Once you’re up on the board and riding comfortably you’ll be thinking of what is the next thing to learn? Obviously, you want to learn to jump and by all means go ahead and get started with that but one of the fundamental “tricks” that you’ll want to master is riding toeside. Why you may ask? Yes, it looks a bit of an awkward position to get into and you might wonder why bother but you’ll be surprised how many different ways you can use it and once you get the knack, it’s actually a fun way to ride.
Here’s the first couple of key elements taken from the full Riding Toeside chapter of the Intermediate Volume 1 video collection / DVD.
This is just a small part of the full 20 minute video covering all the basics of riding toeside but what is common though out is the need for speed. The position our body needs to take whilst riding toeside, makes it far hard to find a natural balance between out feet and to edge the board with the same level of control and finesse. It’s also hard to keep both hands on the bar and fly the kite & maintain constant power.
This means it is very easy to stall the board and you need to really focus on your body position to ensure you can keep your speed.
The Most Common Mistake
There are lots of common mistakes, which might contribute to poor technique, but if you were to constant on one tip, that affects so many parts of this trick, then it would be the weight on your front foot. The twisted nature of Riding Toeside means kiters naturally lean back on to their back foot, which continually stalls the board. Though you do need slightly more weight on your back foot, it is hard to gauge in this position so you will probably want to act like you are putting more weight on your front. This will help to flatten out the board and allow the board to accelerate and main speed.
So if you are getting frustrated with your toeside riding then experiment with keeping a little more weight over your front foot. Let us know how you get on.