Regular or goofy: what’s the difference?
Regular means you ride with your left foot forward and push with your right. Goofy is the reverse: right foot forward, left foot pushing. Neither is better. It works like being left- or right-handed, and it doesn’t have to match your writing hand.
Your front foot steers and does the flicking on tricks like the kickflip. Your back foot pushes and pops the tail. Every trick is the same in either stance, just mirrored, and every trick guide on this site has a regular/goofy switch on its foot diagram.
How the test works
- The push test catches your reflex. The foot that steps out to stop a fall is the one you trust to lead, which is your front foot.
- The sock slide is the same idea while moving: you slide with your natural lead foot in front.
- The kick finds your power foot. The foot you kick with usually ends up on the tail, where it pushes and pops.
- The push foot on a scooter is usually the same foot that pushes a skateboard, which is your back foot.
Three or four answers pointing the same way is a clear result. A split two and two means you’re close, so check it on a board.
Check it on a board
On flat, smooth ground, put your front foot over the front bolts and push gently with the other. Then try it the other way. The stance where you feel balanced and can look where you’re going is yours. A few minutes each way is enough. The wrong stance feels like writing with the wrong hand.
What if I’m still not sure?
Skate your first session in whichever way felt less awkward and don’t switch back and forth. Some people ride regular on a skateboard and goofy on a snowboard or surfboard, and that’s fine too. After a few weeks, one stance will feel like yours.
Switch, fakie and nollie
Once you know your stance, the names of the other stances make sense. Switch is riding your opposite stance, so a regular skater riding goofy. Fakie is your normal stance, rolling backward. Nollie is your normal stance, popping off the nose instead of the tail. The guides for the switch ollie, fakie ollie and nollie show where your feet go for each.
Pushing mongo
Pushing with your front foot instead of your back foot is called mongo. It gets you around, but you have to swap your feet before every trick. Most skaters learn to push with the back foot early. If you already know your board size, the next step is the ollie, and if you don’t, the skateboard size calculator sorts it out.
