What's the difference between park and freestyle? (read details)?

Question

I know what freestyle is and I though park was the same thing, but when coming to buy a new board you know they have like bar graphs of what theyre best for? for example - a board might have a high bar for park but not for powder. but anyway often they say like 'powder 2/10, all mountain 5/10 park 7/10 and freestyle 9/10' yeah? but whats the difference between park and freestyle in this context?

Answer 1

You are right park and freestyle are the same thing but some magazines and companys confuse things at times, by bar graphs like you have mentioned as they dont all use the same terms. Basically freestyle is an overall term used for any type of trick related riding. You can split this into three categorys jib, park, all mountain freestyle. Jib boards are boards designed mainly for jibs ie rails boxes and other man made objects, the Rome Artifact is a well known jib board. Park boards are used for all types of freestyle riding such as kickers, rails, pipe riding. Many companys will just refere to park boards as freestyle boards, the Rome Agent is a well known park board. All mountain freestyle boards are used more for backcountry freestyle big kickers, pipe riding. The K2 Zepplin is a well known all mountain freestyle board.

Ok this is the confusing part alot of boards dont fit in a particular catigory and kind of cross over. Also many companys dont used the term park as pipe and jib riding are very different and its hard to design a board that is good for both. As for jib riding your board needs to be flexaxble for forgiviness on rails and in buttering moves, where,s  for pipe riding your board needs to be stiff so you can carve hard across the walls of the pipe. Anyway going back to your question going by the bar graph the board they are explaining is a jib board such as the Artifact, Burton Dominant, Ride Kink etc. Good luck with the riding.

Answer 2

freestyle is more of jibbing, rails and buttering. park is more of the jumps, ramps, and half pipes.

Answer 3

I think that "park" usually means half pipe, etc and "freestyle" means better for rails, boxes, etc.

Good Luck

Answer 4

As the other answers indicate, the company that is showing that information may have a different definition of freestyle and park than many of us.  The easiest way to figure out the nature of the board is to look at its flexibility.  A jib board will be the most flexible, a generic Park board will be a bit more stiff and a pipe board or all-mountain freestyle board will be even more stiff.   Also, park boards tend to be a more centered twin-tip where all-mountain freestyle tend to be slightly directional.  

As for the more generic definition, freestyle refers to riding with style putting "tricks" into your riding anywhere on the hill.  Park riding refers to freestyle on specifically man-made features like boxes, rails, jumps, and half-pipe.  So park is a type of freestyle riding.