Surfing Waves

Ok, basic question. I am regular footed. So I find the natural way for me to surf once I pop up is in the direction of my leading foot i.e. right to left. Is it possible to go the other way i.e. left to right, or will I just fall off?! I know it must be a necessity, depending on the way the wave is breaking...Any tips for doing this? And is this the whole frontside/backside thing, or ahve I got my terms mixed up. Apologies if this was asked before...

Hi and welcome.
The short answer is .. practise. You will need to be able to ride the wave in both directions. Don't be too hard on yourself at first, and don't be afraid to practice riding the other direction after the wave has broken just so you get the feel of it.
Don't forget to check out the surfing lessons on the site https://surfing-waves.com/surfing_lesson_one.htm

Yes, that is frontside (riding with the wave face in front of you) and backside (riding with the beach in front of you).

Dont be afraid of trying backside surfing. In fact i find it way easier. When i was learning i just squatted low on the board and used the weight on my butt to help me stick to the wave. I had longer backside rides.

Now that i have a little bit of more experience i still prefer to catch backside breaking waves. I dont see the face of the wave that much while dropping in, most of the times i turn by holding the rail with my hand, and then when im on the wave face i am looking further forward down the line than when i ride frontside waves. On frontside rides watching the wave face gets me a little doubtful and anxious.

As you can see its all in the head. The important thing is to have fun.

As said, you'll need to get used to going both ways.

You should always be heading away from the peak/curl, if thats backside, its backside , not much you can do about it.

In general most regular footed people will ahve more controll riding frontside have an easier and consistant drop in - however it might just be me but i find i can hack/cutback much easier on my backhand and find it easier to pull into a tube .

DO NOT ignore one side it makes you a far more rounded surfer and rockets your wave count having the ability to go either way confidently. In fact i spend an awfull lot of time riding on my backhand due to the breaks i surf so if i couldnt ride effortlessly on my backhand i would be severely handicapped

Cool cool. Thanks for that...tbh I've only just gotten to the stage where, now that I'm comfortable standing up, I've started focusing on riding the wave face as opposed to just sliding out in front of it. That said, caught some sweet ones at the weekend...well, they were in my opinion at least!

yeah i'm with isaluteyou, I steered away from my backside for a while thinking it would be too hard, but I actually find it easier to do snaps and cutbacks on my backhand. Granted i can't pump as well on backside and usually get a longer ride fronside, but the snaps and cutbacks are easier for me on backside at least, but i'm still learning too.

You will get better at backside surfing with time and patience and practice. One tip that actually helps is to do as the pro's do, grab the rail to set your board, then let go and start surfing. Sounds kooky but it really does help.

i m a total kook in backhand, can't snap or roller for shit1.
I'll always try to make my direction go front side whenever i can, since its my most confident side. backhand side gives me less visibility and I can't imagine what i can do next well.

One tip that actually helps is to do as the pro's do, grab the rail to set your board, then let go and start surfing. Sounds kooky but it really does help.

Very handy for sharp drop-ins and pulling into a tube right off the bat

Yeah I agree with getting used to backside. I suck donkey nads on my backside.

This week-end at home break there was this longboarder riding only backside and I was only riding front. We kept riding the same sets except we are between two piers where he only has a left and I only have a right.

Its quite annoying, because he gets on almost always before me, and I back off.