Sep 25, 2024 BY Luke Rees
Are you fairly new to snowboarding? You will probably have heard freestyle and freeride snowboarding mentioned and may be mystified as to the differences. In the greater scheme of things freestyle vs freeride is not a competition about the best type of snowboarding, it is more about which style suits you.
**Updated 25 September 2024. Be sure to check out out A-Z snowboard glossary of terms**
The type of rider you are will affect your choice of board, destinations you ride, snowboarding clothing and even the type of music you listen to – if you believe the hype. Knowing if you are (or want to be) a freestyle or freeride snowboarder will affect the snowboarding gear you buy which affects your riding and enjoyment.
You don’t need to make up your mind before you start snowboarding, but to help you know the difference we have put together this freestyle vs freeride guide. It’s also worth pointing out that there are actually over 25 different types of snowboarding.
There is no simple definition of freeriding, it means different things to different people.
If you take freeride at its original meaning, it is riding all of the mountain to make the most of the conditions and have fun shredding. It is snowboarding without a pre-determined style, hence being called freeride snowboarding!
The term was born as pushback against skiing, which was seen as conformist. Skiers would ride slalom and downhill, and on the piste they follow each other like sheep. Most would never go off-piste, so freeriding was about loosening the shackles and snowboarding how you want.
Based on this freeride is actually all-mountain snowboarding. This is the most popular form of snowboarding. Most of us are doing it all the time without ever labelling ourselves as freeriders. But back in the day hopping off the piste or popping a trick off a side-hit was freeride snowboarding.
But these days because of the Freeride World Tour ‘freeride snowboarding’ is commonly used to describe riding off-piste and in powder. In this more narrow definition it is about getting away from the pisted slopes to express yourself in natural terrain.
The name was born out of the extension of the desire to ride free from the traditional piste constraints of skiers. But it now covers both skiers and snowboarders, and rather than exacerbate the skiing vs snowboarding antagonism, freeriding has bought us closer together.
But you don’t have to be a pro to freeride. It’s about pushing yourself on natural slopes, starting easy and growing from there. If you reach the bottom with your thighs burning, heart pumping and a huge smile on your powder encrusted face then you are doing it right!
Freestyle snowboarding is easier to define! It is all about the tricks, normally in man made feature in a snowboard park. So riding through the half pipe, jibbing on rails, boosting kickers, pulling off tricks, stomping the landing and riding away like you own the mountain.
Freestyle riding is about skill, courage and lots of practice. A freestyle snowboarder might try the same trick 20 times in a day and go home annoyed that they have not nailed it. Of course they will be back again the next day and the next until they get it right.
This dedication to perfection is what makes freestyle snowboarding so beautiful to watch. Freestylers can also be found in urban environments, buttering on the piste and, just to complicate things, building backcountry kickers and doing tricks off-piste.
One of the main differences between freestyle vs freeride is the board. Differences in size, shape, position of bindings and flex make a snowboard more or less suitable for different riding. It’s a sliding scale from one extreme to the other. In the middle you’ll find all-mountain boards which are suitable for a bit of everything.
Freeride boards are typically longer and have a directional shape meaning the nose is different from the tail. The stance on the board is offset towards the back end to keep the nose above the snow in pow.
Freeride snowboards are often (but not always) stiffer in order to withstand high speed riding, but this makes them less forgiving. Some have a softer nose to keep it above powder, and stiffer tail to give control.
At the extreme end, there are freeride snowboards that are designed solely for powder. These boards have more pronounced differences in shape, setback and size such as a swallow or pin tail. Although they can be fun on a piste, it makes them much harder to ride when not in powder.
Freestyle boards, on the other hand, are normally shorter, sometimes wider and often more flexible. As a result they are more forgiving if you get a trick wrong. This also makes them better for beginners.
Freestyle boards normally have a centred stance for balance and a symmetrical design, allowing you to ride both regular and switch/fakie. This is important if you want to stomp a switch landing without slowing down to flick your board round, never looks good if you can’t ride it switch…..
Essentially freestyle snowboards are designed to make doing tricks, riding rails and buttering easier. They also offer a more forgiving landing when you inevitably get something wrong.
It is important to add that a freestyle board can still be ridden in powder. In fact some flexible rocker profile freestyle boards are very good to ride in fresh stuff. But they are less helpful in difficult off-piste, where the stiffer more precise nature of freeride boards come into their own.
Freeriders are at home in more or less any destination if there is fresh snow, or where they can get off-piste to try to find some fresh lines. Although resorts that are renowned for freeride snowboarding holidays like St Foy, Verbier, Chamonix, Alagna or St Anton will be high on their list.
If there is fresh powder and blue skies a freerider will be shredding the mountain until the light (or their legs) start to fade. They may still enjoy the odd run through the park, but for the most part it’s about exploring the mountain. This might include hiking off into the backcountry, splitboarding or snowshoeing to get to inaccessible areas.
Freestylers are looking for the best places to try out new tricks. This usually involves resorts that have a snowpark and possibly a halfpipe. Dedicated freestylers will session the same rail, box or jump for hours at a time to constantly refine and improve their tricks.
You might also find freestyle snowboarders around town, setting up jumps and attempting to ride man made features such as handrails on stairs. But when there is fresh snow, most freestylers will be shredding the pow with the freeriders.
This is the section of the freestyle vs freeride guide where we start talking stereotypes….
Freestylers are a little like skateboarders on snow. It’s all very baggy pants with underwear visible, hoodies, garish combinations of colours, rebellion and whatever music their parents hate. When the snowboarding season is over you will often find them in the skate park.
Freeriders are slightly less ‘cool’, clothes are still baggy but no underwear is on show. Highly technical kit is key and while colours might be bright not in vomit inducing combinations. In the summer season freeriders are often found on mountain biking holidays.
Dare we say it? Oh go on then… Freeriders take life a little more seriously than freestylers. But freestylers take snowboarding a more seriously than freeriders!
Ok, so now we have pigeonholed all snowboarders into freestyle or freeride it’s worth noting that most most riders fall somewhere between the two. Depending on the conditions most snowboarders will both freestyle and freeride. Sometimes all in the same run!
The bottom line is that both styles of snowboarding are fun and they merge both on the mountain and in the gear you use. Most snowboarders have a favourite, but still do both! Let’s face it as long as you’re on a snowboard you’ll be smiling however you are riding it.
We hope you found freestyle vs freeride snowboarding article interesting and informative. For gear and travel reviews and more inspiration check out the rest of our snowboarding articles, also take a look at our snowboarding holidays worldwide to plan your next trip.
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