Stance and foot placement is everything when it comes to longboarding. It’s difficult to have fun or even feel safe longboarding when your feet aren’t facing the right direction. The bend in your knees and the position of your shoulders also impacts how well you can control your longboard. Understandably, many novice riders need to have the standard longboarding foot placement and stance explained.
For regular longboard riding foot placement, place your front foot on a 45 to 60 degree angle toward the front of the board, while your back foot rests on the back side of the board at a 90-degree angle facing forward. To push yourself forward, shift your weight on your front foot and push with your back foot.
You will need to adjust your stance whether you are cruising, performing tricks, or riding downhill. Longboarding stance and foot placement may seem complicated, but it’s easy to get used to with regular practice. Follow along as we highlight and explain the ideal longboarding foot placement and stance for each style.
Where Do You Put Your Feet on a Longboard?
Technically your feet can go anywhere on your longboard as riding styles vary and people have personal preferences. However, there are basic riding styles designed for beginners and simple riding tips.
For riding and cruising around you want to place your front foot on an angle, the angle is typically around 45 to 60 degrees, then you lift your back foot on the board next. Your back foot is place towards the back of the board and faces straight ahead at a 90 degree angle.
This is known as your standard and regular longboard riding stance. Its simple to hold your balance like this when you ride and push yourself around.
Here is a photo of the standard longboard riding stance:
How Do You Know What Foot Goes in Front?
If you are right-handed, your left foot will go in the front, and if you are left-handed, your right hand will face the front. That’s typically how it works, but test what feels right for you.
Right-handed stances are referred to as “regular” and left-handed stances are referred to as “goofy”. Ideally, you should lead with the opposite foot that you are dominant with and push with your dominant foot.
I am right-handed, my right foot is dominant, and I ride with my left foot at the front.
This may seem counterintuitive, but most of your control comes from your back foot when longboarding. That’s why it’s important to keep your dominant foot on or near the tail so that you can push, carve, pop, and stop quickly and as needed.
Where to Put Your Feet When Going Downhill on a Longboard?
When going downhill or you have enough speed not to ride, some longboarders may adjust their feet. They may turn their front foot a bit more forward, and angle their back foot slightly forwards too. Adjustments are made to make you feel as balanced as possible.
However, it’s important to shift your rear foot back to be parallel when turning or slowing down. That is because it’s quite difficult to maintain control and turn quickly when your leading foot is positioned pointing straight toward the nose.
Where to Put Your Feet When Cruising on a Longboard?
Cruising on a longboard your feet are placed in the regular longboarding stance, which is the front foot angled around 45 degrees and your backfoot facing forwards as it’s used to push and control you.
This stance makes it easier to take your back foot off the board to push when needed. It also helps to maintain balance and shift your weight to the left or right when you turn.
You can cruise with your leading foot facing the nose, but this makes it harder to turn and it not as preferred from beginners. Always push with your back foot when cruising so that you can stabilize the longboard with your leading foot.
Where to Put Your Feet When Doing Tricks on a Longboard?
Foot placement varies based on what trick you are doing. However, you can initiate most tricks with your back foot on the tail and your front foot in the center of the longboard. Place your back foot as far back on the tail as possible if you plan to jump or perform a flip trick.
This will give you the pop that you need to catch air. Keep your front closer to your back foot if you want to pop and ollie so that you can pop into the air as high as possible by sliding your foot toward the nose. If you perform a no-comply or boneless, it helps to keep your leading foot’s heel off of the board so can quickly push off of the ground.
The longboard type you ride completely impacts the tricks you can do and how easy they are to do. Kicktail longboards have a tail like skateboard and make it easy to lift your board up to ollie and perform the trick.
Other longboards are better for dancing on, carving, freestyle tricks, and so much more!
Read our related post 9 Longboarding Tricks for Beginners here.
What Does Stance Mean When Longboarding?
Longboarding stance refers to how you place your feet on the board, how you bend your knees, and how your body is positioned.
Stance affects speed and balance whether you are cruising, performing tricks, or riding downhill.
Casual cruisers can typically stand straight without needing to bend their knees too much. However, downhill longboarders are known to point their arms and shoulders downward and bend their knees to gain as much speed as possible.
Race and downhill longboarders typically adjust their stance and foot placement based on the curvature of the course and whether they are speeding up or slowing down.
Tricksters and longboard dancers have a much different stance, its unique for each rider as longboarding tricks can be modified in personal ways. There really isn’t a singular stance, just perform the tricks and moves in whatever way you feel comfortable.
How Does Your Stance Change When Longboarding?
There is a different stance for nearly every type of longboarding. It’s common to keep your feet parallel and face the same direction with your back foot on the tail and your leading foot in the center of the longboard. Of course, you will still need to shift your lead foot to face the nose when pushing even when you cruise.
Downhill longboarding has the most unique range of stance changes. You will be able to point your lead foot towards the nose on a straight course whereas you’d need to shift your feet to be parallel or fan outwards when turning.
Dance longboarding is the most diverse when it comes to stance and foot placement. It’s a much more expressive form of longboarding and the foot placement is often more of a creative choice than a practical one. Ideally, you should start in a parallel cruising stance and crisscross your feet or change or shift your weight while dancing.
Does Your Longboard Foot Placement and Stance Affect Your Balance?
You will only stay balanced on a longboard if you have a firm stance and good foot placement. A longboarder relies on their feet to control the movement of the board. This will be nearly impossible if your feet are uncomfortable and in the wrong position.
For example, it will be hard to maintain balance if you are cruising with your lead foot facing vertically and your back foot barely hanging off the tail. This is just as much about comfort and control as it is about balance. You can also improve your balance if you slightly tighten your trucks.
Can Foot Placement and Stance Affect Your Speed When Longboarding?
Foot placement and stance affects your speed when longboarding just as much as the incline and your board setup. For example, bending your knees and leaning forward will give you a speed boost whether you push again or don’t.
You won’t be able to go as fast if you put your feet on the nose and tail as you would if one foot is in the middle and the other on the tail. It’s important to plant your feet on the board firmly and continually shift your weight when you want to adjust your speed. You will go much faster if you bend your knees and shift all of your weight to your feet.
Proper foot placement is also a safety precaution as it makes it much easier to safely stop or veer away from obstacles and pedestrians. It even helps to practice foot placement and stance in the grass before you take your longboard to the pavement.
Different Types of Longboard Stances:
There are a variety of foot placements and stances you will see as longboarding is subjective and you can ride however you please. Let me show you a handful of stance images below that you may see someday. I am creating the names myself relating them to the position they are in.
The Forward Facing Lean
The Speed Tuck
The Low Rider
The Standard
The Downhill Shredder
Where Should Your Arms and Hands Be When Longboarding?
Your arms and hands location when longboarding is still considered a part of your stance. Where you hold your arms and hands really impacts your balance.
Just picture this, you are trying to walk across a skinny platform and you are doing all you can to keep your balance. Your arms often swing around trying to keep you from falling from one side to the other.
This is very similar when riding a longboard and also a skateboard. Your arms and hand placement is more important than you think.
The type of longboard riding impacts where your hands are going to be. If you are cruising your hands are likely just by your sides with your hands up and your palms facing the ground they will move around a small amount just to help with your balance.
When downhill riding your hands may be in a much different position. Sometimes your front hand is up towards the front of the board (ahead of you) to keep your body balanced. Your other hand will often be holding on to your board to keep you completely balanced and held in place.
Your loose hand will have a longboarding glove with a slider puck to slide on the ground, this glove helps you touch the ground pain free to keep your balance when sliding around the road on your wheels.
Sometimes at fast speeds longboarders will just hold their hands and place their arms behind their backs. This makes them more aerodynamic to get more speed.
Read our related post 9 Tips to Get Better at Longboarding here.
Final Thoughts
The ideal foot placement for longboarding is keeping your lead foot further up the deck and your back foot on the tail.
Stance and foot placement affects your speed and balance, so its important to get it down from the get-go.
Remember longboarding foot placements and stances are not 100% set in stone. If you feel more comfortable in a certain position then ride like that! Its personal preference and nobody knows your riding comfort more than you.
Jamie is the founder of SkateparkHub. He is the chief writer and the lead editor. He grew up riding skateboards and scooters in his local neighborhood, eventually he started going to his local skatepark where he loved the ramps, rails, and boxes. SkateparkHub is a place he created to share knowledge about skateparks, skateboarding, and more.