riding goofy side

[dkazhdan]

hi
wondering if its a known issue of being "anti ambidextrous"?
I can gybe and do surface foot switches on my good side but I have no hope of even riding toeside on my goofy side.
It certainly feels like my brain just says 'no' to that.

When attempting to ride toeside on my goofy side my hips just seem to turn into the opposite direction quite involuntarily.
Same with the foot switches to my goofy side, i just can't make myself turn my hips it feels like.

Not quite sure how common this condition is, but in case someone has dealt with this successfully, i would appreciate it if people could share their experience.

Thanks.

[Brian H]

Switch your feet before you jibe when going to your bad side then you don't have to ride toeside on your bad side . Bring the kite up high then drop off the foil so the board is on the surface then switch your feet and then do a down loop .

[jakemoore]

I'm strongly biassed to left foot first. On a surfboard I would carve to toeside on my strong side then switch feet, neglecting my weak side for years. I can't do that on foil.

Sliding harness helps. Move the slider toward toward your front foot to help twist around. So does riding with hips and feet in a more forward orientation, especially the front foot. More kite power helps so you don't stall out. Build up to it slowly. Do S-Turns on your weak side trying to go deeper each time. Learn to ride toeside on your weak side before switching feet on your strong side.

You can do it.

[rynhardt]

Get yourself a skateboard and practice riding with either foot forward. It's going to feel weird until it stops feeling weird

[jespin4845]

Skateboard or better yet a Onewheel, force yourself to ride goofy until it feels comfortable, in fact only ride goofy at first

[Peter_Frank]

Good advice - practise as much as possible on your goofy side.

Coming from windsurfers you can ride both really good, although most still have a preferred side when talking power and landing jumps - but this is not the issue here.

Coming from surfing you typically get extremely biased towards your natural side, and really hard to change

Riding so you switch feet in terms of jibing, different on different tacks, is IMO very wrong, and you will only get even more "anti ambidextrous", which in the long run will prevent you from doing many things.

I have a strong and weak side too, especially in my feet switching it is unpleasantly obvious

The cure is to practice this weak side as much as possible, MORE than the good side whenever possible.

What you experience is pretty normal for many, some are more ambidextrous from nature but not that many, and as said, windsurfers dont really care as it is very normal.
The same goes for those kiting on surfboards/waveboards, pretty normal and used to going with either leg in front, really well, so no problem when getting on a hydrofoil

Much worse if coming from surfing, and some TT riders might have a bit more difficulty maybe?

Peter

[jumptheshark]

One of the best kiters I know is extremely unilateral. Saw him pick up foiling inside a session or two and progress to power carve jibes and landing jumps inside a month. Have yet to see him switch his feet on a foil. On a tt and surfboard he literally kills it and pulls off things that few dare ever attempt. It was only watching him foil that I realized he rides with such a dominant stance bias.

I wouldn't advise being too stubborn about it, but I wouldn't ruin your fun working on your goofy stance either. It's just not that important.

There is a fun and functional middle ground that most riders settle around. All of my kiting is this way and I have different jumps, rotations, kite loops and combinations on either tack. Both foiling and on surfboard, I switch my feet before a jibe on one side and after on the other in order to make the carve in my dominant stance. I tack to toe side then switch feet on one tack and switch feet during the tack on the other side, again to avoid goofy stance. This has me feeling pretty functional, tacking and jibing on both sides. Of course I ride heel side with either foot forward, but pretty much never ride toe side in my weak stance for more than a few seconds at a time. All my downwind swell riding is done dominant stance and It can lead to leg burn, but I enjoy those downwind stints enough not to waste them working on my weak stance just yet. It's been like that for the entire 16 years I've been kiting, from TT through surfboard to foil. Maybe someday I'll get bored enough to dive into working on my weak side toe side riding, but for now comfort in 3 out of the 4 options (2x heelside and only one out to 2x toeside) is enough for me to really enjoy my riding. I suspect there are a lot of others who do the same.

As with everything in foiling, every time you learn something new, be it your first tack up all the way to turning the same fashion both ways completely ambidextrously, it opens up freedom and options. But like most things, there are diminishing returns the farther you go. At some point, there is a balance of functionality that satisfies you. After that, working on your weak points is more to avoid boredom.

Keep it fun and tick off the functional stuff first, then get as far into the remaining weak points as you want.

No different than choosing straps or strapless, surfboard or TT, its all personal choice. I strongly advise functionality, with a jibe and a tack on both sides, but I don't spend much time worrying that I cant exactly mirror what I do on either tack.

[slowboat]

One of the best kiters I know is extremely unilateral. Saw him pick up foiling inside a session or two and progress to power carve jibes and landing jumps inside a month. Have yet to see him switch his feet on a foil. On a tt and surfboard he literally kills it and pulls off things that few dare ever attempt. It was only watching him foil that I realized he rides with such a dominant stance bias.

I wouldn't advise being too stubborn about it, but I wouldn't ruin your fun working on your goofy stance either. It's just not that important.

There is a fun and functional middle ground that most riders settle around. All of my kiting is this way and I have different jumps, rotations, kite loops and combinations on either tack. Both foiling and on surfboard, I switch my feet before a jibe on one side and after on the other in order to make the carve in my dominant stance. I tack to toe side then switch feet on one tack and switch feet during the tack on the other side, again to avoid goofy stance. This has me feeling pretty functional, tacking and jibing on both sides. Of course I ride heel side with either foot forward, but pretty much never ride toe side in my weak stance for more than a few seconds at a time. All my downwind swell riding is done dominant stance and It can lead to leg burn, but I enjoy those downwind stints enough not to waste them working on my weak stance just yet. It's been like that for the entire 16 years I've been kiting, from TT through surfboard to foil. Maybe someday I'll get bored enough to dive into working on my weak side toe side riding, but for now comfort in 3 out of the 4 options (2x heelside and only one out to 2x toeside) is enough for me to really enjoy my riding. I suspect there are a lot of others who do the same.

As with everything in foiling, every time you learn something new, be it your first tack up all the way to turning the same fashion both ways completely ambidextrously, it opens up freedom and options. But like most things, there are diminishing returns the farther you go. At some point, there is a balance of functionality that satisfies you. After that, working on your weak points is more to avoid boredom.

Keep it fun and tick off the functional stuff first, then get as far into the remaining weak points as you want.

No different than choosing straps or strapless, surfboard or TT, its all personal choice. I strongly advise functionality, with a jibe and a tack on both sides, but I don't spend much time worrying that I cant exactly mirror what I do on either tack.

This is really good advice.

[Jyoder]

If strapless, you might try learning to ride with feet parallel and toes to the nose of the board like downhill ski. Then progress to more and more goofy from that. Or maybe that’s another layer and too complicated.

[junebug]

I’m not really sure how it happened, but my natural weak side (I’m regular, not goofy) has become my strong side. I can carve much harder and turn much quicker in goofy than I can in regular, particularly toeside.

I only twin tipped before foiling, and I never rode toeside goofy when twin tipping. My best guess as to how this happened is that I had never ridden toeside goofy so I didn’t have to un-learn anything for foiling. Also, I ride about 25% each stance each session, so I’m always working on my weak stance. I think that really helps with progression because your can learn to feel what you are doing right and wrong by comparing it to the opposite stance. Also, if I’m riding toeside goofy, that means I’m controlling the kite with my dominant hand, which makes it easier to focus only on my riding, for me at least.