I have a confession to make .I don’t know whether i surf front foot or back foot.How do i tell?Its come up in a couple of threads discussing board designs and i am confussed . Am i normal ? Should it be obvious?My wife thinks its just a phase ,but has threatened to throw out my Judy Garland collection.Help me swaylocks.
mpcutback
I think when you do a bottom turn, if you keep the wide point down most of the time, and notice that tendency in other turns, you surf front-footed
ALso if you tend to shift forward
Anyone else?
Hi Danny!
What appeals to you the more: widest point forward, drawn out rounded-pintail or widest point back and a wide square-tail?
First answer: you’re probably a front foot rider. Second answer: you’re probably a back-foot rider.
“I don’t know”: er, it’s gonna be a little harder…
Front foot= the foot that is closest to the nose of the board. Back foot+the foot that is clostest to the tail of the board. Goofy foot/regulat foot, now that a different question.
I have two feet…and use both of them.Herb
…“…Am I normal?”
Are we not men? We re DEVO
I have two feet...............................and use both of them.Herb
Nice answer.
Mostly, I’m not thinking of my feet. Actually, I try not to think about my board or feet, or anything else other than where I want to be on the wave.
My turns are either initiated by my shoulders or hips… especially if I’m trying to generate speed. If I want to do whippy turns… I use my back foot. When the wave has lots of juice… I use my back foot. If I want to stall to set up for the tube… I use my back foot. Off the lip… back foot. Hard fast bottom turns… both feet equally. Down the line windshield wiper turns… both feet - coming from my hips. Small adjustments… front foot. Racing the wave… front foot. Turning while hanging five… front foot.
I got a modern S-railed fish from Bill Stewart recently. I struggled with it the first couple times out. Once I remembered you’re supposed to ride fish with your front foot, the thing came alive. I try to ride that board like a snowboard.
Well ,going on what guillem has advised ,all of my boards have the widepoint foreward .so i guess i could be a front footer.But then going on janklow’s description ,in my minds eye i can see me being a bit heavy footed on the tail,so i could be a backfooter.Which appears then to add add up to being a crap surfer. If that is the case i should be getting my wide point further south,which actually is what i have been thinking re horan or nugget.Thanks for the info guys ,much appreciated
mpcutback
I guess I should have said when you’re coming OFF a bottom turn–but I’ll bet with all WP forward boards, you have a habit of bearing down on the WP a lot of the time.
BUT I think you should really look at how long your WP forward boards are, in other words what is the WP in feet and inches from the tail? where you ride them from and how you feel, – what you tend to do how you turn within that, or if you step beyond the WP at all.
Has to do with your board’s length and where you gravitate to, where you feel like you want to ride. Once you figure out what you’re doing, what works for you (eg “I like the WP at 3’4–that keeps me back there” or “I like to walk forward of the WP”), you can go from there on board designs, and/or your habits. You might be needing a WP centered rocket fish and thinking nugget, or you might be able to retrain yourself for both.
I think you need one of theseor one of these
Its easy to answer: do you prefer skateboarding or snowboarding?
Skating is all in the thrust & kick-control of the back foot. Snowboarding is all about committing to the front foot (and knee).
If you can answer that, you know how you surf.
If you can’t answer that, you need to longboard so you can walk all around & enjoy doing everything 
Skating is all in the thrust & kick-control of the back foot. Snowboarding is all about committing to the front foot (and knee).
Sound like the difference between a carving and a sliding turn to me. Not that a real carving turn can be performed on a surfboard except with long radius turns. So maybe the question is, do you do snappy short turns(back foot) or long carvy turns(front foot)?
regards,
Håvard
When presented with a long,walled up section,do you see the coping just above and in front of you, or the shoulder ?
Would you typically rip the snot out of the lip,or drive for speed along the wall,and go for a big roundhouse ?
We’re all a bit of both,with one foot more dominant.Just my (limited) understanding.
Btw,kendall,my man,could we see some more photos of that fish ? Please? Sweet!
.
Its easy to answer: do you prefer skateboarding or snowboarding?
Skating is all in the thrust & kick-control of the back foot. Snowboarding is all about committing to the front foot (and knee).
If you can answer that, you know how you surf.
If you can’t answer that, you need to longboard so you can walk all around & enjoy doing everything
Beg to diff. I come from skateboarding, was quite good in the day, and am completely front-biased, . I always skated with a heavy dose of surf as well. Speed lines, slides, grinds, lots of the above, as well as ollies, all at speed.
Btw,kendall,my man,could we see some more photos of that fish ? Please? Sweet!
Oh yeah… I’m back in it’s presence again (San Francisco). I’ll snap a photo at some point tomorrow when the sun’s out and post it.
.
hi Danny, this was a question i asked myself a few years ago when i first heard the term ,front or back foot surfer and it was an easy question to answer really, i just thought of a wave where i have just done a bottom turn and i am heading for the lip and then when i get to the top i use my front foot to pivot the board around to come back down the wave ,so consequently you down vertically which gives you a swoopy ,flowy style, my son on the other hand comes off the bottom and then when he hits the lip he pushes that hard with his back foot that he has broke a few boards just in front of the fins , because he puts so much force onto his back foot at this position his board can turn easily into a tight arcing cutback on the wave face,where i do a cut back once i have come down the face
its the way pros surf ,hard back foot, tight turns, or front foot swoopy turns, pete
hi pete your desciption of your surfing mirrors my attempts when i am riding my shorter board , a bonzer 3.whe n it comes together i call it a rollercoaster.so i am probably a fronty however i do a lot of longboard skating as i am away from the sea a great deal so that might mean i favour my back foot ,but then janklow said…Anyway very very nice swell coming with long intervals ,I’ve been a good boy and wife says go.Will see if i can gauge whats going on .
mpcutback
I don’t think longboard skating indicates back footedness. I am definately front foot, probably due to multiple left knee surgeries leaving the back leg weak (I’m goofy). Longboarding I think, especially bombing hills is a front foot endeavour, weight foward all right on the front truck. I tend to surf the same way, when I try to snowboard like that I wipeout, but I think its just that I suck at snowboarding.
Longboarding I think, especially bombing hills is a front foot endeavour, weight foward all right on the front truck. I tend to surf the same way, when I try to snowboard like that I wipeout
On a snowboard, I find that while riding groomed/packed powder, I’m very front foot oriented whereas in nice deep powder I’m in the back seat…
7/10
Longboarding I think, especially bombing hills is a front foot endeavour, weight foward all right on the front truck. I tend to surf the same way, when I try to snowboard like that I wipeout
On a snowboard, I find that while riding groomed/packed powder, I’m very front foot oriented whereas in nice deep powder I’m in the back seat…
7/10
Both of you, change your stance further back. Unless you ride the park all the time or ride fakie all the time, you should be able to have a stance where you can ride almost the same in powder and pack, riding of the rails rather than the backfoot i powder. First guy could probably do with a stiffer board as well.
regards,
Håvard
Snow/Skate
Turns start with more front foot weight
and finish the turn on the back foot.
