

The Moguls

A skier descends the moguls and makes two required upright jumps. He is judged according to speed and technical execution. A fourth of the points is awarded for speed, another fourth for the height and half is awarded for turns.

The Big Air

As the name implies, the Big Air discipline requires using a bigger ramp and attempting higher jumps. Scores are awarded based on style and difficulty.

The Acro

Imagine you’re a ballet dancer on skis. This is performance skiing performed within 1 ½ minutes to the music of your choice. Fifty percent is awarded for artistic impression and the other 50% for technical execution.

The Freestyle Ski Cross

There are 4 to 6 skiers involved in this race, where they compete over a freestyle cross course which is made of freestyle skiing elements like jumps, waves, banked turns and terrains.

The Dual Moguls

This is the same as the moguls event, except that two contestants descend head to head on parallel courses.

The Tricks

180

Get airborne and make a 180-degree turn (a full circle), so you will land backwards, facing the other direction where you took off.

360

Make a 360-degree turn or double spin during the time you are airborne.

540 Tail Grab

Make a triple spin while holding on to the tail of your ski.

Other crowd-pleasing tricks you might want to learn are the Corkscrew 720, D Spin 720, Mute Grab, Half Cab Mute Grab, Under Flip, Backflip, Flatspin, Backflip Mute Grab, Alley Oop, Alley Oop Flatspin 540, Spread Eagle, Switch Corked 720, Rail Slide, Flair in the Pipe, Lincoln Loop, Lincoln Loop 180, Twister, Fakie 180 and the Backscratcher.