How to Find Your Skate or Snowboarding Stance (Regular vs. Goofy)

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Simple tests to find your footing on any board

Co-authored by Kent Bry and Luke Smith, MFA

Last Updated: June 14, 2024 Fact Checked

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Goofy vs. Regular

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Finding Your Stance

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Confirming Your Stance

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Getting Your Balance

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Video

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Expert Q&A

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Tips

When learning board sports like skateboarding and snowboarding, the first thing you need to figure out is your stance. There are two possible stances—regular foot and goofy foot. Both stances are valid, although regular foot does tend to be more common. We chatted with certified snowboarding instructor Kent Bry to tell you the difference, show you how to find and confirm your stance, and get you started on your boarding journey with balance practice.

Determining Your Board Stance

Find your stance by standing straight with your feet together, then have a friend push you gently from behind. Whichever foot moves forward to catch you is likely your dominant foot, and goes on the back of your board.

Section 1 of 4:

What is goofy stance?

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“Goofy” means riding with your right foot forward. Certified snowboarding instructor Kent Bry says that, in snowboarding and skateboarding, riding “regular” or “normal” means you ride with your left foot forward and your right foot at the tail of the board, while riding “goofy” means you ride with your right foot forward and left foot at the tail.^{[1]
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Expert Source

Kent Bry
Certified Ski & Snowboarding Instructor

Expert Interview. 14 July 2020.} If you can do both, people sometimes call that “riding switch.”
- There aren’t any advantages to riding goofy rather than regular, and vice versa, but mastering both can make you a more versatile and adaptable rider.
- “Goofy” isn’t a negative term! It likely originated in surfing to simply mean “irregular,” since most riders ride regular.
- Some say the term “goofy” originated with the Disney character, Goofy, in a film from the 1950s, where he’s pictured surfing goofy-footed!

Section 2 of 4:

Finding Your Natural Stance

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Run and slide to see which foot naturally goes in front. One of the easiest and most reliable ways to determine your dominant foot is the “slide” test. Put on a thick, not-grippy pair of socks and find a smooth, hard-surfaced floor. Take a running start and gain a little speed. When you're ready, switch from running to sliding: take a final stride and then land flat-footed on both feet, balancing yourself as you slide across the floor in your socks.^{[2]
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- Usually, the foot that lands in the front while you slide will be the foot that goes in front while riding. If your left foot went in front, for example, you’ll probably ride regular.
- Make sure you are in a room with enough open space to perform this test properly.
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Have a friend push you from behind. Bry prefers the “push test.” Stand naturally with your feet even and close together. Ask a friend to gently push you from behind, but not tell you when they do it. Try your best not to anticipate the push. You'll feel like you're falling, and one of your feet will naturally try to brace your fall. The foot that you catch yourself with is usually your dominant foot, which will go on the back of your board.^{[3]
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Expert Source

Kent Bry
Certified Ski & Snowboarding Instructor

Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.}
- If you don't have a friend around, you can perform the “lean” test by yourself. Stand with your feet together and slowly lean forward until you feel like you're going to fall. The foot you use to catch yourself is probably your dominant foot.
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Note which foot you use first when climbing stairs. Stand with both of your feet flat on the ground and side by side at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Without thinking too hard, start climbing the stairs, and take note of which foot you stepped with first—that’s likely your dominant foot, and will go on the back of your board.^{[4]
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Research source} Try it a few times in a row to see if you react the same each time.
- Like most of these tests, this one works best the less you think about it. Instead of finding some stairs ASAP, try to simply remember which foot you moved first the next time you naturally climb some stairs.
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Drop-kick a soccer ball. A dodgeball or football will work fine too. Hold the ball out in front of you with both hands. Imagine that you have to kick this ball to score a goal. Drop the ball out in front of you and then kick it. The foot that you instinctively kick with is probably your dominant foot, and will likely go on the back of the board when you ride.^{[5]
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- Repeat the exercise a few times to see if you get the same results.
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Stand on the pedals of a bicycle. Next time you’re riding a bike, try standing up, with the pedals at a level height from each other. Take note of which pedal is in front—that’s likely the foot that’ll be in front when you ride a board.^{[6]
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- Be sure to wear a helmet when you do this!
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Place your dominant foot in the back, if you know which foot you favor. When standing on a board, your dominant foot usually goes in the back, since it's stronger and does most of the pushing, turning, etc. If you’re right-handed, it's highly likely that your dominant foot is your right foot. This would mean your left foot goes in front and your stance is regular. This is usually how it works out, but not always.^{[7]
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- Some people who are right-foot dominant prefer riding goofy (right foot forward). Some people who are left-foot dominant prefer riding regular (left foot forward). It’s more common than you think!

Section 3 of 4:

Confirming Your Stance

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Stand on the board and have someone gently push you. Get on the board and put the foot you think is dominant in the back and the other forward. Have a friend stand behind you. Once you're on, grab your friend's hands to steady yourself. Have them slowly push or pull you in the direction of your lead foot to see how it feels.^{[8]
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- Then switch feet and try out your other foot as the lead.
- Do this several times until you're sure which stance is the most comfortable for you.
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Test how your dominant foot performs while riding. Bry suggests trying both stances to see which feels most comfortable.^{[9]
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Expert Source

Kent Bry
Certified Ski & Snowboarding Instructor

Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.} Find a nice, open space where you can work easily. Mount your board very carefully, putting what you think is your dominant foot in its position at the back of the board. Then, try riding! Push off gently on a skateboard, or find a slight slope on a snowboard, and get going.
- How does it feel? Are you comfortable? Does it feel natural or awkward?
- Now switch the position of your feet and try it the other way. Does that feel more or less comfortable?
- Make sure to wear a helmet and protective gear!
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Stick to your confirmed stance until you’re comfortable. Once you've figured out your stance, stick to it until you’re totally comfortable and can ride that way without thinking about it, just to get the fundamentals down. Once you’re confident, feel free to try riding in the other stance to mix things up.
- Your stance for one board sport will most likely be your dominant stance for all other board sports, such as windsurfing, snowboarding, wakeboarding and so on.
- If you already know your stance, it makes learning another board sport that much easier!

Section 4 of 4:

Getting Your Balance

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Stand on your board on a level surface. Start out on a level surface. Stand on your board with your feet about shoulder-width apart on a skateboard.^{[10]
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Research source} Stand a little wider on a snowboard. Then, bend your knees, shimmy a little—the idea here is just to get comfortable being on your board and learning where to put your balance.
- Remember: a lower center of gravity means more stability, so bend those knees.
- Shift your weight back and forth a bit so that the board moves slightly, and practice keeping your center of gravity over the center of the board.
- When you first start out, being on the board feels a little awkward no matter how you're standing on it. Once your stance is stable, you'll start feeling more comfortable.
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Practice pushing off on a skateboard, or stopping on a snowboard. Once you feel stable, incorporate a little motion. While riding a skateboard: use your back, dominant foot to step off the board and push forward off the ground, then bring your foot back onto the board. Go slowly at first, and make small pushes until it feels comfortable.
- While riding a snowboard, forward motion comes with a slope, not pushing. Practice sliding down easy, slight slopes, and stopping yourself with a heel turn—shift your weight to your heels until the board turns perpendicular to the hill, and you stop.
- Make sure you are pushing smoothly and with confidence. By now, you’ll probably feel absolutely sure about whether you are a regular or goofy foot.
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Avoid pushing with your front foot on a skateboard. “Mongo foot” is when you use the front foot to push yourself on a skateboard while the back foot stays on the board.^{[11]
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Research source} It’s sometimes tempting for beginners, but it throws off your balance and limits your mobility, so stay away from this technique.
- If you catch yourself being a mongo foot, try to break yourself of it before it becomes too habitual.

Expert Q&A

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Question

How do you know which foot is dominant?

Kent Bry
Certified Snowboarding Instructor
Kent Bry is a certified ski and snowboarding instructor and the director of Adventure Ski & Snowboard, a school based in the San Diego, California metro area. With over 50 years of skiing and snowboarding performance and instruction experience, Kent is certified by the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA). Adventure Ski & Snowboard is a member of the PSIA and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI). Kent holds a BS in Recreational Therapy from San Diego State University and is also a California-registered recreational therapist.

Kent Bry

Certified Snowboarding Instructor

Expert Answer

A good test is to have a friend come up behind you and gently push you forward. Whichever foot you step out with to catch yourself is probably your dominant foot.

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My right foot is my dominant foot, but I prefer to ride with my left foot in the back of my board. Is this okay?

Nishat Blagh

Community Answer

That's fine, everyone has different preferences with what we find comfortable.

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Is there anything wrong with being goofy-footed?

Community Answer

Absolutely not -- it just means you are more likely to be left-handed, or you just feel more comfortable riding that way.

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Tips

Make sure to wear proper safety gear whenever you ride a skateboard, snowboard, surfboard, or any other board.

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

I'm left footed but ride goofy. There's no right or wrong stance. Whichever feels best for you is the one you should use.
Some of the world's best snowboarders ride goofy! It's not better or worse, but it does often impress other people.

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