Riding My Board Backwards?

Hey all,

I've been wake surfing for roughly a year. I have surface 360's down and have started trying pop shuv-its. I read somewhere online it's easier to learn these by riding the board backwards at first. This is where my problem starts. I'm riding a Hyperlite Coex, and I had no luck riding backwards on it. I had my front foot on the nose of the board and still couldn't gain much speed to stay with the boat.

For tricks such as these do I need a different wake surf board? My coex is a single fin board. Do I need a board with a fin on both the tail and the nose?

Any input on a board, or advice for how to make it work on my coex would be greatly appreciated!

Meh. It certainly wouldn't hurt to get comfortable with the board backwards, but I wouldn't say it's necessary to have it on lock before you shove. I had never ridden with the board backwards before I landed my first shove. I just threw it, got my feet back on, came down, and used my had on the wake to balance me out and keep the board straight. Once you throw it and get your feet back on, make sure to keep your knees bent. That'll help you stay in the pocket and hopefully slow you down if your headed out back.

I'm not familiar with boards that have both a tail and nose fin. I'm sure they exist, but I don't see them too often. It's not necessarily just a fin that would help you while the board is backwards since they often have different thicknesses in the tip tail and the rocker breaks at different points. A fin would make you feel less squirly, but it wouldn't be the magic cure for falling back.

The main thing is just give it a shot. You can theorize everything before hand, but sometimes you just have to go for it and see how it goes. Bring a camera long so you can see where you went wrong as well. Get speed, legs bent, throw the shove, get your feet back on, come back down knees bent, and use your hand dragging the wake to keep you straight if needed.

Some boards have a hard time riding backwards.
The Coex is extra slow when backwards. You can ride it backwards, but it is very hard to gain any speed when it is backwards.

The fin has nothing to do with it. It's more about the shape of the board.

I appreciate the feedback, guys! Any suggestions on a skate style surf board? The coex definitely rides slow. I rode a few inland surfers tonight, but neither had symmetrical edges. They rode really fast, definitely would like to get a fast riding skate style board. I grew up skateboarding. Thanks!

Peter, I also have a skateboard background and that's why I mainly wakeskate. But when I wakesurf, I like my board to have a similar feel. I need it to be quick and be able to ride backwards just as well.
No wakeskims are truly symmetrical because the rocker line needs to favor one direction, but some boards work great backwards.