My friend was a goofy footed mongo pusher. We called it "shit foot"

Goofy footed and right handed

I can imagine goofy-footers clicking this vid more though

I'm regular. Most of my frends are goofy. I started to think, that goofy is like normal 90% stance and regular is that 10% :D

"goofy foot is one of the older terms still CURRENT in surfing jargon" Hahahahah!!! Current! ... I'll be leaving now...

I really appreciate all the work you put into these videos.

I got kinda strange story of my "footing". I started as a snowboarder. And back then my fathers girlfriend had a son, we both started kinda same time. He were regular and I were goofy (I happen to be left hander), but because we were poor we started only on one board. And because my fathers girlfriend had more to say, we bought board with regular side bindings. And back then changing stance from regular to goofy or wise versa were not so easy because you were binded by drilled holes, which you stick. So our bindings were regular, so I tryed to board switch, but because back then binding angles were so hard so (and board weren't so able to ride switch), I turned into regular by time. When I started skating I were allready regular, now I hope I could be switch, but I am not...somehow my brain works in regular way, I have even problems to ride fakie...

*Goofy 4 life* ✊

Like, I'm right handed and since I was a kid I rode Goofy. It was so natural to me that when I noticed that all my friends rode Regular I was like "wait... Am I doing something wrong?" I tried for about a week being Regular, and I landed nothing. Also, had some of the nastiest bails of my life. Then some dude in my local skatepark was like "nah, it's normal that you can't ride that well with your left foot forward. There's no right way to skate but your own." Those words stuck with me for years. Nowadays, after a nasty bail (in which I broke my ankle and they put on the cast in a weird angle), I can't ride anymore cause my heel always hits the back wheels when I push and that makes me fall in the funniest ways possible. I can't adapt to Switch, I can't push mongo. So I've nailed my two old boards to my wall and I just visit the park to watch people ripping it up. I miss skating so much, and I always wondered what was wrong with me that I couldn't ride in the same stance as everyone else. I dunno if this is a Brazilian thing, but I actually don't know anyone in my town that's goofy.

Yet another super interesting analysis, thank you for your research. We have beginner workshops at the local indoor skatepark and I noticed that there tend to be a lot more goofy skaters among beginners. That is especially true if you have a sufficiently random sample, like when a school teacher takes his or her class to the skatepark to attend a workshop. However, among the advanced and professional skater who come to the park the numbers seem to shift. There are definitely more regular footed skaters at contests, in video parts and so on. I could never make sense of that observation.

I fucked up VERY bad when teaching myself how to skate at 5 years old. I skate around town goofy and push mongo, but when I do ollies I ride regular and dont push mongo. When teaching myself the ollie, I didn't realize I was practicing them in the regular stance. 95% of the time I am riding goofy (I mainly bomb hills nowadays), when I play a game of skate I stand regular. This has held my progression back TONS because the only tricks I can do in my most comfortable stance are fakie tricks. I have to skate switch whenever doing normal tricks. I've been skating for 15 years and still haven't landed a kickflip (even though I can do heelflips). I am probably the weirdest skater I know.

Goofy and right handed also ✋🏼

I find that goofy footers are in fact "goofy" and tend to do more creative/weird tricks.

As a little kid I had that Hawaiian Holiday on a VHS Disney collection and watched it so much that it still brings bizarre familiar sensations to me. Like every detail is planted in my memory. Wild to see this origin reference.

Interesting. As a right hand dominate "goofy footed" skater myself, (since '78 and still rollin' at 50), I too as well as many from my generation did indeed know the term as derived from surfing, skateboarding's origins. Please allow me to add what I have heard passed down from my elders that also surf. Indeed that early crew of now famous surfers from the 50's, pre- "Gidget" days when surfing was WAY underground and hardly an accepted culture, anywhere. It was basically a handful of misfits and roughnecks from the west coast of the States, Hawaii, and Australia. (Not entirely of course, but largely. Again, all before surfing's big explosion in the late 50's and early 60's). The thought was, If one was indeed right handed, and threw a baseball with said right hand, they would quite likely catch a baseball in their left hand. Within the analogy, pitching a baseball requires the right handed thrower to plant their left foot first and follow with their right foot. Dig? Most right handed surfers led their stance with their left foot. A "regular" stance. -so- From that early group of surfers at large, as the language was barely being developed to describe their exploits, when a surfer in their pack was a known right handed person yet would stand up and ride with their right foot forward, it was thought of as goofy. A generally odd observation given that the baseball analogy no longer made sense. "Dude, you ride goofy!" Now add the waves. As in skateboarding, there's frontside and backside. Yet some waves only break in one direction, either a "left" or a "right", breaking both directions is called an "A frame". -so- If a surfer preferred to punch their fins out of the wave in a hard charging frontside "cut back" maneuver, (think gnarly frontside grind in a backyard pool), yet the wave they were surfing only broke to the left, if they were a "regular foot" they would have to switch their stance to right foot forward to do so, on a left handed breaking wave. Therefore also referred to as "goofy". Surfers who rode the right foot forward stance naturally, simply adopted that moniker and the rest as they say is history. For reference, several of those olde tyme surf films (again, pre-Gidget) do indeed have some references to this. 'Endless Summer' comes to mind, the rest can surely be found on lost rainy days here on KZfaq. Skate on skaters.

Goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang, goofy gang, spent 4 racks on'a new board

My uncle was left handed in the 60s, he got hit with a ruler so much he learned to write with his right hand

I shoot hockey right, I write right, I throw right, I ride goofy and can ONLY Ollie regular.... WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

Hey Rat, you might find the surfer Ry Craike interesting. He learnt to surf "switch" as a kid and rode as a goofy, as there were so many surf breaks in his area that had to be ridden going left (aka lefthanded waves, which are easy forehand for goofy footers, but harder backside for regular footers). Traditionally backhand surfing (with your back to the wave as you go across) was thought to be a lot harder and goofys or regulars would be at BIG advantages on certain waves. E.g. goofys at the lefthanded Pipeline, or regulars at the righthanded Sunset Beach. But in the 2000s backhand technique and tuberiding developed a lot, a bit like switch skating. For some surfers their backhand can be stronger now. Tom Carroll was the first goofy to win the surfing world tour in the 80s, it was a big deal as all the competitions were held at right-hand breaks IIRC!

Goofy and right hand dominant. It just seemed more natural when I was learning in the 80’s to ride with my power hand forward. By the time I found out this was even a thing I was thoroughly ingrained in my stance, and back then switch wasn’t in anyone’s radar.

I'm Reg. BUT when I do all of the "tests" to determine stance-Run and slide on the floor, first foot up stairs...I'm goofy. I've worked on pushing switch a bit and it feels super weird. I usually push switch get on then do a 180 to Reg. I'm a beginner at 51(skated a bit in '77 with a Newporter-still got it!) Love skating and this is a great channel man! Cheers as we head into 2019!

My observation growing up skating, and seeing a lot of people start out from the beginning, is that there are four natural dispositions: 1. regular stance with regular pushing 2. goofy stance with regular pushing 3. regular stance with mongo pushing and 4. goofy stance with mongo pushing. In school I remember learning about genetic dominance and alleles with red and white flowers. You would make these boxes that show the possible combinations of the different dominant and recessive traits. Applying the theory to skateboarding I think it makes sense that the four options in order of how common they are, go as follows: 1. dominant-dominant (regular stance, regular pushing) 2. recessive-dominant (goofy stance, regular pushing) 3. dominant-recessive (regular stance, mongo pushing) and 4. recessive-recessive (goofy stance, mongo pushing) I think this makes sense if you accept that about 60% of people are regular, thus it is the dominant stance. My guess from anecdotal experience is maybe 15-20% of my regular footed friends started out regular-mongo (incomplete dominance) and of my goofy friends even less, maybe 5-10% were goofy-mongo (completely recessive). A lot of people like to say that they "were mongo" but I would argue that preference always sticks with them, as evidenced by the fact those people would never push switch mongo, because it is already comfortable for them. I'm goofy stance and always pushed with my back foot btw :) Last bit, I don't think skate stance and pushing has anything to do with handed-ness or footed-ness. I think it's an unrelated set of genetic traits.

Your long takes are flawless, do you use a script? Love the show!

In martial arts, "Goofy" is called Southpaw. but there is no "Northpaw" moniker for Regular.

I think the names "regular" and "goofy" are not quite smart, cause to many people it could imply that regular is somewhat "normal", and goofy is somehow "uncommon and weird", like it would be cooler to tell people "i ride goofy" than "i ride regular". Imagine how many people gave up skating because they chose a cooler but wrong goofy stance xD Yea, a joke, but regarding skaters nature, I believe it definitely had to happen at least once.

I always thought it was what early skaters called switch. Like I can ride this way regular but when I ride this way I'm all goofy footed.

I think left foot forward in surfing is more common because a lot of your control comes from the back foot, like turning on a manual. In skating though it makes less difference and someone might choose their right foot to do flip tricks.

Goofy here. I was forced by my elementary teacher to write with my right hand even though it felt natural to use my left. I do almost all sports left handed, except baseball where I catch with my left. In bowling, I hook with my right hand, and straight bowl with my left. I can't do a ton of switch tricks, and I feel most comfortable turning backside as opposed to frontside while in a goofy stance. However, in a regular stance I feel most comfortable going frontside, like a switch fs flip, which is the same direction as a 'goofy backside 180'. I don't know if any of this stuff correlates but you made me think about something I never took the time to analyze.

I've read through most of the comments and am surprised to not hear anything about learning to swing a baseball bat or cricket bat or golf club. Your dad or whatever showed you how to do that pretty much from day dot and for me it was a big part in which way I first decided to stand on a skateboard. For most people I think that was the moment it was first introduced into your mind whether it be your "true" stance or otherwise. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone that bats one way and skates the other.

All of your videos are gold. 100% skateboarding history, thank you very much! (sorry for my bad english)

ive always found goofy more comfortable in skateboarding, surfing and also boxing

“I’ve never lived by an ocean before” mans got an ocean behind him right now

This video answered questions I didn't even know I had. Research game is strong, keep it up!

I'm goofy, right handed, and makes more sense to me to use my right foot to do flips, although my left leg is stronger for pushing, jumping, etc.

Goofy . Right handed. Can't imagine left foot forward. My mom is left handed. This subject is interesting. Eye dominance also varies. This is very interesting.

Goofy footed, right handed. I think personally it just comes down to balance. That’s the first thing you’re gonna learn when skateboarding. Finding your balance. When I was a kid I had this old thrasher vhs tape that taught beginners the basics. they had someone push you from behind, and which ever foot you put forward that’s the foot you’d want to keep on your board while you push.

G O O F Y G A N G

I'm starting to think that it really comes down to your very first experiences skating (or surfing, snowboarding, etc.) when I was little I would always do soap grinds when it was raining on all the benches at school. I would always hop on goofy. But when I first stood foot on a skateboard, all I wanted to do was learn tricks Im right footed so the obvious choice was to try to ride regular as all I was doing was sitting there and trying to Ollie. But as I progressed I felt weird trying to tie around and pump. I eventually got it dialed but now it all makes sense because I think I was meant to be goofy stance but got my muscle memory down regular. Also when I watch skating on tv I can feel the goofy tricks better in my head than the regular ones. One of my buddies is prob one of the best skaters I know, skates regular. But when he snowboards he goes goofy? So weird. Interesting stuff. Also it seems that more people are goofy these days, and they always seem to rip the hardest. Maybe because it's more accepted now ?

Regular. I think for some really good skaters there's not much of a difference anymore, but I bet they had difficult times learning switch at first like everyone else!

surfing with someone with opposite stance is ideal in my opinion. With skimboarding the stance ideally matches up with your throw or drop. I have a left handed grip (left hand at the tail of the board) and have a goofy footed stance. Many people including pros have a right handed drop probably due to being right handed but are goofy footed. Works for some but it requires you to turn your body before getting on the board

If you find more information on brain hemispheres correlating to skate stance, that would be pretty interesting. Even though im sure studies on that are limited.

Goofy originated from surfing a specific break where if you put your right foot forward you would be going frontside and looked awkward

Right handed and goofy footed. I'm amazing at writing stories about skating fails.

I hurt my right knee when I was younger than 10 and playing kickball was more important than not being in pain. Ever since, I have been left footed. I skated goofy growing up, because my left leg was by far my strongest. Hell, I even bowled "goofy." People are in awe that I throw off the wrong foot and average over 200.

I'm goofy and right handed, but even when playing something like hockey, I favor left handed sticks. Weird.

my friends dad was an early 60s surfer in California.He said the way the wave in his hometown broke, you had to ride it one way.People that rode the other way on the wave were called goofy because it was like they were purposely standing "the wrong way"...thats all i know.I been ridin G foot for 32 years

Regular vs goofy is not as much of a topic for me because I ALWAYS have strictly forced myself to ride ANY board BOTH ways. Skateboard, snowboard... doesn't matter. If you value symmetry, and balanced exercise of both sides of your body, this is the only way to go. It also has practical utility for making you a more flexible boarder, and allowing an effortless stance change to relieve one leg being tired. So if you ride a board and only ride one way, WHY do you do that? You're only limiting yourself. I'll never understand why people teach beginners to only ride one way. Learn both from the beginning. Reliance on only one foot being forward is just going to impair your boarding ability and make you get one muscular leg and one atrophied, underdeveloped one. Use common sense. Practice stance fluidity.

Also, do you have a video that examines why it is called pushing "mongo"?

more likely it came from a "regular footer" seeing a goofy footer, asking why they stood that way, tried it, felt awkward and said, "man, that feels goofy" had a similar thing happen to me when i first started sk8ing. saw a "goofy footer, asked about it, tried it, felt awkward, and stated that it felt weird (goofy). it is how most slang starts, no rhyme or reason needed.

I skate switch goofy not just because it's more natural to me as a regular stance skater but, because I believe it shows stance better.

even weirder... I’m left handed and regular footed (left foot dominant). I don’t push mongo regular or switch. As most people are right handed and right foot dominant, I’ve always viewed myself as goofular haha. I think it’s weird that most people ride with their dominant foot on the back...isn’t that your more coordinated foot? wouldn’t you want that one for flicks and turns?

When learning to snowboard I found it easier to turn switch (I'm regular on a skateboard). On a snowboard you turn with your weight on the front foot, with a skateboard you turn from the back.

im right handed and goofy footed. i find that i have a lot more subtle control over my right foot than my left(same as with handwriting ie) which makes it easier for me to control my kicks and movements flipping the board. the left foot is mostly used for kicking down and shoving which doesnt require as much finesse as the front foot. im also terrible at switch skating.. i can just about land an ollie and shoveit switch thats it

Im goofy at skateboarding and snowboarding, right handed for some things like writing eating, or handing a short gun, and left handed for others like playing guitar, opening cans or jars, handing a rifle... And totally left footed. One of the hardest things for beginners is to know what is their natural stance. Many of us found it naturally the first time we touched a board, but many other people haven´t got that. The weirdest thing is those people who are goofy in something, but regular in other thing. For instance, a friend of mine, who is goofy at snowboarding and regular at skateboarding.

I'm goofy because I started that way thinking "oh this is how it works I guess" but a year in and skating switch a lot, neither way feels like a "dominant" stance to me, I just have more tricks down goofy atm.

That feel when you ride goofy, push mongo, AND do pressure flips.

Goofy footed master race FTW.

It's pretty strange for me. I'm left handed and riding goofy but when it comes to playing football I use my right foot.

I have heard that specifically with snowboarders because if you are a beginner then the shops would set your bindings a little more comfortable for regular riders adding to the regular stance and making you go with your left foot forward.

It makes sense to have your right foot which is dominant for most people, in the front. Because that's the leg that does most of the balancing and sliding/flicking in tricks. Your back foot doesn't really do much. Idk why right foot forward is less common.

Why is it that I feel more comfortable riding going downhill in a goofy stance but when I have to do tricks I can only do them in regular stance I cannot pop my board with my left leg

I always thought goofy stance was more suited to right handed/ footed people because your right foot (for the most part) does the more complex side of the trick. I.E the flip in a kick flip is the right foot where as the left just pops the board

that'd pretty much what I'd assumed it to be but I'd never heard of the Disney theory, so I can see how that would mess with people

I think that most people are right foot dominant and like the accuracy that riding goofy provides, but I ride regular because when I first started all I was concerned about was pushing hard and popping my ollies harder.

I’m right handed and I’ve always skated goofy. I also box southpaw rather than orthodox. It’s honestly the only way that feels comfortable to me, so I never really got good at skating switch. Sometimes I’ll push mongo into a regular stance so I can do some switch nollie based tricks, but that’s pretty specific.

Goofy feels natural to me. I'm interested in how much of it is inherent and how much learned. Also whether it's possible to be stanceless.

I'm regular. But would be proud to be 'Goofy' if that were my dice. Have you seen Goofy skate, drive a car or anything? Always pure undiscovered talent the moment demands, delivered.

the poll is 60% goofy n 39% right, I feel personally because I'm goofy I got curious of the background of my stance. looking at the comments it seems a lot of goofy footed ppl watched it as well, idk if it contributes to the poll but this is just what I saw. I love ur videos man :)

I know identical twin brothers who skate, the other is goofy and the other is regular. That always made me wonder, wtf. They are real identical brothers.

I have this strange theory that goofy stand is likely to become the most common side in few years

I see Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 in the background. Classic game. He skates in Goofy stance, which has a lot of link to this well put video.

Love when you include historical aspects

I think for example in surfing it depends mostly in what direction the waves in the area breaks. In a left hander being a goofy tends to be easier to drop and generate speed, in this manner most kids who do not know wich is their stance will tend to take this stance. For example in southern chile where is full of left hand point breaks i would say about 70% of the surfers in the water are goofies. Rad Rat Video

I started goofy and even snowboard goofy, but the guy who taught me how to skate discouraged it because "I'd have a hard time in parks." And I imagine it had something to do with me pushing mongo as well. I'm also ambidextrous, and learning things switch isn't hard for me. I know a few people who skate often without a stance at all.

I was always goofy and pushed mongo lol but felt almost as comfortable regular and pushing normal when switch became a thing.

Brain hemisphere really doesn’t dictate spatial awareness that much. It comes from the parietal lobe which is pretty similar across both hemispheres except for a few minor differences. Regular footed lefty here btw.

I'm goofy and left handed. I always thought they were linked, but if that's the case then it certainly wouldn't be 50-50. I don't really even skate, but I every time I get on a board of any kind, that's the way I stand.

I'm right-handed, but I jump with my left foot and I feel it has more power. Because of this I snowboard regular stance cause it gives me more control. Interestingly I skate goofy stance because of the same power aspect. It gives me better pop for my ollies. I can do switch stance with both boards as well, but these are my go-to stances when riding casually. I surf regular, because it feels easier to rise up on the board that way. For me the surf origin story sounds believable, since if you are surfing goofy you are facing the wave and other surfers differently. This has definitely looked strange in the early days, and might have caused some accidents.

In a story from a comic book from donald the duck, goofy was trying to learn how to dance and they would say that he had two left foots because he was always falling. maybe that's the reason that people considered that goofy was considered like that, because of his left foot (sorry for my bad english, im not a native speaker)

Goofy is the new regular

I write with my left hand, I skate goofy, but I snowboard regular. It was always easier for me push goofy on a skateboard but it was easier for me to keep control regular on a snowboard.

In surfing it is very important to know the stances of the people in your crew. Surf spots usually have waves that breaks towards left or right side, people need to know which way the wave breaks before surfing. It's kinda like you're planning to frontside 50-50 a hubba ledge spot that you haven't been before, only to realise it's a backside ledge for a Regular stance when you got there. If that make sense.

I’m left handed, skate goofy and snowboard regular. In my experience there are pretty much equal numbers of goofy and regs peoples.

Used to theorize about this stuff so hard in my first years of skating.... What I've found is that there is absolutely no connection between which hand or foot is dominant and what stance you ride... No person is completely the same

I had it even worse growing up. I skated goofy and.................mongo. I skated a lot of mini ramps and my back foot just got used to being there when I hit the street. I'm 43 now and from time to time, I still find my back foot on the deck and pushing with my front even though I can skate both, Mongo feels more comfortable. Great videos btw. Bill Danforth ftw.

Newly subscribed. Your videos are very well researched and articulated. After 10+ years, and at the ripe ol' age of 24, I'm getting back into skateboarding. I've been Goofy all my life. I was told when I was younger that I should ride regular because I'm right handed (!?), but I tried and failed. Goofy is just far more comfortable. Great video! Also, those poll results are interesting!

I skate and snowboard goofy, but I also only learned to skate a couple years ago on a banana board.

Let's ask colonel Bill Killgore of Apocalypse Now fame. This is where my search started.

I'm right handed and goofy footed. What's weird is that because I'm right handed/footed, my left foot, aka my normal back foot, is much less powerful than my right. I have a much harder time scooping the board because of this. If I were to have 1 foot on the tail of the board and kick it my hardest Frontside, if it were my right foot, it would end up doing a 360 Hardflip (regular stance) rotation. If it were my left foot kicking it, it would probably be either a 240 degree shove it, or a Varial Heel (goody stance).

Goofy foot started with the Disney skateboarding game. Fact

I don't skate at all but I tried to start when I was younger and I always felt comfortable with goofy. I tried regular and felt weird and even felt tempted to push mongo that way, so I always switched back to goofy. That said, I'm right handed and little to no ambidexterity so I'm just even more an oddity, I guess.

Born left footed and left handed. Trained to be right handed when I was a kid. I play soccer and still kick with my left foot. I'm regular stance.

Cool to know it all. Personally I’m goofy and a right handed, but I ride like that just cause of my medical circumstances. My brain can’t combine two pictures from both eyes into one solid vision, so I’m basically a one-eyed guy who sees the world through the right side of my face. So when I ride switch it’s harder to me to look around and not become a part of a dangerous situation. Also I’m a snowboard instructor and when people ask me how should they ride I always answer that it doesn’t matter. People tend to get used to any stance, it feels super awkward to even step on board the first time. So it’s the matter of time

I’m right handed and right footed but also goofy it’s always even more natural for me.

your channel is for real. never knew any of this-- those old songs though

I'm goofy on skate, but regular on snowboard, so this theory has some weight. Though I didn't ride the snowboard for a loooong time.

I'm regular-footed, not because it's comfortable, but because I saw my friend (who introduced me to skating) ride regular and I thought that was how I should ride. My right foot is more dominant though, and much stronger. When you push, the supporting foot is the stronger foot and the pushing foot is the weaker foot- so I started out pushing mongo- this is interesting because if I learned how to skate on my own- I would probably be GOOFY, not regular...

I think it has to do with eye dominance more then hand. Lots of people are right handed and left eye dominate. I think that’s why it’s closer to 50-50 then the left -right hand ratio

stopped the video at 3:30 to laugh out, two hours later, I'm having a 1h goofy playlist, time to go on xD

It makes more sense to be Goofy for most people. The vast majority of people are right side dominate, so having the right foot forward for precise control is just common sense. But it's seen as "Regular" to skate the opposite way, so that's how people start out and learn, meaning that's how they will always skate.