the drop knee turn

From peakmasters favorite mag Longboarder circa 1999 jan/feb issue Lineup by devon howard
The drop knee is actually used in three specific instances to initiate a backside bottom turn,as a frontside top turn,and as a full frontside cutback.
The top turn is the best place to start. It's used when you want to redirect off the top,back towards the pocket. As you near the the lip line,take a half step back with your trailing foot towards the tail,postion it over the fin.Set the toes and ball of your foot parallel to the stringer. Your heel will be raised off the deck,giving you maximum leverage.Weight the outside rail and your back foot,pivoting the board into the  fall line.You'll want to cheat your back foot twords the outside rail.Your trailing knee will be bent into a near 90 degree angle. Immediately release your weight,and step your trailing foot back into normal trim postion. Your arms should lead the way,and smoothly guide the turn.

Backside drop-knee,ala phil edwards at cottons,paddle into a backside wave angled towards the soup not the shoulder.As you stand up,go right into the drop knee postion and swing the board into the  trim line. Don't wait for the bottom to initiate this turn; if you start it high and early,you can run right out of it to the tip. Be carfull not to over power this turn ,or you will fly out the back.

You are now ready for the mother of all drop knee turns the cut back.Like any other drop knee the faster you're going the cooler it feels and looks. Your goal is to warap the board around through a full 180 degree arc in a poised drop knee postion. Before you rebound off the soup,bring your trailing foot back to it's normal trim postion and swing back twords the shoulder.

Keep in mind the most common problem for beginer's is having your foot slip off the tail block. Wax your board heavilly all the way to the tail.

The long board grotto has a bunch back issues of longboarder from when Devon Howard was the editor,back when it was a good magazine,chock full good stuff.
Mango Bill

On the technique of the deep drop knee

KJ When you do the drop knee turn, are you just essentially just pushing down on the rail? It looks like a pretty stripped down turn. 
KM I'm pushing on the inside back rail. And it's interesting, like in one photograph you can see that I'm on the inside edge of the stringer with both of my feet. Like I'm not on the other side of the board at all. 
KJ Interesting. 
KM I've got both of my feet on the inside stringer doing the turn. The back one's kind of directly on the stringer on the tail and the other one's you know, on the stringer toward the other, the in--, the wave side. 
KJ Your whole body's kind of offset. 
KM Yep. 
KJ When I analyze these things I think about the body lean. You kind of lean the other way, like away from the turn. Which is something that skiiers do. 
KM Uh huh. 
KJ It's called counterleaning. 
KM OK. 
KJ I'm sure it's just natural for you, but you get all that weight on one side, and then you're actually leaning the other way with your shoulder so the board carves really deeply. 
KM Yeah. 
KJ Are you pivoting? Do you feel a twisting too, or is it pretty much. . . 
KM I, I notice my foot pivots just a little bit, but it's almost so automatic. It's uh. When you talk about skiing, you know, how you automatically set your skis and your knees are following. It's all repetition. I mean once you force yourself to do it correctly it falls into, you know, the repetitive nature. 
KJ I mean, are you sort of twisting your upper body to whip the board around at all, or do you feel like it's mostly just pressing down? 
KM You know what? I would never want to do something like, you never want to force your upper body to do what your legs are doing. It's kinda like, keep your upper body quiet and do it with the bottom. I want, of course you lead with your upper body. With your hands and your torso, but I don't use the upper body to turn the board. 
KJ That's what it looks like. It looks like you're pressing down and letting the board do the work of the turning. Somehow the turning surface of the rail is just carving it. 
KM Yeah. 
KJ One thing I find is hard to do on the drop knee is to get your foot really pointing down so that it's not a flat foot turn at all. 
KM OK. 
KJ That's one thing it seems like you're really doing really well. You're turning your foot in. So it's like that heel is sticking straight up. 
KM Yeah, the heel is up, and that's just a second nature gig. You know, I go to do it, and it just pivots up. And I still think that's from early skateboarding. Where the tail of my board didn't, I didn't have room to put it. So I didn't put it flat footed, I (chuckles) put it up. You know I had this little pin tail. But then it just comes from surfing Malibu on that big heavy board. So, it all just kind of evolved. And then, you know, then once it it was working I was like, "hey I love this fade turn." That was the cool thing about longboarding, it gave you fade turn in on a one foot high wave, or knee high wave, that, you know, on a shortboard you weren't going to be able to do at all. Cause you had this initial speed that you could paddle into a wave, whip a turn, and then go. And that was just a fun way to start a wave. 
KJ So for you, it's a left go right, and then you fade and then do a drop knee. 
KM Yep. Well the-- it's a fade, drop knee turn at the same time. 
KJ Oh, the whole thing is a big, like, change of direction. 
KM It's a fade, yeah, fade going left and whip it right, and then it's a big drop knee turn. It's just a fun way to start it. You know I'd see these guys, you know, regular foots, go in and do this neat fade turn and whip around and be frontside, and I'm going "hey, I want to do the same thing." So I'd look into the wave and fade, and do this big turn coming back. At Malibu you do it a hundred times, for a whole summer, each day. It was just a fun way to start the wave. 

On analyzing tapes and copying the masters

KJ So, you did mention that you'd seen the Robert August tape. Was there ever a point where you sat down and tried to analyze what you were doing, like seeing yourself on tape? Or is it all kind of by feel? 
KM Oh yeah, No, no, no. Once you know, I felt like "this is just the natural fun way I start waves." But when I saw, then I would look at it. Oh, I saw Nuiieva on this videotape, and I'm like, ok. Wingnut and I would rewind it, and then we'd watch him, we'd watch Billy Hamilton, and then we'd watch, uh. We'd just sit around and we'd go, "ok, now that's, that's what we're trying to copy." And, "look at that, look how smooth that is." And we would just rewind it and watch it a few times and go "ok, that's what we're talking about. Look at the way he set's that up." And here's somebody twenty years before you doing it, you know, what you're trying to do. 
KJ When was this that you and Wingnut were watching these tapes? 
KM Oh, you know, probably right before he went on an Endless Summer stuff. You know that time frame in our. . . 
KJ Early nineties I guess. 
KM That time frame when he was twenty something and I was twenty something. You know, we're just starting to hang out and surf and have fun. You know, we'd sit back and talk about it, and just go, "hey, check this out." That's-- And he would find one of those and go, "this is what I'm talking about. Look where he starts the turn and where he finishes it." 
KJ Yeah, it's interesting, you wound up with two very different styles. 
KM Mm hmm.