Snowboarding Tips For Beginners: Which Foot Goes In Front?

For anyone who has spent more than a few years skiing, learning how to snowboard raises one almost immediate question: which foot goes on the front of the snowboard, which on the back?

To determine which foot should face forward while snowboarding, you have two choices. One is a matter of thinking about how you play other sports; the second, while having recently fallen out of favor, is a simple test.

To determine which foot you should place forward while you learn how to snowboard, consider how you would kick a soccer ball, step up onto or down from a curb, or which foot you would put forward if sliding across ice on foot.

Chances are, if you like to ski, surf, waterski, play soccer, etc. you feel most comfortable (i.e., better balanced) favoring your left foot. Step up onto a curb, for example, and you're more likely to balance on your left foot while you lift your left.

Additionally, given prospect of a wide patch of ice on a walking path or road, and the spirit to slide across the ice a dozen feet or so, you likely prefer your left foot forward.

If the above is the case, that's the foot you want to place forward while. snowboarding. Left foot forward known as regular foot in snowboarding circles. The rarer minority of snowboarding newbies prefer right foot forward, a stance known in snowboarding and surfing circles as goofy foot.

If you're not a water skier, have never run and slid across ice while on foot, don't know the first thing about soccer, there's a very simple test to discover whether you will feel more comfortable with a regular or a goofy foot stance while snowboarding.

Have a friend stand behind you. As you relax and stand comfortably, ask your friend to give you a gentle push, week between your shoulders. Not a shove, but just enough of a push to put you off balance to the point that you step forward on one foot.

The foot you lift and step forward onto is the foot you'll likely feel more comfortable with placed forward while you learn to snowboard.

Thus, when learning to snowboard, even if you've been skiing for years, if you stepped forward onto your right foot, that's the foot you want forward - a key good to remember too if you're also considering taking up skateboarding, wakeboarding, windsurfing, water skiing or kite boarding. Step forward onto your left foot and you prefer a regular foot stance

Fortunately, the current design of snowboards, from the softest and shortest freestyle snowboard to the stiffest narrowest, longest Alpine downhill racing snowboard, are all made to accommodate both types of snowboarders, whether regular or goofy foot. Long gone are the days of asymmetrical snowboards, or, snowboards, typically downhill racing boards, whose trapezoidal shapes were offset, often dramatically, for goofy foot and regular foot snowboarding.

Switching your snowboard to accommodate your foot forward preference is simply a matter of twisting the snowboard's bindings clockwise or counterclockwise so that bindings point slightly left or right.