On the list of snowboarding events for this year’s Winter Olympics, alongside the now familiar halfpipe and slopestyle, is a new competition with a short but evocative name: big air.

The name is accurate. Everything about the event is big. And the dizzying heights achieved by the snowboarders more than justify the “air.”

In big air, snowboarders slide down a 49-meter tall ramp (Pyeongchang’s is the biggest in the world) that curls up at the end and shoots them into the sky, seemingly forever, allowing particularly spectacular tricks.

Unlike, say, slopestyle, in which athletes go down a course and have several chances to show off tricks, big air is all about the one jump, the one big, spectacular stunt.