Surfing - Rear foot placement?

[Guma]

Spent a lot of time surfing yesterday. I think I got in at least 7 or 8 sets. KKO (Kevin) from Forte's let me borrow his IS Blue Lake board, and that thing, from my very limited experience, is an awesome board! I was getting more slack in the line and able to hold my position on the wave a lot better than on my IS Squirt.

In a previous surfing thread I started, I got a lot of great advice.

Stand up straight - Check
Move front foot closer to the toe side of the board - Check
Point the board towards the boat - Check
Balance weight over both feet - Check

All this advice helped immensely yesterday and I sounded like I knew what I was doing when giving advice to our other riders.

SO all that to get to my question, how far back do you place your rear foot? I realize this may be a bit subjective. I was putting my back foot at the very bottom of the small hump at the rear of the traction.

[somebodyelse5]

For me, I put my foot as far back on the traction as I can. Basically up against the lip of the traction. I feel like it gives me way more control of the board. While riding, especially if you have a sloppy wake like we sometimes do, you can move your back foot up (ragboy calls it the walker boogy i think) and itll help you catch up with out much pumping and takes your back foot outta the slop where the barrel should be. The slop is annoying, basically can pull you out of the back of the pocket.

[Big Kahuna]

Moving the back foot up ragboy calls the Bre shuffle. The further back your back foot is the easier the board will turn. The trade off is it is also harder to stay with the boat the farther back your foot is. Move your back foot forward so that you can easily stay with the boat. as you get better you will find that you can move the back foot back until you reach the kicktail. Then you will probably need a smaller board. It is the natural progression. I started with a 6'2" board that Surfdad made for me. I weight 280 or so. Now I ride a 5'1" Bazooka and can ride the Flyboy signature model at 4'5" as well.

[Big Kahuna]

Here is a picture of me on the Flyboy board.

[Duncan]

On our IS Blue Lake Quad, we have found that the rear foot works well between the screws for the fins and the back ramp on the pad. Too far back on a board as big as the Blue Lake makes it hard to stay forward on the wave. But the rear foot placement is dwarfed by the importance of getting that front foot forward and toe side.

[Guma]

Moving the back foot up ragboy calls the Bre shuffle. The further back your back foot is the easier the board will turn. The trade off is it is also harder to stay with the boat the farther back your foot is. Move your back foot forward so that you can easily stay with the boat. as you get better you will find that you can move the back foot back until you reach the kicktail. Then you will probably need a smaller board. It is the natural progression. I started with a 6'2" board that Surfdad made for me. I weight 280 or so. Now I ride a 5'1" Bazooka and can ride the Flyboy signature model at 4'5" as well.

Thanks for the explanation Big... I had my back foot just like you do in the picture you posted. I will play around with moving it forward, because even though I was getting slack and able to free ride with the rope still in hand, I was still falling back after about 15 or 20 seconds.

I get to put my boat on a lake all this week, so I will get tinker with all my wave making abilities and positioning on the board.

Thanks again guys for all the advice, I really feel like I am right on the verge of finding that elusive "ah ha" moment and letting go of the rope.