Dropknee Flight School with Pop Boy - Spunj Bodyboarding.
To Spunj Bodyboarding home page.To images page.To stuff page.To e-post page.To sites page.
Shrine to Paul Roach | Check the Surf with Bill and Ben | Dream Moves with Pop Boy | BACKWASH! | Video Drill | Dunjun Messageboard | Random Images Link
Previous Pop Boy Sequence.Back to Pop Boy Home.Next Pop Boy Sequence.
DK Flight School. Dropknee airs are a move everyone wants to pull. That long carve up to the lip, the weightless feeling, then keeping composed through the landing can't be equalled. But there's a lot of variations available that not many people have delved into, so I'm going to show you them here. A word of warning - DK airs are tough on boards, so expect creases. They come with the territory.

Firstly, to bust out you'll need a lot of speed, a nice oncoming section (with a pitching lip is ideal), and a smooth bottom turn. The key to DK airs is while you're hitting the lip unweight yourself. This is hard to describe - you don't want to stay carving on a rail like through the bottom turn, but you don't want to jump off the board cause you'll kick it away from yourself. The motion is kind of similar to doing an ollie streetskating. Push your weight forward - that is vital to the move - keeping the board underneath you and land on the whitewater explosion, with the board on a slight angle to dissipate the force of impact. Keep you weight forward all the way through the landing - it may feel like you'll nose dive, but you'll pull more this way. If you've done all this without grabbing the rail, it's called an ollie, like what I'm doing below. But what if you want to grab the board? Read on...
Indy Air. The indy grab is definitely the most popular grab in dropknee today. Backside bottom turns, frontside cutbacks and frontside & backside floaters can all be pulled using this grab. Basically an indy grab is where you grab your knee side rail with your back hand. Keep your front hand outstretched for balance. You can grab the rail anywhere, either near your knee or a foot closer to the nose of your board. In doing an indy air, you want to ideally grab the board right when you're on the lip, and let go around a foot or two before landing. Like all dropknee airs, you should extend your body on landing and 'kick the board away' to absorb some of the impact. If you do this on your frontside, it's called a frontside air or indy air, and on your backside the same grab is called a backside air. Simple.
Backside Air.
Cannonball. The cannonball grab looks weird on other surfcraft or skateboards, but looks kinda cool on a booger 'cause the board is boxy anyway. It's an extension of the indy where you grab your foot rail with your front hand. Super functional, you can use the cannonball to fly higher than any other DK air because of the control offered. What looks really cool and stylish is if you grab the board indy on takeoff, grab cannonball with your front hand mid flight, then release your back hand slightly before the front on landing.
Mute. Trickier and rarer than the indy, the mute is still functional for decent airs. Rather than your back hand grabbing, use your front hand to grab your knee rail, close to your knee. You want to really twist your body and grab the rail as far back as you can. If you don't, and grab the rail nearer the nose, it's called a slob air. Check my right hand in the pic. That's where you need to have your back hand to keep balance. If you're cooler than me, tuck your front knee in behind your front elbow. This air is one that can work if you grab mid air.
Tail Grab. Now we're getting into shogun territory. This move isn't easy - you want to keep your weight forward while grabbing backwards. Don't try and torque your body too much, or if you do make sure you've got lots of wax or you'll become unstuck. Can be funky when you throw a tailslide into the landing after letting go.
Stalefish. For the stalefish, grab like a tail grab, but just grab further round. Your back hand should grab your foot rail maybe four inches from the tail. Try and grab in a spot roughly centred between your feet. Look at my front hand here. It looks like I'm wiping sweat off my brow, but actually that hand position is essential to the recovery of the move. Another tailslide friendly move.
Method. The method may be one of the coolest airs ever. It is strictly a backside only move (unless you throw in a spin - another story). Grab your foot rail with your front hand on takeoff. A good method is where you arch your back and tweak the board up behind you, trying to get your board inverted. The more you arch your back in this, the easier recovery will be.

Well there you have it, a selection of grabs for your next DK surf.

Spunj Bodyboarding.

Sponsored by Geocities.