Classification of Board Sports

    Water

Surfing

The grandfather of all board sports, is a surface water sport that involves the participant being carried by a breaking wave.

Windsurfing

Also known as sailboarding. A water sport involving travel over water on a small 2-4.7 metre board powered by wind acting on a single sail. The sail is connected to the board by a flexible joint

Kiteboarding

Also known as kitesurfing. Boards similar to those known from windsurfing or wakeboarding are propelled by an inflatable or foil kite, allowing for high speeds and high jumps.

Bodyboarding

Wave riding consisting of a small, roughly rectangular piece of foam, shaped to a hydrodynamic form. The bodyboard is ridden predominantly lying down, (or 'prone'). It can also be ridden in a half-standing stance (known as 'dropknee') or can even be ridden standing up.

Stand Up Paddle Surfing (SUP)

A variant of surfing where one always a stands up on the board and propels oneself by a one-bladed paddle, without lying down on the board. Although originally the goal was to catch and surf the waves, a racing modality has emerged with similarities to kayaking.

Wakeboarding

A surface watersport created from a combination of water skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. As in water skiing, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing setup.

Wakeskating

A rider is pulled behind a boat on a wakeskate which is smaller than a wakeboard and has no bindings with a foam or griptape surface.

Wakesurfing: A rider is pulled behind a boat on a mini surfboard and can ride the boat's wake with no rope.

Skurfing

Another fast growing boardsport is skurfing a mix of surfing and more conventional water sports in which the participant is towed behind the boat.

Kneeboarding

A discipline of surfing where the rider paddles on his belly into a wave on a kneeboard, then rides the wave face typically on both knees.

Kiteboarding

Involves using a power kite to pull a small surfboard, or wakeboard on water. Other variations are to use a wheeled board or buggy on land, or skis or a snowboard on snow.

Skimboarding

A discipline of surfing involving riding a board on wet sand or shallow water. A predominantly recreational activity that has evolved into a highly competitive water sport.

Riverboarding

A boardsport in which the participant is prone on the board with fins on his/her feet for propulsion and steering

Flowboarding

Similar to surfing but done on a man-made artificial sheet wave.

Wallyboarding

Powered surf gliding on a body or surf board.

Paved

Skateboarding

Uses a board mounted on wheels, and often ridden on a "half-pipe" or in urban settings. Some of the most famous skateboarders, and early pioneers of the sport are Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk.

Streetboarding

Similar to skateboarding, but also influenced heavily by snowboarding. Also known as Snakeboarding.

Caster Skating

Similar to casterboarding, but the rider can move both feet independently. Also known as Street Skurfing.

Longboarding

Similar to freeboarding but with long skateboards that come in different shapes and sizes, longboarding is mostly a racing sport but there are many other styles as well

Carveboard

A board that has wheels similar to a car except smaller, it turns better than most boards on four wheels, its main purpose is to cruise and carve, it can turn 65 degrees, and has spring-loaded trucks that are almost as unique as a flowboards trucks.

Caster board

Two narrow platforms known as "decks" are adjoined by a rubber or aluminium coated metal beam that houses a strong spring. Each truck has one wheel that is connected to the board in such a way that each wheel can rotate independently. Both wheels are mounted on slants that measure around 30° in angle, facing away from the front of the board.

Freebording

Often said to be the board whose feel is the most similar to snowboarding. There are two extra castor wheels in the middle of the base that are somewhat lower than the other four. This allows the rider to distribute his weight to only one "edge", as in snowboarding. This gives the rider the ability to slide, an ability no other land board has.

Vigorboard

Constructed from two platforms, each supported by a single caster with a single wheel giving the board a total of two wheels. the two platforms are connected by heavy metal torsion bar that enables the board to twist in the centre.

Land, off-paved surface

Mountainboarding

Similar to snowboarding, but on snowless peaks (in between winter seasons). The board is wider and sturdier. Mountainboarding is similar to skateboarding in the way that mountainbiking is similar to regular biking.

Kite landboarding

Similar to Kite Surfing but the kite is used to pull the rider along flat ground (often a hard packed sandy beach) on a mountainboard.

On-shore boards

A type of board that has four inline wheels and four in the back(two on each side) and is deeply concave in the front.

Balanceboarding

Maintaining balance on a cylinder while using a board-shaped (rectangular or oval) object as the balancing mechanism, which is placed on top of the cylinder. Cylinder diameter sizes range from 4” to 8”. Board sizes range from 25" to 40" in length and 10" to 18" in width. A Balance board is like a see-saw that a user stands on with one foot at one end of the board and one foot at the other end.

Street Surfing

A split deck board connected by a spring rod to allow each half of the board to twist independently from the other, each side only having 1 caster wheel, allowing for tight maneuvers and self propulsion.

T-boarding

A skateboard deck with two wheels that can spin 360 degrees.

Snow

Snowboarding

A cross between skateboarding and skiing, the board medium is snow, although the condition of the snow can have a major impact on snowboarding style and technique. The four subcategories are freeride, freestyle, alpine and powder. The top-ranked snowboarder today (as of 2006) is Shaun White.

Snowskating

This is similar to snowboarding but there are no bindings used, therefore you are enabled to do skateboard style tricks.

Snowkiting

This is when a kite is used to pull a snowboarder along.

Sand

Sandboarding

A recreational activity similar to snowboarding that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered hills.

Air

Skysurfing

A kind of skydiving in which the skydiver wears a board attached to their feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall.

Hover boarding

A fictional board sport whereby the participant rides a hovering board.