Association between preferred surfing stance and home-country wave direction: Evidence that environmental constraints can shape human motor behavior?

The current study investigated the relationship between the predominant wave direction in elite surfers’ home countries and their preferred surfing stance, with either the left foot (i.e., regular stance) or right foot forward (i.e., goofy stance). Data on preferred surfing stances and national origins were collected for 1,586 surfers from the World Surf League 2020 Qualification Tour, along with information on the distribution of wave directions in their home countries. Among the results, the distribution of preferred stance was neither random nor directly aligned with the distribution of general footedness. Although most surfers worldwide preferred the regular stance (62%), regional variations in surfing stance correlated significantly with the predominant wave directions in their home countries. Surfers from countries with mostly left-breaking waves (e.g., Peru and Chile) exhibited a higher proportion of goofy stances, whereas ones from countries with right-breaking waves (e.g., South Africa and Argentina) exhibited a higher proportion of regular stances. Those findings highlight wave direction as a significant environmental constraint that potentially influences preferred stances in surfing and underscore the nuanced relationship between environmental constraints and how human motor behavior are shaped, particularly in the context of specialized sports such as surfing.