Illustrations by Kieron Black.

It might seem like alien jibberish at first, but over the years everyone develops their personal preferences when it comes to binding angles and stance widths (for the record, this author’s is +18/-6, rear foot 1″ back from the reference).

Unsurprisingly, just like many other things in snowboarding, foot placement can become a fashion choice – the 2000s saw ‘wide-offs’ between pro before jib kids starting standing bolt upright in rail parks circa-2011. Nowadays it’s a glorious mish-mash across all of the various varieties of sliding sideways – here are some of our favourites, and what they say about the riders that rock them:

Wide Duck

You found a style that you liked in 2002 and have doggedly stuck with it, long hair, plaid shirts, baggy pants and all. That, or you’re French, which seeing as this stance is about 20 years out of date by now means about the same thing, except you’ll be wearing matching Picture outerwear.