Influence: Emily Agate

            Something I feel has really helped me with my riding is some advice I got from Caro Villeneuve and Keenan Flegel. Caro told me, “You need to ride switch. Whether you surf or skim, I think riding switch is a great thing to do. Not only can it make your regular riding stronger it opens up doors to many more tricks. Switch riding is something you can work on alone. It takes time and practice to get good at. To start, I found it very awkward to ride with my left foot forward, but over time I have learned to love riding this way. I now have learned a variety of new tricks I would never have been able to do without learning to ride switch.
              Keenan said, “you need to get a feel for your board and understand it,  ride it every way you can”! Go out and play around with your board.  As in try riding it revert and ride around with the rope. Try to carve, try to control it, and get a good feel for how it responds the wrong way to you to make it the right way to you. Once you have somewhat worked it out with the rope, ride without! Riding your board backwards will help you gain greater control for both surf and skim style and again it will open doors to many new tricks.

 
Remember, always have fun, play around out there and experiment – Emily Agate