The Drop Knee....

Is there anything more stylish than the noseride? How about a cheater five? Even the faded bottom turn is an impeccably beautiful thing. But there is one move that in the eyes of many can be both graceful and powerful. Surfers like Joel Tudor do it with an understated style, hands low, almost sublime in the ease of executution, and used just when it's necessary. Master craftsman Tyler Hatzikian has the power, his arms thrown into the swing and often raised, but being a big chap, the weight of a solid mass moving the board into a turn that pushes all the power through the front thigh, is an impressive sight. CJ Nelson does them so bloody well and both CJ and Miles Doughman move thier bodies and board to achieve the perfect result, Matt Chojnacki is rooted in the classics too, and Devon Howard is a peoples champ and thanks to him this move is now firmly back in the jugdes handbook of must have traditional elements. The Godfather of Soul, Aussie Ray Gleave is a master and I once watched him surf his home break of Cabarita throwing in a series of these impeccable moves. 

There are many images of Icons like Billy Hamilton, captured on one occasion redirecting on what would seem to be a closeout. A classic shot in black and white, framed by the legendary photographer Ron Stoner. Leroy Grannis captured Dewey Weber, also a master, Phil Edwards too both with their own unique style. Nat Young in the ‘66 Worlds, throwing traditional surfing moves which began to look progressive.  These photos all caught the moment where the back knee is dropped behind the front, and the back heel raised. The shoulders are open and arms raised, both movements following the eyes of the surfer as he looks to where they need to be next. The upper torso follows the weight on the front quad, driving the board. 

The drop knee turn is all about tradition. I've heard it being coined as a novelty move,  which would suggest it’s not really functional, yet those that have mastered the art might strongly disagree. It can be done with move power when needed,  but when surfers like like Summer Romero or Soleil Erico use it, it's done with the subtlety it deserves, setting up for the next section, and an easy graceful walk to the nose.

The drop knee turn is one of the most beautiful moves to watch in longboard surfing. Aesthetically, from the purist point of view it could be comparable to the ‘smith grind’ of skating, or the 360 table of BMX, or the ‘method air’ in snowboarding, or a solid whip on a Motocross bike. These moves are the ones the lovers, the purists of that particular genre love to see. For traditional longboarders, there is just something special about the rotation of a drop knee. Just watch the best perform, the body language, the arms raised of lowered, the depth the back knee is dropped, the simplicity of the turn is just a joy to observe, but add some power and nothing feels better.  

Functionally, the drop knee can put so much power into a turn it’s unreal. I remember Tyler Hatzikien saying once that his power is put through the front quad, driving the rail deep into the wave whilst I suppose the back foot kind of directs the tail.

The drop knee is not just a frontside move either. I'm going to put my neck out there and say that on the back hand it has an even better feeling, almost deepening that functionality, tightening the turn with a lovely but necessary unweighting of the board as it's brought back to trim on the face of the wave. The position of your back foot as you come out of the turn, lends itself to start walking, the first of a few cross steps to the middle board. In the high performance arena of longboarding, many surfers doing a back hand roundhouse would choose to hit the white water, bringing the board back down through the white water and ready themselves to head to the lip on the next section, simply smashing the white water as it approaches. The more traditional longboard surfer will rarely leave the green wave and the backhand drop knee is performed in the curl of the wave, and that’s where the power lies. The roundhouse turn flows straight into a drop knee, and the dropknee flows directly into the cross step and trim. If you choose to go to the nose, that's a bonus, that's up to you, but it's not required, sometimes it’s nice to just stand there. 

Learning the drop knee takes time and a lot of waves, unless you're a grommet who just does them straight off the bat. I remember wanting to always learn them, convinced I would paddle out and try them on every wave, but I never did. Probably too worried about wasting precious waves. When James Parry was young and first picked up a longboard, to my annoyance, it seemed like he was doing them within days, and yet some really good surfers don’t do them, but excel in other areas of longboarding and  thier cutbacks that are just as impressive. 

It was the elder statesman Charles Williams, a man with a regal posture and a gracious drop knee, who taught me. I think he was reading it at the time, but would refer to methods used in the ‘Way of the Samurai’, which, in the most basic form is, I suppose, learning to perfect somethng by repetition and endless practice, Charles taught me just that. Repetition is key, and if you don’t want to waste too many waves, do what I did and use a skateboard, it’s the best tool. After being shown in the car park at Sennen, it took me a solid winter of practising them on a longboard cruiser. Over and over I would ride up and down the promenade, or streets of Brighton (when I was still living there) until I had them dialled. Using a skateboard is fantastic as you can emulate front and backside, and incorporate learning to cross-step, and noseride too. You don’t even need a long deck, I've taught my son on an old slalom deck, it really is just placing the back foot and knee in the correct position, opening the shoulders and letting rip. My son just needs to transfer this to the water, and he will.

After a winter of practice, I returned to Cornwall the following Easter.   I paddled out into ta perfect looking two foot longboard day in front of our beach cafe, and on my first wave , I did my first dropknee turn. I did it without even thinking. My brain had been trained, muscle memory took over. As  the Samurai would learn to fire their arrows at targets from horseback, whilst their master would command them to perform the skill ‘Again!’ I too had learnt a skill through repetition, practise,  commitment and Charles Williams telling me to do it again and again.. 

As for equipment when you get in the water, just go with what you have. Personally I prefer a pintail longboard, but that is because I have been surfing only pintails for twenty years. I just love the clean lines and the design just lends itself to smooth turns. However, this isn’t to say that square tails don’t, they absolutely do.  In fact, my newest longboard, at 9’9” is a square tail as they have that versatility of being able to pivot, stall, and with a nice bit of concave and tail kick, the shape I’ve chosen for better noseriding. But even though I love this new board, I will always love the flow of a pintail when doing fluid dropknee, and when it gets bigger, that is when I feel I love the pintail is a perfect combo for dropknees.  Either way, use what you have. 

If you’d like to know more them I suggest you look up some of the names above and invest some time on Youtube. I've attached a couple of videos below. If you would like a little coaching then please drop me a line, i'd be happy to help. If you're in Cornwall and happen to be passing Sennen, then drop me a line, bring your skateboard and we can get started, then it’s all up to you.  Remember dropknee turns take time to learn, and you might waste a few waves, but once you've got them, you'll never stop.  

Note. That's me below, shot by James Parry back in 2012 riding a 9'4" Pintail Single Fin (I only have about 10 photos of me surfing)
​

Check Tyler below at 2.45' and 5.55' seconds, watch Ray Gleave on every wave, and Ben Considine's instructionals are excellent.