Surfing Waves

Hi, i found something interesting today. Went out with a friend who brought his skateboard (i never skated before) and told me to try it because it would help practice some skills for surfing while not being able to go to the water.

So i tried to stand on the board the same ive been trying to stand on the surfboard which is with my left foot on front. So i tried to give myself speed and was almost impossible to keep balance even after a couple of attempts. So he said that i try changing my stance so i put my right foot on the front and magic, i was able to stay pretty well on the board, started being able to get nice speed and even practiced carving with much success on my first day.

Soooo, my question is, have i being trying to pop out the wrong way (side) all this time? My most succesful day with a surfboard so far was being able to stay on the ducked position (both feet and hands on the board) with whitewater so i dont really know.

I ask this because it will be at least one or two months until i will be able to see the ocean again (winter is coming) and would like to practice my pop up at home the best way for me.

So what do you think? have i been messing up all this time?

Thanks for any replies.

Everyone is different, have you tried to surf with the right forward?

I surf and skate with my right forwad and am absolutely useless with my left forward xD

No i certainly didnt tried it yet, i have that weird configuration on my body that im right handed but eat as a left handed and so on on different things. I "feel" the left foot forward was the most natural choice when i started my learning process but as i found in practice it doesnt work good while standing on the skateboard.

I guess if there is no actual way to prove it outside a surfboard ill try to practice my pop up both ways until i can test it on the water....

Thanks for the reply.

People are all over the place on this - I'm left handed, kick with my left foot and surf natural (left foot forward), which is usually the way right handed people do it. One of my friends is the complete opposite - righthanded goofy (right foot forward).

What you may find is that you have a leg that is more 'stable' and the one you rely on or might be slightly stronger for some reason. That leg is usually the back leg in surfing.

However, for skateboarding (and snowboarding, for that matter), while you turn off your back leg more or less, its your front leg that keeps things stable and controls the board (if you put too much weight on the back leg the board slides out from under you, but weight on the front leg keeps the board down and directs it). So your weight is often more forward that it is with surfing. Its unusual but it might just be your right foot is the one you rely on to do anything (or, perhaps, your left leg is as uncordinated as your left hand) and anything that requires your left leg to be the 'balancing' leg just doenst work. In surfing you may be using your back leg as the balancing leg and in skateboarding you are using your front leg as the balancing leg. Surfing has a bit more leeway in this regard, you can be a front or back foot surfer

Anyway, there is no science. Its whatever feels 'right' (no pun intended). Try both ways. Maybe you are a switch footer and can surf both ways - never have to surf backhand ever! However, I could probably pop up goofy on the floor with a bit of practice but it would feel totally wrong on an actual board, so the floor pop up may not be the answer.

Here are three tests:

Think about how you would skid on a patch of ice. When you run up to a patch of ice to skid, which foot would be your front foot? The skid position that you take on the ice will be your most comfortable surfing stance (from the Surfing Waves lesson https://surfing-waves.com/surfing_lesson_four.htm)

TWO
- go to a staircase, and walk up it. What foot did you use to step up the FIRST step? That's likely your back foot (note: I'm not totally in agreement with this, but take it into account)


THREE
- Go find someone, stand with both your feet close together, and ask them to shove you from behind. You should have caught yourself with one foot. The foot you used to catch yourself is likely the foot you'd put in back.

Thanks for the reply. Ive been doing a bit of testing and to sum it up, yes ive been doing it the wrong way for me...

I did the tests, actually skided on my floor which was more slippery than i anticipated, and then tried to run and jump on the skateboard both times my right front forward was the best way. Just for fun i will say that also tried to run and jump with my left foot forward and both the skate and me went of flying in a most embarrasing manner

Then went to practice pop ups and after 10 slow pop ups, for the first time i managed to do the one motion pop up, i.e. jumping and landing with both feet, something i didnt manage to do so far with my other stance.....

So finally i find that while now i know which is the best stance for me because i can do everything better that way, i still find an awkwardness when putting my left foot on the back So in my case what feels right is exactly the opposite But its a matter of getting used i guess.


Well now to wait till i can hit the water and see how much i can improve this way!!!

I surf natural and skate goofy so don't necessarily expect everything on a skateboard to translate to a surfboard.

But in this picture he's a natural!!!!!

Not on the surfboard dude

I am right handed, I surf with the right foot forward and I skate board with my front foot forward.

This is what I skate on, I love it because it is very shortboard / rail to rail like.



I had about 2 weeks on this before going to Australia and never got to develop any skill, since coming back I can rip that thing now but downside is I have been landed locked since returning. Looking forward to getting in the water and putting some of it to the test.

Andy

I learned to skateboard with my right foot in the back and using my left (front foot) to push with. I notice these days many of the skateboarders use their back foot to push off with. I wonder if that makes a difference? People called me goofy but not when I skateboarded or surfed But really I could skateboard almost as well with either foot forward not that we did jumps or ramps back in those days. I learned to surf regular stance and learned to surf switched but these days I fall down if I try switching.

i think front foot pushers are called 'mongo foot'

The dominant hand/foot thing is weird. Im left handed writer/chopstick holder, left footed kicker, bat right handed, throw righthanded, surf natural...

I remember a friend of mine taking up golf. She was left handed but just could not figure out whether to play golf right or left. She would take 1/2 lesson left handed then swap to right handed, did that for about 10 lessons and totally confused the coach. Then she moved to New York and couldnt afford to play golf anyway so never really made a final decision.

dtc wrote:i think front foot pushers are called 'mongo foot'

The dominant hand/foot thing is weird. Im left handed writer/chopstick holder, left footed kicker, bat right handed, throw righthanded, surf natural...

I remember a friend of mine taking up golf. She was left handed but just could not figure out whether to play golf right or left. She would take 1/2 lesson left handed then swap to right handed, did that for about 10 lessons and totally confused the coach. Then she moved to New York and couldnt afford to play golf anyway so never really made a final decision.

Very interesting. As a kid I tried to learn to do everything both ways so I could bat left hand and throw left hand but even with a lot of practice I was much better right handed. I also could write left handed though not very well. I learned to play ping pong and pool left handed as a handicap so that others would play with me and got good enough left handed that they still didn't want to play with me but I was even better right handed. I can yield a knife and fork right or left handed but not so well with chop sticks in my left hand.