What Is Freestyle Skiing? Everything You Need To Know

What Are the Freestyle Skiing Events?

For simplicity's sake, this list mostly contains the freestyle disciplines judged by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), with one notable exclusion: street skiing.

Mogul skiing: Mogul skiing, in a competitive context, sees a competitor race to the bottom of a field of bumps as fast as they can. Along their route, they hit jumps to boost their score, which also takes into account their speed and turns. In dual moguls, two competitors compete at the same time, head-to-head.

Aerials: Aerials first gained traction in the 1950s. This discipline, thanks to its deeper history, has an old-timey feel and sees competitors launch off a nearly vertical jump. In the air, they execute numerous flips and twists. Stylistically, aerials looks more like gymnastics than its modern freestyle counterparts and, for that reason, is sometimes derided by younger skiers.

Halfpipe: The stunt ditch! A newer discipline added to the Olympic program in 2014, halfpipe involves, well, a giant halfpipe. Skiers speed down this snow structure, throwing tricks with cool names, before reaching the bottom, where they’re graded on their performance.

Big air: The younger, newer brother of aerials, big air is still about throwing the gnarliest trick possible. Big air jumps, though, are less steep than aerial jumps. This facilitates a different style of off-axis moves, like corks and rodeos.

Slopestyle: Slopestyle involves a long, complicated course that includes numerous jump and rail features. As with halfpipe and big air, competitors in this discipline are judged on the technicality and cleanliness of the tricks they throw. Like halfpipe, it joined the Olympics in 2014.

Ski cross: In ski cross, groups of skiers compete against each other to reach the bottom of an undulating course with jumps. Unlike traditional alpine racing, these competitors are on the same course at the same time. As you might expect, that can result in some spectacular collisions and wipeouts.

Street skiing: Like skateboarders, street skiers head to metropolitan areas and identify rails, wall rides, and other features they can use to throw tricks. While street skiing competitions exist, the heart of this discipline lies in filming and creating video projects. You could easily argue that street skiing falls into the freeskiing bucket rather than the freestyle bucket, but more on that later.

A Brief Freestyle Skiing History

Freestyle skiing dates back as far as the early 1900s, when skiers, probably looking for something to do, added somersaults to their slopeside repertoire. Those moves went airborne in the 1950s with the help of famed Norwegian and Olympic gold medalist Stein Eriksen, who became known for his aerial flips on skis.

Soon, a new strain of skiing had a name, “hot-dogging,” which involved jumping and crashing through fields of moguls. Hot dog competitions were less about precision and more about rowdiness, with scores oftentimes determined by the crowd’s reaction.

But the wildness wouldn’t last too long. “Hot-dogging” eventually became known as freestyle and, in 1980, received formal recognition from the FIS. More serious judging and rulebooks followed. A demonstration of the discipline arrived at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Then, four years later, in Albertville, moguls officially joined the Olympics. Aerials was added to the Olympic roster next in 1994 for the Lillehammer Games. Today, mogul skiing and aerials remain the historical pillars of freestyle skiing.

What About Freeskiing?

This is where it all gets a bit more confusing.

Oftentimes, the term “freestyle” now refers to judged and regulated disciplines like, say, moguls. But the FIS, in its categorization of the freestyle disciplines, puts the word “freeski” in front of a few, including halfpipe, big air, and slopestyle. Why?

All three of those disciplines spawned from a movement called freeskiing, which grew in the 1990s, seeking inspiration from sports that, at the time, were much hipper than racing or moguls, like snowboarding.

A key element of freeskiing, as its name implies, is freedom. That means the freedom to do whatever you want on the mountain, from hitting rails and jumps to slipping through narrow chutes (as with snowboarding, the cool factor was important, too—we’re talking about bad-ass sunglasses and bleached hair). The freeskiers of yesteryear weren’t fond of rulebooks or being told what to do.

With time, though, the three core freeskiing disciplines became subsumed by the FIS, transforming into regulated, judged sports and, in the process, following a similar path as hot-dogging. While competitors in these disciplines wear cooler outfits and might be more likely to listen to rap music than a racer, they’re now elite athletes who train year-round.

Outside of the competitive sphere, the term “freeskiing” hasn’t lost its cache, though. Pinning an exact modern definition on the phrase isn’t easy, but, to us, it hints at skiing being a joyful art form rather than a sport, whether you’re in the terrain park or backcountry.

It’s still about making cool videos, throwing tricks, and breaking the rules. If you’re struggling with what we’re getting at, watch Level 1’s latest movie, Wasteland. That, by most definitions, is freeskiing in the 2020s.

Also worth noting but perhaps getting in the weeds: the concept of freeskiing isn't just tied to baggie pants, twin tips, and tricks. Tom Carter and Allan Bard, in a 1979 issue of POWDER, addressed the subject, dropping this delightful kernel of wisdom. "Let's free skiing," they wrote. "Figure it this way: skiing is skiing, and the tools you use and the place you choose is up to you."

Freeride Skiing, Explained

And then there’s freeride, which, at its most basic level, is freeskiing but with an added emphasis on gnarly, big mountain terrain. Freeriders pick a tough face, find a few things to jump off, and slide to the bottom. Powder makes this process more fun.

Again, as the name implies, freedom is important here. In freeride, the creativity involved in choosing your path down the mountain is sacrosanct. But like the competitive freeskiing disciplines, freeride is getting the FIS treatment, and as soon as 2030, it could be an Olympic sport.

In a competitive setting, the basic principles of freeride still apply. Competitors choose how they want to carve up the unmanicured venue and, on the way down, usually catch lots of air. The only difference is that when they finish, their performance is scored by a panel of judges. That last, subjective bit, as you might expect, can be controversial.

The Freeride World Tour (obviously) and Natural Selection Tour Ski are two prominent freeride skiing competitions.