Your back foot plays a key part in being able to respond to the wave, maintain control, and do so in a dynamic way.

We’ve talked about the functional purpose of moving up and down your longboard (preferably through cross stepping) and how moving forward creates/maintains speed and moving back slows you down or enables you to turn.

This is great for those broader changes, but for more fine-tuned adjustments you can use just your back foot.

For example, when turning a longboard you want to be pretty far back towards the tail, but depending on where you’re standing you might be able to move just your back foot rather than moving your entire stance.

Or if it’s a bit of a stretch, a drop knee turn can be the best way to do it (though certainly more difficult to do!).

Moving your back foot only like this allows you to shift your weight backwards for the turn (or slow you down or whatever your reason for doing it), but then quickly shift forward again as you come out of the turn (or speed up, etc).

Another way the back foot comes into play especially on a longboard is actually moving it from rail to rail.

Because a longboard is so wide, sometimes you might need to move your foot closer to either rail in order to make a turn or do so quicker or sharper. Keep your front foot centered, but your back foot mobile.

And there you have it – fine-tuned adjustments with just your back foot.

💬 Did you know moving your back foot forward and back like this applies to all forms of surfing, even shortboarding? Just keep the rail-to-rail adjustments to your lonboard only.

🙏 Enjoying this series? Share the stoke & buy me a beer! 😄🍻

🙋 Looking for more personalized advice? Try a video analysis or 1:1 mentor session.

‍