riding switch

I can ride right foot forward really well, but riding switch feels so awkward. Is there anything I can do on land or whatever to make me a better switch rider?

I could not ride switch very well last year. I would get the board around either doing a surface 180 or an ollie 180 and then the board would want to do crazy things. I found that while riding regular which is left foot forward for me, I would take nots in my head of my body position, my rope position and all the other stuff and try to mimic it in reverse. I also found that letting go of the rope with your back hand once you were around switch really helped sqaure me up and then I started doing little things like little cuts and such. It's been more than a year now and I have stuck with it and now riding switch is quite easy. I can also say that riding the wakeskate a lot has helped my switch riding tremendously. Keep at it and don't give up. Even try getting up switch and devoting total runs to riding switch, it will come.

I would have to add to Daniels post that just relaxing seems to help a whole lot. I am still trying to get as got switch as regular but I found that the first couple of time I rode switch I was tensing up. When I told myself to relax it helped a lot

Yeah Kevin, I totally forgot about that.......you need to be really relaxed.

relaxing will help a lot, but practice makes perfect. Try to ride switch as much if not more than normal whenever you go out until you feel comfortable. I used to do almost my whole runs switch and now i feel just as comfortable as when i ride normal.

yeah you have to just practice, i need to get alittle better but with minimal lake use and gas prices i forget to practice it.

I've found that the best off water training for riding switch is to get a longboard skateboard and ride it switch. This will help, but the best thing as everyone mentioned is to ride switch as much as possible when behind the boat.

As with everything you gotta put your time in! In my case I forced myself to start out riding switch and make full runs. It didn't take long to feel a lot more comfortable.

Buy a HL Murray board with the fins placed farther appart on the tip than the tail.

also, video yourself, you will prolly look stupid when riding switch, like i did, but i saw what i did wrong, compared it to my regular, and after some practice, fixed it, its way better now, but still pretty bad, even just a couple of pictures will help, good luck.

Definately let go with your back hand, it helps alot. It's kindah wierd but i ride my wakeboard regular and my wakeskate goofy, so this makes it somewhat easy to ride switch. (Anything that my feet are attached to - Wakeboard, snowboard - I ride regular. If my feet arent't attached - wakeskate, skateboard, snowskate, i ride goofy. hehe)

same here ridehype4life, just a 180 the other way. feet attached=goofy not attached=regular for me

Yeah, awhile back when I taught myself to skateboard, I learned goofy because i didn't know any better. Then I took my first snowboard lesson and the instructor taught me how to ride regular because he didn't know I had previously skateboarded before. Anywho, thats why my riding two different ways came about.

You two are odd

My golf swing is right, and my baseball and hockey swing is left. I was given a set of clubs when I was young that were right handed and taught myself to swing that way JUST for golf. I see where you 2 are coming from.

See?? It's not that weird after all

i'm weird in all sports. i'm a righty but i throw a ball with my left hand. ok ok getting back to board sports, I didn't really mean to learn something one way over the other and nobody told me do it goofy or regular I just did skateboarding and wakeboarding different for some reason they just felt natural doing them opposite ways. I've tried riding switch on a skateboard and forget it, it's not gonna happen. I am pretty good riding switch on a wakeboard though and that's what matters the most.

what were some of the things u found you were doing wrong switch that u werent while riding regular?

i really dont get this...... i know two people that do this too...... How can you wakeboard one way and skateboard the other???!!!!!!! Make NO sense to me!

Try removing the fins from your board,decreases the resistance to spin, found this out by accident the other night

learn to get up switch or do a surface 180, after slowing the boat a little, then just cut out heelside a few times, then cut out toeside a few times and you should be riding better switch in no time. if you feel you can't go out quite as far as your normal stance then switch back and forth taking mental notes on where the handle is and how your knees are bent

Paul- I know it's weird but when my feet aren't attached my left foot wants control of the kicktail. When im locked in on a snowboard or a wakeboard, your feet are centered on the board and I don't need as much leverage and control from my rear foot.(although i get some)