RE: poll - how is your switch riding.

Is there such a thing as being able to ride better switch than regular? Isn't the side you ride the best at your regular stance. If that's the case I ride goofy but kill it way better switch.

I'm not sure of people being better switch. I don't consider myself better switch than regular, but I do more inverts switch than I can do regular. Also there are people that can do just about everything switch that they can do regular, such as Diamien Klass from Canyon Lake. So I personally don't think you can really be better switch than regular, but you can be just as good at one as the other.

Switch is a state of mind... Jonathan is walking proof.

I think you guys have the terminology wrong. Switch is not the same as Goofy foot.
Regular foot is left foot forward.
Goofy foot is right foot forward.

So when you ride, which foot do you typically do heal side tricks with. This is what is considered what style of riding you do. Regular or Goofy.

Switch means doing a heal side trick with the opposite foot forward.

Example: I ride Regular foot (left foot toward the boat, to do a healside trick). So when I do a backroll I would have my left foot toward the boat. If I do a switch backroll I would have my right foot toward the boat.

i guess parks doesn't even really know if hes regular or goofy anymore.... I HATE HIM

I understand the difference between regular and goofy, and the difference between normal and switch. I'm a Goofy footed rider. The only reason I used the term regular is to describe how you would normally ride. I think our friend Johnathan was being a little sarcastic in his statement.

Yes yes, but what does it mean if you ride fakie?

Mine Sucks

Corey isn't fakie more of a reference to the way you would land a trick,. Such as: heel-side front flip to fakie, which in other words means heel-side front flip to switch. Or I guess you could also say heel-side front flip to revert.

It's more of a trick question. Fakie is how it feels when attempting to ride or riding switch. Switch would be if it feels the same as regular and the trick is produce equally. In snowboarding it defiantly feels different to ride the board backwards than forward, so it's fakie. It's just a little old school reference wise but is respected.

With having just started to get behind the boat in years none of my switch tricks feel the same as when I do them regular. The term could be interpreted either way.

alright now this really gets me when wakeboarders say something is fakie. fakie is popping in your normal stance while moving backwards. in other words, if you do a fakie ollie on a wakeboard your going to dip the the tail of the board which is now traveling backwards towards the boat and your going to faceplant. the only way you can do something fakie (or nollie for that matter) is on a slider or box or something where the water has no power. thanks/sorry... haha I think they use the word fakie just to describe a trick like 'tantrum to blind' is backside and 'tantrum to fakie' is frontside.

I know the difference between switch and goofy. I ride left foot forward or regular. I am more comfortable that way and can do more tricks in that position. I believe it is possible to be as good switch as normal. But being better switch? That would mean I would have to be throwing more tricks and being more comfortable with my right foot forward. to me this would mean that I am naturally right foot forward, and have just been kidding myself all these years that I was normal like all the other kids.

corey: "it's more of a trick question." nice pun!

shawn: what inverts can you do switch besides the halfcab roll? i think it's impressive that you can do more switch inverts than regular.

paul: the only way to ride backwards on a wakeboard is to turn away from the boat and ride with the board perpendicular to the direction the boat is going in. you can't ride backwards on a board you stand sideways on. especially uni-directional ones.

jonathan: i understand your position on this, but theorectically one could work on switch tricks all the time and be able to do more tricks switch, but still feel more comfortable riding regular. just being able to do a trick doesn't mean you feel better doing it.

however, there are also those that can't do tricks regular that they can do switch, including pros. shawn murray admits on dentention that he can only do switch fronts. from what i've heard (and seen), parks can only do a switch hs front flip. period. he won't do regular ones. i agree with maverick - in fact i think i'd go so far as to say parks has been hoodwinking us all along. he rides regular, not goofy. look at the two most ridiculous tricks in the book - a ts 1080 and the double-backroll-mobe, that he does. both switch? ya right!

i myself have so far only done a hs bs 180 halfcab, not regular. same for my ollies-to-blind. great doing them switch, suck at 'em regular.

so if one has some tricks they feel more comfortable on switch, and they only worked on switch tricks - they might have a bigger switch bag than regular, but it wouldn't change what kind of rider they were (regular or goofy).

a question that i've asked before on these boards (but that as yet to have been answered), is: how do you judge a rider that you know these facts about? one would assume you'd get more points for doing a trick switch - since ostensibly it's harder to do for you. but obviously that's not true all the time.

so do you only give more points if the rider can do the trick regular AND switch? or do they get more points for mixing it up and learning a switch trick, even if they don't also do the trick regular? i've heard riders complain that the judges sometimes don't recognize that they put a bunch of switch stuff in their run.

Chris: Since I only know three inverts its not as cool as it sounds. My switch inverts consist of a halfcab roll, and a switch back roll. My other invert is of course a back roll. Once my ribs heal the next invert I'll be working on is a HS Roll to revert. It seems natural to try that next because then I'll have both variations of that roll regular and switch.

BTW: How many weeks did it take for your ribs to feel good enough to ride. Its been 6 weeks for me and I still feel questionable?

you are all crazy

and its pretty funny

shawn, i tried coming back after 8 weeks (i'd heard 6-8 wks was the time), went out one day and felt o.k., went out two days later and felt more sore, went out three days after that and felt even more sore. my body just wasn't recovering fast enough after each time.

so i took another two weeks off and then felt fine - even with multiple days just a few apart. but...

i still feel it now months later. maybe i always will to some degree. that point gets sore. been working on switch rolls myself recently and when i was coming up short i was landing on that side (my right - i ride regular). so i could only take one of those crashes a day. as soon as i came up short on one that was it for the day for those.

so i don't know if i'll ever not feel a bit sore there after riding for the day. bones grow back but cartilidge doesn't, so it might be a persistent situation.

definitely if you're feeling questionable, take the time. you don't want to just go out an reinjure yourself. im on r&r again myself. did a very ugly ollie-to-blind and landed on my face - and somehow pulled some groin/lowerab muscles. almost felt like a hernia. no fun.

you can check out the crash here for fun:

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=10439

(Message edited by deepstructure on April 30, 2004)