Freeskiing, Freeriding, Park-skiing

I've been trying to convince everyone for years now that we should just start calling it skiing at this point.

i propose two-planking be the new name of the described activity in which we partake

they all mean the same thing. freeskiing/freeride/freestyle just indicate that we enjoy performing stunts on our skis whether the location is a mogul hill, face in AK, or hand rail in QC

i agree we must unify all the so called "genres" of skiing under one banner

I agree on the first two 100% not too sure about how to define Freeskiing tho. When you read description of skis or look at websites they are classified into those catagories. You have Freestyle skis, Freestyle pow skis etc... Then you have Freeride skis which are more directionally inclinded etc. So yes I agree if youre on a Freeride ski you are probably not on rails all day and are more likely looking for the steeps.

I guess Freeskiing is the general term used for things not racing or things in that kind of catagory.

I always separated skiing by range.
Freestyle skiing: Those are the moguls and aerial. The ones since the 70's
Freeriding: this one sits in groomers to in bound ungroomed runs. This explores style and creativity where everyone else just wants to get down. Stuff like butters and switch skiing are examples.
Park: Anything park related.
Urban riding: Anything that sits out of a ski center
Freeskiing: Its all out skiing where you want when you want. Think big mountain, chutes and out of bounds.

Good thread but I really don't see what is hard to understand about it. Freeski covers all the sub-divisions which have broke from the traditional and conservative notion of what we can do with skis. Or, what we want to do with our skis. This reason alone is freeski

Yes what am I supposed to tell my friends/ relatives that I do if I mostly just hang out in the parks?

Call something freesking because it can include all kinds of different forums of skiing, debate what forms of skiing freeskiing includes.

i call it park skiing most of the time, mostly because my racer friend calls me a "freestyler" and makes it sound really lame...

This.

iv'e always thought of it like this,

Freeskiing - would be our whole sport in general. Big mountain to park and everthing inbetween.

Freeriding - When I hear freeriding, I think backcountry or touring. But just playing around on groomers etc. i think could fit in here also.

Freestlye - Would be park, pipe, slopestyle, etc...

I couldn't agree with you more.

I would say freeriding as big mountain skiing, I find the word 'Freeriding' is used a lot more in Europe. When I think of freeriding, I think of Aurelien Ducroz and maybe the way in which Cattabriga skies at the moment, old Cattabriga not so much.

i love my double snowboards

Interesting thread and a relevant topic. It's definitely confusing to have our sport running under so many competing names; but then again, we must take into account that someone who's an ex-racing big-mountain purist, and someone who only skis the streets, really don't have all that much in common any more.

Until recently I would have agreed with Drail that we should just call it all skiing. However I recently had a conversation with a friend who pointed out that what we're doing is really fundamentally different from the old skiing concept of just sliding down a hill - "freeskiers" have a completely different understanding of how skis are even supposed to be used, which does seem to separate us from the larger ski culture.

But I digress. Anyway I agree with most of you that "freeskiing" is the blanket term for most of the new developments, mostly snowboard-influenced, since the early 1990s, namely: halfpipe and terrain park skiing, as well as trick-oriented backcountry and big-mountain skiing. Although I'm definitely a skier in general, I call myself a freeskier to indicate the particular manner in which I ski.

I agree with most people above who say "freeriding" is outside-of-the-park freeskiing, i.e. looking at natural terrain with a freeskiing perspective. It's also helpful as a term that can be applied to both skiing and snowboarding. To illustrate both uses: "Na, I don't want to hit the park, I think I'll go do some freeriding."

"Freestyle" was the name of the revolution in skiing in the 1970s which produced competitive mogul skiing, aerials, and ski ballet (R.I.P. and never come back). The term "freestyle" is still a blanket term for "doing tricks", which means your average park skier is also a freestyler, but you have to be careful when using it because it also refers to bump skiers an aerialists. Because of this I tend to avoid it unless I'm talking specifically about those sports. What we do in the park might be called "new freestyle" to indicate the difference.

Oops, correction here to illustrate both possible uses of "freeriding":
"Na, I don't want to hit the park, I think I'll go do some freeriding with my homies" (who are snowboarders).

randy has nailed the correct answer, good job.

this