wider stance

i've been lookin at some pics and i've noticed that pros use a pretty wide stance. i'm far from pro, but i can understand the balance and landing part. i'm a lil outside my shoulders. any input?

most people ride with theirs at about level with their shoulders.

i ride with mine all the way out, its a little past my shoulders, but it feels good and gives me extra stability so whatever

You know, I was wondering the same thing as Garold, Maybe I will try a wider stance this week-end.

I ride the biggest stance possible on my board. I think that it really help you from going out the front when you go big on landings

I was told once by a pro on a demo day that they ride with their feet all the way out for stability on those huge landings. But, he said that it's a little easier for beginners & such to get better pop off the wake if your feet are set a little in. Just what I was told...

well, i'll be on the water all weekend so i'll try it. it might help since i had knee surgery on my left knee (i'm goofy foot) last summer.

The wide stance for me - its more control on edgeing and stability on the landing too.

I had this discussion with my "coach" long ago, someone considered one of the best wakeboard coaches in the country. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart,just like any other sport, or weight lifting activity, for example squats. They always tell you "shoulder width." This is the bodies natural strongest most stable position. To ascertain this proper foot width jump off something and land naturally on the ground. Your feet should be shoulder width. I think this just makes sense.

It makes perfect sense.. but it also requires you to look like a giant tool with no style.

You wanna be at a stance that allows your knees/hips to rotate smoothly. If thats one in for you than cool. There should be no strain on the inside/outside of your legs when flexing, just straight even movement. This keeps everything aligned and together.

My stance is about 24 or 25in. All the way out makes my knees hurt.

There was an article in WBM a while back about this. True there may be stability and controll advantages to the all-the-way-out, wide stance, but for those who are concerned about safety and having a more natural stance they should have the stance at shoulder width.

TO be EVEN MORE SPECIFIC, the riders knees should bend directly over the toes and in the same direction the toes' are pointing. This covers stance width and stance duck position in one sentence!!! I think this is the best rule description

SLAMMINP--thanks, we are all a little dumber now for having read your inane post. I'm sure you are the only wboarder on the planet that has the ability to see if someone is riding with there boots all the way out, or "one in," when they are riding and then determine that the rider has no style due solely to his stance width. Congrats.

ride whatever is comfortable. for beginners shoulderwidth is reccomended but once you get the basics down i reccomend you experiment with all your options until your comfortable. i ride all the way out and my stance ducked almost completely out. thats the way i snowboard too. its the most comfortable and i have the most control that way, everyone is different in the way their body moves and mind thinks.

I had a friend that rode a narrower stance and everyone was telling him he needed to go all the way out for better blah, blah, blah. So he figured he would try it and the first jump, blew his knee out...true story.

Just some input on the pro side of things- if you have ever seen murray or vandall ride they almost always are not full out on their stance and usually a litlle bit more than shoulder width and im pretty sure they have style