Surfing Waves

Dear longboarders!


I am getting into drop-knee turns, after trying and failing occasionally I gave it a good shot last session. I am regular footed, and usually ride from the middle of the board. I drop my left leg which is great for the cutback but after the board has turned back I am at a loss of what to do; I did it a couple of times and simply brought my left leg back forward, and leaned forwards digging the right rail shortly before falling off.

After doing a drop knee cutback, where should I put my feet to turn back into trim? I have a feeling that I need to move my right leg back, but that would completely throw my balance!


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rickyroughneck wrote:Dear longboarders!


I am getting into drop-knee turns, after trying and failing occasionally I gave it a good shot last session. I am regular footed, and usually ride from the middle of the board. I drop my left leg which is great for the cutback but after the board has turned back I am at a loss of what to do; I did it a couple of times and simply brought my left leg back forward, and leaned forwards digging the right rail shortly before falling off.

After doing a drop knee cutback, where should I put my feet to turn back into trim? I have a feeling that I need to move my right leg back, but that would completely throw my balance!


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Ricky, I'm confused here, a number of things in your description don't add up to me.
So let me ask a few questions that might clear this up.
A left or a right hand wave
You say you are regular footed = left foot forward, is this correct

Some of the ingredients of a drop knee turn are counter intuitive so a little coaching is appropriate.

More information on your reply

jaffa1949 wrote:

Rickyroughneck wrote:Dear longboarders!


I am getting into drop-knee turns, after trying and failing occasionally I gave it a good shot last session. I am regular footed, and usually ride from the middle of the board. I drop my left leg which is great for the cutback but after the board has turned back I am at a loss of what to do; I did it a couple of times and simply brought my left leg back forward, and leaned forwards digging the right rail shortly before falling off.

After doing a drop knee cutback, where should I put my feet to turn back into trim? I have a feeling that I need to move my right leg back, but that would completely throw my balance!


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Ricky, I'm confused here, a number of things in your description don't add up to me.
So let me ask a few questions that might clear this up.
A left or a right hand wave
You say you are regular footed = left foot forward, is this correct

Some of the ingredients of a drop knee turn are counter intuitive so a little coaching is appropriate.

More information on your reply

Regular footed yes, wave is a right. I step back with my left leg to put pressure on the left side of the board, over the fins, so my right foot is then forward. That is a drop-knee? - otherwise I am doing something completely different

It looks like you are doing your drop knee turn all rrrrs about face in a number of ways, a drop knee is a cut back when the wave is too weak to support a roundhouse cutback.
You don't switch your front foot to your back, try squaring your shoulders around anticlockwise so you are facing towards where you are going to go down the line weight your right foot and slide your rear foot ( should be your right) because it's less weighted over and back to behind and closer to the outside rail and bend the knee till it almost touches the board ( you might have to make the bend a learning progression to get used to getting more bent).

Release your shoulders and swing your upper board to the right raise your trunk and push down over your fin with your right leg and straighten the knee control and continue bringing the board around until you can sight a line to swing off the oncoming white water engage the rail and return to driving right across the face at this stage you should be stepping forward to further engage the rail and find the trim spot

These picture may help there are others available there are probably videos of these guys online at the ASP longboard competitions all the top guys can show you how trying to talk you through it is challenging and like I said the turn is a little counter intuitive

I've found that if you keep your eyes focused on where you are going to turn, your shoulders follow-on which naturally adjusts your whole body for the turn. If you do this, you are much less likely to fall off or bog your rail.