Some people have asked me about this in depth, and I might as well explain in detail…
Joe, in all truth, dislikes his jump-side very much, because he knows that jumping to the backfoot side is inferior to the forward foot. He mentions how sometimes after a very ‘oomph’ gap or hop sideways in any matter, sometimes his seat wants to lean out and away from him because his back thigh is not really ‘there’ to block the seat. Whereas if you hop to the forward foot side whilst SIF, your forward thigh is directly pressing against the saddle meaning that it is a barrier stopping it from leaning sideways:
Forward Foot hopping:
Back foot hopping:
Also, he’s tried raising his seat high and still, there is a little bit of this ‘leaning’ from time to time.
For pedalgrabs, he suffers a bit too, and so do I. I have ‘sussed’ hopping both ways (right and left hand), and I can confidently say that hopping to the forward foot makes SIF hopping a lot more stable and less effort is required to keep the seat in place. Balancing your foot on the back pedal is a lot more awkward on your body position than it is if you balance on your forward pedal. I got Joe to try both and instantly he found balancing on the front pedal easier, as he sometimes fails lines due to him finding it hard to balance on the back pedal which causes difficulty hopping up onto tyre from it. Now, Joe often pedalgrabs and swings his uni around so his right foot is forward instead of back, and does a 180-rev hop up when he is in tricky situations because he finds it easier to balance leaning on a forward foot.
Loads of you who already naturally do hop to the backfoot will argue that you don’t feel unstable at all… Well, partly pride is getting in the way, and if you got REALLY good at hopping your opposite way with opposite hand, then you would be able to compare for yourself and see that forward-foot hopping is easier to do when SIF’ing.
It’s not the end of the world if you hop to the backfoot… I do it as well now because my right wrist is injured meaning I can not hop to my forward foot (left), and I cope, but I can’t help but feel slightly annoyed at how much easier it is for the human body to do trials SIF towards the forward foot as I once did it and now that I use a slightly less-stable technique it is a bit ‘discouraging’ in a way. But whatever, do what works for you,
BUT, if you are at an early enough stage in your riding to alter your technique and style then i recommend you to try hopping to your forward foot and the correct hand to go with it. Many would agree, some won’t. But coming from someone who has experienced and can ride with both hop sides and hands (sorta ambidextrous/ambi-hopside…?), I can confidently say forward foot is EASIER to do if you want to get good at SIF.
Only a tiny handful of back-foot hoppers have made a name for themselves in TRIALS comps (Joe Hodges, Mathieu Huet) whilst top-end forward-foot hoppers far outnumber them: Kris Holm, Zack B, Ryan Atkins, Tom Pec, (Yoggi and Tiffouille (to an extent)) etc…
Purely sidehop wise, yes, Fabian and Joe are up there in the highest, but so are Tom and Ryan. But trials isn’t ALL about sidehops, it’s about lines and a fine balance in all fields.
I hope this clears things up.
VIDEO: It was pretty nice, and for 8 months it’s fine. :), you still beat me at those street tricks, keep things rolling that way.