I’m trying to teach myself to do both. Preference to lead with left and it becomes an apparent issue on tight, steep RH alpine switchbacks, but is probably holding me back a bit in the uk too. Discussed it with Stevo at Whiteroom this year and he said he’d taught himself to lead with either over his first year guiding (obvs he got plenty of riding opportunities) and that it made riding alpine tech much easier.

I’m right handed and am regular (left foot forward) on a snow or surfboard. In windsurfing this translates as better on port tack. Which I studiously try to avoid thinking about as when you approach something tricky on starboard you think “shit, this is my bad side”
I was once in a cyclo-cross race which took in half a lap of a velodrome, but did it clockwise. Being used to riding a track it completely freaked me out and I pottered round it at walking pace.

I’m right handed/footed, but lead with my left foot. I snowboard/wakeboard ‘goofy’ (right foot forward) though, the opposite to most.

I was told a while ago that you want to be able to lead with both for berms, and you always want the outside foot forward. Consequently I’ve worked on this for the last year and a half, and am pretty comfortable both ways. Even after all that time, I automatically go left foot forward, and it still feels better, but the right isn’t bad.

Right handed,left foot forward.But goofy footed for snowboarding.Better on starboard tack.
Coming from Bmx leading with the ‘wrong’ foot (sh1tfooted) will get you heckled (though some of the most stylish riders are…Aitken,Dugan,Priest etc)
Bizarrely when airing out of transitions or spinning over jumps I sneak in a half pedal to swap my feet (RFF),before changing back to hit the next jump (LFF).
Whips and proper clicked tables always look better with your top foot forward (and stops the dreaded dog piss whip stance).

How can this possibly matter?

If you don’t want to progress as a rider, not at all. If you do, then it’s a skill worth practicing for all the good points raised in a couple of the above posts.

Right handed, lead with my left foot, a bit like board-sports.

Happy to switch feet for a tight corner – it seems to help point my hips in the right direction, and in my head, if my hips are already pointing round the corner, I’m already half way round it. All that’s left to do is persuade 13kg of bike to change direction, rather than 13kg of bike and 80kg of rider.

(At least, that’s what feels like is happening…)

I’m right-handed but left-footed & my preference is to ride left foot forward, but as has been said above, tight switchbacks & carving berms, I always lead with the outside foot & turn my hips into the corner.
It’s something I taught myself to do & it takes some getting used to, but it’s now 2nd nature & just feels natural. So much easier than trying a switchback with your inside foot forward, which usually means overshooting the turn.

I used to be right foot dominant on everything, then I broke my hip and the left had to take over, now I can do most things dual footed. TBH I wouldn’t recommend this as a way of changing but it can definitely be done.

I can second that, I was heavily right side biased but after breaking my knee cap I had to use the left a lot more and have become faster and more controlled for doing so. It’s something worth practicing.

You can for surfing, snow and skate boarding so why not.

Definitely makes a big difference on tight switchbacks.

As Rondo mentioned above, I realised pretty early in my guiding career that I needed to get better at riding with the other foot forward, so I spent a good semi-consistently making an effort to use the “wrong” foot whenever I was out with a mellow group or just riding an easy trail.

Got the hang of it round switchbacks pretty quickly, but riding “switch” on technical trails took a bit longer. Now pretty happy either way, to the point that I often don’t notice I’m leading with the wrong foot if there’s, e.g. a long straight after a left-hander.

The only thing which still feels hideous is hitting jumps or drops, although I’m now just about getting away with that too.

I’m right-handed, right-footed and ride bikes, snowboards, wakeboards and surfboards Regular (left-foot forward). Now also pretty solid at riding a snowboard switch after a similarly enormous amount of practise. Doing straight airs switch on a snowboard is deeply unpleasant. Weirdly, it feels much worse than doing a cab 3 (that’s a 360 where you take off switch, spin frontside and land switch for the uninitiated). Switch back 3’s are evil though.

football left footed (terrible footballer tho), skateboard left forward

I trackstand when commuting left forward

I’m happy cornering outside foot down both sides

I ride offroad right foot forward

but this thread is making me think – I’m going to see if my recent change of hardtail has had a change in the lead foot, I was never confident descending so maybe I was leaning back, but I’m happier on the (slightly larger) newer bike

I always thought you were supposed to board with dominant at the front. That’s the one the weight should be on thus has the control.

I’m a righty. and right forwards for everything.

been practising wrong (right) foot forward. not jumps though.

happy dropping kerbs etc fixed, and have ridden some off road fixed. don’t know if this helps at all though.

I always thought you were supposed to board with dominant at the front. That’s the one the weight should be on thus has the control.

I’m a righty. and right forwards for everything

Most people are right-footed. Most people are ‘regular’ snowboard stance (I think it’s about 70:30) I.e. left foot forward. So if anything the reverse of your theory is true. I was tauaght that in snowboarding your weight is on the front foot but turns are initiated by the back foot. In reality it’s much more complicated than that and certainly when you can ride properly you’ll have an even weight distribution (or even off the back in deep powder).

Many, many years ago I started a poll on Trials Forum for those who skate / surf / snowboard and ride bikes. The options were
Right foot forward (on bike) – Regular stance
Left foot forward – Regular
Right foot forward – Goofy
Left foot forward – Goofy

It was more or less an even split from what I recall. There certainly didn’t seem to be any pattern I could see.

What I think is odd is that footballers can practise for years with their bad foot and it’ll never be as good as their ‘good’ side (I guess it’s similar to left-handers who were forced to write right-handed and never managed to write neatly). Whereas I think most people can learn to skate / surf / snowboard in switch without too much difficulty. Weird.

Whereas I think most people can learn to skate / surf / snowboard in switch without too much difficulty.

There are’nt that many people who can skate/surf/snowboard switch to anywhere near the standard they can naturally (unless they are really bad both ways).I know one….he’s a freak.
With windsurfing you HAVE to learn both ways….or you never get back to the beach.Even the very best are better on one tack than the other.

Left-handed but right foot dominant on a bike (FWIW pool, tennis, badminton, golf left-handed but archery and cricket right-handed). Not snowboarded much but when I did I struggled to find a preference there – equally happy with either foot forward.

On the bike I don’t consciously try to swap feet but have been for a few sessions with Jedi so do switch for corners when necessary. On straight non-pedalling sections I’m pretty much always right foot forward…

Doesn’t matter what foot you lead with one bit.

However advantageous to be able to ride either foot forward. There’ll be instances in turn transitions or times you can only get in a half crank where it becomes useful

So just to add confusion. We’ve seen no real correlation between handedness and lead foot. But there does seem to be between lead foot and master eye (ocular dominance) only tried it on perhaps 100 people but not seen it not work yet.

Doesn’t matter what foot you lead with one bit.

However advantageous to be able to ride either foot forward. There’ll be instances in turn transitions or times you can only get in a half crank where it becomes useful

Self contradictory.

Spin nope. Statement says, leading foot doesn’t matter being able to switch can be useful.
I can switch but right lead feels better. Until I come to a down slope right hand switchback. Swapping to left lead means I’m not all squashed. (handlebar, hand knee all in the same place) and the corner becomes easier.

I’ve been working on this again recently – a good bit of advice from one of Brian Lopes’s celebrity riding buddies I was chatting to. I naturally ride right foot forwards (but left foot forwards on board sports), am right handed and right footed (and left eye dominant…)

I’ll usually switch my lead foot to the inside when approaching a corner or to the uphill side when off-camber. Tight switchbacks are best with the outside foot forwards (opposite of other corners) but that fits with uphill forwards for the camber. With the inside foot leading you can drop the outside foot if needed to hold an edge harder. Inside foot forwards opens up the hips for better balance – I’ve noticed pros don’t switch lead foot all that often but I’m sure they have better hip mobility and stability than the rest of us.

I’m not keen on riding jumps or larger drops switch foot but I don’t think that matters much for me – I’m not good enough at jumping to be trying to hip one way or the other!

I’m not good enough at jumping to be trying to hip one way or the other!

It’s a useful skill to have though chief, and translates well to trail riding. The ability to the bike turn mid air feels pretty good but that’s just a bonus. Lots of trails have little natural features/bumps before a corner and you can pop off these and set up for the turn mid air. Obviously you can’t do it on every corner and you need to pay attention to your landing but it can make for faster, more flowing riding with a bit of practice. Tbh i didn’t even know i was doing it until a buddy pointed out that i do it all the time.

Don’t need a dirt jump style hip to learn on too thankfully, as that’s sore 😀

I always thought you were supposed to board with dominant at the front. That’s the one the weight should be on thus has the control.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!!!

This is one of the worst snowboard myths out there. “Weight on the front foot” is something you tell beginners to get them making their first turns. Unfortunately, too many people get this lodged in their heads as gospel and think this is the way they should ride forevermore.

Their should be a strong shift of weight to the front foot at the start of the turn, but this is brief and should be followed by a progressive move back to the tail of the board as you move through the turn. The second part of the turn requires the most power to control (as you’re fighting gravity, whereas gravity works with you at the top of the turn). This is why the strong leg is generally at the back.

Fundamentally though, it’s a 2-footed sport and there is no right or wrong answer as to whether you should be regular or goofy.

Had to do this years ago after some physio revealed a wildly over-developed RHS which was causing constant back problems.

It was quite difficult at first because my left leg had always been along for the ride and was incapable of doing the things I’d taken for granted with my right leg so it was like going back in time in terms of riding

Probably 18 months or so before the left leg felt strong enough but I still had to make a conscious effort to lead with it on the descents. It’s involuntary now (5 years?) but I feel balanced on the bike (it’s a curious sensation) and fingers crossed no back problems