Dropknee Series > Floater

Author: Sean Tickner
17th September 2006

There are always a couple of ingredients you need before you can whip up a good tasting DK Floater, first and foremost, the wave has to be of a good consistency. It's irritating trying to float 1ft close-outs, especially when you're a gangly bastard like me, you need a wave with a bit of oomph. So here goes, lets get cooking.


Step 1: Approach the Section

You've got to be in a good position, both on your board and on the wave, nice and stable. Have your eye on the section you want to hit and make sure it's not going to be too early, it just looks silly. Too late and you'll get beaten. Just remember, a DK Floater is exactly that, you want to "Float" over or off a section of the wave, projecting yourself above/off the lip, hopefully with as much style as possible.


Step 2: Hitting the section

Don't lean gently towards the section, you need to do it with a bit of aggression, bottom-turn hard and project yourself towards the breaking part of the wave and hit it, not the other way round, don't let the lip hit you. There is a transition at this point, from having all your weight on the inside leg as you go up to shifting it across to the outside as you hit the section, this is because you want to control yourself, if you don't shift correctly, you'll just keep turning and go off the back of the wave.


Step 3: Floating

This is when you try and "unweight" yourself, as you float over the section. You'll see a lot of guys at this critical point with their arms up, it helps maintain your balance and it helps you "Float like a Butterfly". Depending on the timing as well as the size of the wave or section, you can grab your rail to keep control of your board. To add a little spice, you can try throw your tail out a bit, this works on close-outs. As you float the section, grab the rail and throw the tail, landing straight, whereas with a running wave you want to try keep momentum so you'll try float over the section and keep going in the same direction, staying with the wave.


Step 4: Landing

Without this, your masterpiece will be a flop. It doesn't count if you don't land it, no matter how sick it looks. Try see where you're going to land, easiest spot is on top of the foam and the hardest is when you get projected into the flats. Brace yourself for the landing, strong knees help. Sometimes guys will almost "lay back" as they land, just make sure you regain your balance and carry on. It's important that you try land with your balance centered on your board, too far forward and you'll nosedive, owww! Too far back and you'll find it harder to maintain. Too much on either rail and you'll dig it and people will laugh at you. Once you've maintained the landing, you can move onto the next section to beat mercilessly.


* Most important aspect to make this recipe a success is to try do it with style and confidence, it'll look better and the groupies will soon be throwing themselves at your feet.

Please note: you can't try track me down and beat me if my tips don't work, but if you've got any questions just e-mail me, sean [at] randomprojects.co.za

Thanks to Jared Schafer for the framegrabs.

Viewed 5169 times