Before you go to snowboard for the first time, you’ll need to understand what your stance is. You might have a goofy stance or a regular stance.
In reality, it means little when you are boarding, yet when you choose a new board and in other areas, being goofy or regular is like being right-handed or left-handed.
It can also mean you have comfortable riding rather than struggling more than other people. You can find it very similar in other board sports, though there are exceptions.
You can learn what the difference is and why you should get confused with riding switch or riding fakie in our guide. (Read What is a Stomp Pad)
By the end, you’ll find out how you can tell what stance you have and whether you snowboard goofy or regular. You will also see, there are more goofy foot snowboard riders in the world than you may imagine.
Is Riding Goofy Bad?
Before you think is goofy stance bad, you need to understand the difference. Here’s a breakdown of each.
Regular Stance
You will have your left leg and left foot forward in the regular stance. You can find this is the same for other sports such as surfing, wakeboarding, and others with the left foot in front and the right foot back.
You will discover it’s nothing to do with right-handed or left; both types ride snowboards in the regular stance.
Goofy Stance
When you take on the goofy stance, you have your right foot in front of your left leg and left foot. It is thought the term Goofy comes from a Disney cartoon. Like standard, it has nothing to do with being left-handed or not. It is merely your dominant foot.
Is Goofy Better Than Regular?
Once you begin snowboarding, there is no difference whatsoever in how good or bad you can snowboard. Mush of it is how your body chooses the front foot, which is the back foot.
It is worth mentioning other terms that have to do with stance. However, these are asking styles and not how your bindings will be on your board. You will hear the terms ‘switch’ or ‘fakie,’ and these are used when a rider is riding with their non-dominant foot at the front.
Over time, riders should need to become comfortable with either foot forward as this can help improve skills and tricks.
Most snowboarders stay with their comfortable stance for years before they try side for years before trying switch riding. Learning to ride switch is a basic skill you should master and can take practice as it feels unnatural.
Riding fakie or riding switch is where you ride backward, and your back foot is near the tail facing forward. Switch and fakie are much the same and basically mean you are riding opposite your regular or goofy snowboarding stance. (Read Can You Wear Rain Boots in the Snow)
What Percentage of Snowboarders is Goofy?
From the name alone, riding goofy sounds like you are doing something wrong or weird. However, once you look at the numbers in board sports, you could be surprised how many ride goofy and regular.
You can find 70% riding regular for snowboarding, and then you have 30% riding goofy.
Other board sports such as skateboarding and surfing have higher goofy rider numbers at over 40% goofy, and the remainder riding regular stance.
How Do You Know if You Are Goofy or Regular Snowboarding?
It’s important to find out your natural stance as soon as possible because you’ll pick up snowboarding quicker. Besides this, you don’t want to find your bindings are in the wrong positions, and you can’t control your board as good as you could otherwise.
What you want is your dominant foot at the back, and with this, you’ll find in snowboarding it is the dominant back foot that takes care of the power steering, and the less dominant front foot takes care of direction and balance.
It can help if you ride your board and see which feels the most natural; however, there are some ways you can determine which stance you’ll have without standing on a board.
Note: not all these methods can work for everyone, yet they are common in use and a good starting point.
Sliding on Slippy Floors in Socks
Suppose your home has a wooden or tile floor that is slippy when you have socks on, all the better. Take off your shoes, then take a run-up toward the slippery floor. Take a jump and land sideways to face the direction you will slide in.
Try it a couple of times, and you can feel which way you naturally turn to land safely. If your left foot is in front, you’re regular stance. If your right foots in front, you are the cartoon character Goofy.
Kicking a Ball
You can add this method with the above to be sure. It can be the best way to determine your dominant foot. When you kick a soccer ball, the foot you stand on will be your front foot, and the one hitting the ball, your back foot.
When you kick a ball, the right foot is snowboard regular, and the left foot kicking is goofy.
Get Pushed
You can find this the most common method and one of the most trusted. However, you may find it doesn’t always work as you intended.
All you have to do is have your eyes closed and then ask someone to push you. If you are not expecting it, you won’t be able to ready yourself and affect the result when they push you.
The foot you step forward with to use and prevent you from falling will be your dominant and usually back foot. The right will probably be regular, and the left will be a goofy snowboard stance.
Some people do this themselves and close their eyes, and fall forward to determine regular or goofy. Remember which foot you put forward first. If it’s your right leg and right foot forward you’re goofy, and left foot, you’ll ride regular.
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