Freeriding - explained in the PalmerProject-Ski and Snowboard-Lexicon2
"Whether just learning to link turns or pushing the limits of an Alaskan descent, freeriders prefer the all mountain experience: open terrain, backcountry chutes, fresh powder, trees, as well as an afternoon spent in the park or in a freshly cut pipe. This is the realm where pros can show what they are really made of.
Freeriding is the most general style of snowboarding and has correspondingly versatile equipment. Like freestyle, freeride equipment uses a soft boot. Boards in this category are relatively longer and more directional in their shape. If you don't know what kind of terrain you like, or know that you like everything, this is your category.Freeriders are not restricted to the runs laid out and groomed by the ski resort. The whole mountain is their playground. They range from laid back types who want to cruise powder linking short turns to veritable snow surfers laying down wide curves and playing with the terrain to extreme big mountain skiers, hucking rock bands and tackling gnarly couloirs.
This discipline has developed from lift served off-piste skiing where equipment used to be Slalom, GS or Super G skis. Ideal on hard pack these skis required many months to master in difficult and powder conditions. With the revolution in ski shapes during the latter part of the 1990s manufacturers increasingly started to cater for the off-piste market producing wide, shaped and increasingly specialized skis.
Skis in this category are generally too heavy for extensive climbing but in recompense by offering excellent performance. Stiff but often exotic materials give them the torsional ridgidity for reactive turning and grip. Wide enough under foot (80+mm) to cope with deep powder. Turn radiuses are medium to large (20m+) to assist stability at speed and to enable the rider to pilot the ski. "