riding switch
 

What are some quick tips to help you get more comfortable riding switch?

Try riding switch :) it's just practice

Just ride and over exaggerate keeping the handle close, chest up, and knees bent

The more u do it the more comfortable u will feel

What I do is get the driver to drive into some choppy water and I go switch. If you can Handel choppy water pretty good, calm water will be so much easier.

i learned to ride switch by doing it on choppy water when i couldnt do much regular.

Obviously the best thing is just to do it. Unfortunately many people don't get nearly as much boat time as they like and don't necessarily want to spend what little precious time they do have "working" on switch.

Here is a list of things I've tried to help me cross train off the water to hopefully improve my switch riding on the water. I can't say exactly how much any of these have helped, but my switch riding in general has improved some. I haven't improved as much as I would like though, and some of my improvement probably also just comes from doing it on the water.

1) snowboarding switch
2) skateboarding switch, downhill skateboarding switch
3) using a balance board (like the indo board) and focusing on putting more weight on your off-leg (left leg for regular riders) and twisting your body to face the switch riding direction
4) using a wakeboarding handle attached to a resistance band which is then anchored to a door. doing standing rows in switch position. strap on a board and practice surface 180s and ollie 180s both ways or just straight switch ollies.
5) even occasionally silly things like switching hands while working with tools.

One thing I have noted is that it seems like some people are just naturally more talented at riding switch. It does seem rare, but I've seen people who can ride switch well with very little effort or practice. Unfortunately I am definitely not naturally talented at switch riding.

Edit: When doing standing rows with the resistance band in the switch position I try to focus on pulling the handle towards my lead hip. I think one of the big challenges for me in riding switch is the natural tendency for my back foot to swing around into a side slide when I cut in heelside towards the wake. So I think focusing on locating the handle at the lead hip should hopefully help me with that. I guess I'll find out once I get to ride this year.

I agree with most of what Austin said. I haven't done all of them, but snowboarding switch helps out quite a bit. It's hard to get rope time to just "work on stuff", but it's different when you're snowboarding, since you're literally riding the whole day. Many snow seasons ago, I spent a few weeks during the early season doing nothing but riding switch. It was awkward at first, but it paid off, for sure.

Dedicate your first set or first 5 mins of your set to switch. I did this and by my second time out I was doing switch HS 180s, couldnt believe how quickly I picked it up! Just do it and it'll get better!