My mom tore me a new one when, while teaching my little sister some snowboarding tips, referred to her stance as "Goofy". I told her it was the common term used in snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, wakeboarding, but she was convinced that this was just another one of my cunning attempts to undermine the confidence of her dear daughter.
Wikipedia is clear on the fact that there is no negative connotation to the term, but offers little insight (and no references) on how the term came about, or whether there's ever been a more favourable technical term for 'right foot leading'.
She threw the book at me, so I'd like to throw a couple back her way. What's the origin of "Goofy"?
Best Answer
The original terms goofy-foot and goofy-footers (later shortened to goofy) appear to have become popular in surfing during the early sixties. I agree with FumbleFingers: it's likely both the surfing term and Disney's Goofy character comes from the earlier goofy meaning of stupid, silly, daft.
In fact, after watching the 1937 Disney animation Hawaiian Holiday, Goofy surfs with whichever foot forward makes him face us. He attempts to surf three times. The first two are unsuccessful and he can't stand up on the board. The third time is (more) successful: first he surfs left-foot forward (regular stance) towards the right, so his body is facing us. Then he turns and surfs right-foot forward (goofy stance) towards the left, again so his body is facing us.
The earliest instance I found in print is Desmond Muirhead's 1962 Surfing in Hawaii: a personal memoir:
2007's The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English agrees with 1962:
A 1963 Paradise of the Pacific magazine defines some surfing terms:
A May 1963 Billboard picks out Shean and Jenkins with their Goofy Footer Ho-Dad single (listen on YouTube) as a winner in their novelty spotlight of the week, selected for "potential to become top sellers".
A June 1963 Billboard magazine lists a record by The Lively Ones called Goofy Foot as a four-star single (listen on YouTube).
These show the term was becoming more popular and widespread.
An early etymology is suggested by the 1970 Studies in English by the University of Cape Town's Department of English says: