This is a trick that should be fairly self-explanatory to what it is. It can be performed with either one of your knees touching down on the board. You can drop your back knee and hold it there pretending you are getting pitted at Cloudbreak or you can drop your front knee and be styling out a massive stall it is one of those things that takes a little bit of practice. For some it will come fairly naturally while others will struggle a little bit… however a knee down is a basic skill that can help accelerate your understanding of balance and wave control all the while giving a little something, something to your surfing repertoire.
The most common of knee downs and if you’re only going to pick one of them to learn should be the back or rear knee down. By learning this trick, you will improve your wave awareness and how you can use the wave to control your speed as you will be locked into a trick and weight adjustments are difficult in this position.
Back Knee Down
1 – Widen your stance. Start with your back foot as far back on the pad as you can get it. Take your front foot and move it forward until you are a good distance past shoulder width.
2 – Drop or fall back to the rear pocket of the wave. Make sure you are at the bottom of the wave. Your board should be pointed in the same direction of travel as the boat. This is usually somewhere out to the side of the boat and not directly at it.
3 – Slowly start dropping your rear or back knee towards the board. When your knee starts to drop it will start weighting your front foot. Let this weight transfer happen. Be cautious of what happens when your front foot gets weighted. You speed up. This is why it is important to keep your board pointed in the same direction of the boats travel or out into the flats just in front of you. We know the flats will slow us down so we are going to use that area to control our speed and keep us from ending up on the swim platform. It’s the same setup as an ollie in the flats if you have tried some of those.
*When you start to drop your knee there are a few ways to get there. I like to keep my foot flat on the board and roll my ankle over. This keeps the more of the foot in contact with the board and most importantly pointed perpendicular to the board giving you more control side to side so the board won’t feel as tippy. Not everyone can bend this way so others will pivot their foot and onto the ball of their foot to achieve getting their knee down onto the board.
4 – Your back knee should be on the board and you have accelerated into the flats. As you feel yourself start to reach the apex of your acceleration you can either stand up to return to your surfing position or hold it until you decelerate a bit back into the pocket. The choice is yours. It’s important to remember that your board is pointed out to the side of the boat and into the flats, so you will not hit the boat. This trick is super easy to get locked into a collision course with the back of the boat if you are pointed there. The potential of damaging your nice new board, your boat or yourself is present so please, please, please, take proper precautions and notice where your board is pointed.
Once you get comfortable with the trick have some fun with it. You can try a knee down floater, or even drop your knee when losing the wave to get you racing back towards the boat. Even a knee down 360 is possible.
This is also a really great trick to practice on land before you ever take it to the water. Play with the two different ways to see what is more comfortable for you. Keeping your foot flat on the board and rolling your ankle takes more flexibility then pivoting on the ball of your foot but allows for more board control. There is no right or wrong way to do this trick as long as your knee gets down. Go with whatever is comfortable and your body is capable of.
Front Knee Down
This one is a less common but can be really stylish as well. For people wanting to learn this trick you should consider a shoot the duck first>
1 – Drop or fall back to the rear pocket of the wave. Make sure you are at the bottom of the wave. Your board should be pointed in the same direction of travel as the boat. This is usually somewhere out to the side of the boat and not directly at it.
2 – Widen your stance. Start with your back foot a fair distance off the tail of your board. Take your front foot and move it forward until you are a good distance past shoulder width. Because of this new stance and you being so forward on the board it should feel like you have most of the weight on your back foot to start initiate the trick. This will also help you from advancing towards the boat or having the nose of your board catch the water… Yes, the dreaded nose pick.
3 – Slowly start dropping your front knee towards the board. When your knee starts to drop it will start weighting your rear foot. What happens when your rear foot gets weighted? We slow down. With your board pointed in the same direction of the boats travel or out into the flats just in front of you may have to edge slightly into the wave to keep yourself in the power zone of the channel. We know the flats will slow us down, so we are going to use that area to control our speed and let us slow down but use the channel to maintain our position and not allow us to lose the wave completely.
*When you start to drop your knee there are a few ways to get there. I like to keep my front foot flat on the board and roll my ankle over. This keeps the more of the foot in contact with the board and most importantly pointed perpendicular to the board giving you more control side to side so the board won’t feel as tippy. I will use the ball of my backfoot to pivot on slightly to allow my front knee to come down onto the board.
4 – Your front knee should be on the board and it will feel like you are sitting back on your rear leg. If you immediately start to lose the wave re adjust your feet and creep them up a little further towards the nose of the board.
