by whick side of the board your are on.
I surf, skate, and shred and sailboard. In the first three sports there are two
positions you can take standing on the board. You are either Regular-Footed
(left foot foward), or Goofy-footed (Right foot foward). This obviously doesn't
apply to sailboarding, since you must be on both sides of the sail. However your
body (and mind) still have a preference for one foot to be foward, and the
comfortableness with that position lets you land airs in that positons easier.
To find out if you are goofy or regular, I have simple test. Mark a line on the
ground. Then run up and jump past this line. Petend that when you land you are
landing on a massive sheet of ice and that you are going to try to slide as far
as possible. Look at the way you landed, which foot is foward? That is the foot
that should be foward on the board, and hence the stance you prefer.
You may have seen both skaters and shreders riding their boards backwards,
effectivly switching their stance from regular to goofy, or goofy to regular.
Riding backwards like this is called riding "Fakie". When I first started to
learn to ride fakie, it was not as difficult as it was uncomfortable. So I would
spend entire days skating the ramp fakie, or shreding down the slopes fakie,
until I was comfortable with it.
So the m***to this story, just like every other story, is: Practice, practice,
practice!