Surfing your frontside/backside,backside/frontside

Go for it, y'all do things backwards down there anyways...

 

switchfoot, correct. it's unnatural and awkward. i switch-up when i'm longboarding and try to get a cover-up switch, but that's about it. dropping in switchfoot is terrible and just about everything else.

riding switch is the final frontier for surfing. as soon as I see kids doing this all the time and surfing equally well goofy and natural footed, i will hang-up my surfing hat, forever. lol.

 

good practice at riding switch is snowboarding, it feels so weird. at least when you're on snow you can quick turn around and go back to normal stance. a little tougher on a skateboard

 

I use to skateboard pretty well going switch, but haven't really tried it much surfing, it doesn't even enter my mind when i'm out there. Maybe it will now that you brought it up, it's all about having fun, so if it's fun, try it!

 

another reason why kelly slater is not a human:

[video=youtube;jrZd4anKaF8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrZd4anKaF8[/video]

 

Im not from Long Island bro, LBI is my home…fist pumping optional.

 

OK...somebody look up old Buttons footage. Now THAT guy was a freak. He rode switch all the time and made it look good. RIP Buttons...

 

Him too. That guy was an O.G. nutcase. All them old dudes were nuts. Him, Butch, Greg Noll, Jose Angel, too many of them. Think about the equipment and the lack of leashes/lifeguards/jetskis. LOL. So nuts.

 

Look up Jaime o'brien. He surfs switch almost as well he can frontside. At pipe. He's ****ing nuts

 

Also factor in lack of precedent/frame of reference. All those guys, and all the pioneers after, are humans of the highest order. imho

 

I can do it, either hop to switch or take off switch on a short board. Super awkward but I have switched while going left into little shore pound barrels that end with shorts full of sand, that's really fun. My backside style is so poor I'm not sure switching even ruins it, sometimes when I loose the rhythm on a left I switch foot to try and salvage something interested out of the wave. The logic is if someone's watching you screw up a perfect wave and there about to discount you, you pull the switch to confuse them. They forget all about your spastic performance a moment earlier and are wowed by your ability to do it, at least that's the theory.

 

I was watching old footage of Buttons and Randy Rarick surfing Pavones in the 70s, and Buttons was going switchfoot every so often because the wave was so long it took the weight off his back leg which was cramping up. He also did it because he could. I've tried, and can only do it on a longboard, and it feels weird.

 

I can do it on both short boards and longboards popping up or switching mid wave but I don't know if I would ever try it in waves of consequence I.e a reef break

 

Good stuff, Buttons is one of my favorite surfers to watch, I really dug his style, may he RIP

 

Buffalo won all the Makaha contests going switchfoot.

 

its fun to experiment and doing it on a longboard helps.

 

Yes. Good to try it on a larger craft. I've messed around with it on a small day if I turn in after the wave closes and I'm just cruising along. I haven't tried it on a significant green wall yet, but hope to get to it.

 

Surfing switch stance is fun- it's worth trying and practicing but it feels like you are totally relearning to surf at first. I usually surf lefts (my normal backside) switch about 70% of the time depending on how technical the wave is and what board I'm on... It really helps your surfing and it's a good challenge. If you want to try it- don't switch your footing half way thru the wave- learn the correct way and pop up switchstance- it's easier then you think, you just gotta think about it while doing it. Surfing backside switch is a real challenge..

I started after a conversation with a friend who I really looked up to as far as surfing ability. I remember he told me 'ppl don't learn to surf switch due to being lazy' lol from then on I started practicing and it felt like learning to surf all over- it was kinda fun in a wierd way.