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What is the Proper Surfskate Foot Position?

by | Dec 20, 2021 | Surfskating Basics, Tips & Tutorials

Proper surfskate pumping starts with proper surfskate foot position. Read this surfskate tutorial to learn how to get your surfskate foot position right.

I see a lot of beginners try to learn surfskate pumping by starting with their upper body movements.

But in my surfskate pumping tutorials, I teach beginners to start from the ground up, starting with the proper surfskate foot position.

For more surfskate pumping tutorials with live video instruction, get my video course, “Surfskating for Non-Surfers.”

See Me Demonstrate Surfskate Foot Position in This YouTube Video

3 Principles of Proper Surfskate Foot Position

 

To get your surfskate foot position right, use these three principles:

 

Surfskate Foot Position Principle #1: Keep Your Front Foot Behind the Front Trucks

 

The first principle to remember is to keep your front foot behind the front trucks.

On a surfskate truck, if you’re positioned too far forward on the front truck, your surfskate truck will jackknife and you will bite pavement.
If you’re too far behind the front truck, you won’t get as much propulsion or lean out when surfskate pumping, and you also might tip your surfskate.

Surfskate Foot Position Principle #2: Place Your Toes on the Edge of the Board

 

The second principle of proper surfskate foot position is that your toes should not be hanging off the edge of the board, like this:

Your toes should be placed right on the edge of the board, like this:

If your foot is too far back, your surfskate pumping will be heavily heel-sided, which means you will pump harder on your heel side and lighter on your toe side.

When surfskate pumping, you want to to have equal force applied to heel side and toe side. To do this, your toes must be right on the edge of the board instead of hanging off the edge.

 

Surfskate Foot Position Principle #3: Slightly Angle Your Front Foot

 

The third principle of proper surfskate foot position is to slightly angle your front foot. This allows you to get more flexibility with deeper knee bends.

If you’re a goofy-footed rider, this means you want your front foot to cover this bolt on the deck:

If you’re a regular-footed rider, you want your front foot to cover this bolt on the deck:
There is some debate and range of personal preference when it comes to where your back foot should be positioned on a surfskate. It ranges anywhere from right on the back bolts to as far back on the kicktail as possible.

Personally, it kind of depends on the deck I’m riding. But in general, I prefer to have my foot further back on the kicktail. This gives me more leverage to push through surfskate maneuvers. But you can experiment with this to find what you like best when you’re surfskate pumping.

And there you have it — proper surfskate position in three simple principles.

For more surfskating tutorials with live video instruction, get my video course, “Surfskating for Non-Surfers.”