What constitutes a great style?

I hear so many times people saying this pro has great style, the other one doesn’t. So what to you guys is considered great style? For me I think great style = tweaking the grab (think terje’s method, kazu’s mctwist japan, nico’s japan), holding the grab for a longer time (be more in control in the air), and just looking relaxed both in the ground and in the air, and of course the way they turn (Terje, Jake)

Timing and Smoothness!!!!!

Sounds easy, hey?????

Great topic skip!

Great style has nothing to do with how many spins a rider can do, the newness of a trick, or the degree of difficulty - it’s an effortless grace (or ‘steeze’) that some riders have, and others can only wish they had.

I reckon I could watch footage of Craig Kelly riding pow all day, every day, and never tire of it. Poetry in motion.

@Mizu: Hahah, you make it sounds easy loll
@chucky: True that, I could watch Craig making pow turns all day

I agree with all the above points. Everything you guys have said shows style.

I will add this…

Stylish riders make difficult tricks (whether it’s a straight air, pow slash, cliff drop, boardslide, 180, or 1440) look incredibly easy. This is due to their incredible control when riding (air, rail, whatever). In my mind, the easier something looks, the more stylish it is. Grabs show control, tweaked grabs show even more control, arms down low and not flailing (think Torstein) etc. all add style points.

I would sacrifice any move I can do if I would only have better style. I watch myself on film and feel like I’m so stiff and even though my turns have a bit of flow I compare it to any decent snowboarder and wish that I’d just loosen up a bit!

So just more practise or is rider26 going to give me the magic formula???

The biggest factor is board control, as rider was alluding to. You only get board control by practice (and some who get helped a lot by talent). If you have good board control, you have no need to flail arms etc.
I can’t even believe how much effort doing my first 360s felt to me and that it can possibly be the same move that torstein does off rails and makes it look so smooth and easy & often with a perfect flat board.

Just keep practising!

I agree, with repetitiveness comes a more relaxed stature!!!!!

Just remember the first time that ya strapped into a board and slid 5 meters down a green run!!!!! Guaranteed ya looked like everyone else, stiff as crap and like a pure gumby!!!!!

Now, when ya cruisin back to the lift line, to the top of a drop, over to ya mates to give them a spray in the face, ya most likely have the style of a pro because ya have done these things a million times now!!!!! But when ya about to attempt a new trick, for some reason the mind reverts back to it’s pure gumby state again!!!!! Hahahahaa!!!!!

smoothness

The replies so far have covered this one pretty well, looseness, flow, smoothness etc…..can’t really argue with that can you.  The only thing i’d add and i’d be lying if I didn’t admit to watching a certain movie (yes that one) is,

“Style is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it
To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art”

or if you want the fuller version,

“Style is the answer to everything.
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without it
To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art

Bullfighting can be an art
Boxing can be an art
Loving can be an art
Opening a can of sardines can be an art

Not many have style
Not many can keep style
I have seen dogs with more style than men,
although not many dogs have style.
Cats have it with abundance.

When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,
that was style.
Or sometimes people give you style
Joan of Arc had style
John the Baptist
Jesus
Socrates
Caesar
García Lorca.

I have met men in jail with style.
I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail.
Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.
Six herons standing quietly in a pool of water,
or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me.”
? Charles Bukowski

WoW

For me style is art. Anyone can ride a snowboard just like anyone can put paint on a canvas but understanding just where to put different colors, when to leave places blank and when to finish the piece is an incredibly difficult talent that when done correctly looks effortless. Some people seem to be born with style while others gain it through years of practice.

I think style was best defined in the documentary ‘Dogtown and Z-Boys.’ I can’t remember who said it but one of the original members of the zboys talked about how people with bad style just stink up the place and make it so you don’t even want to be around the person with bad style. Whereas someone with good style inspires others to try harder and push themselves to try new things.