HISTORY

West Aussie Chris Bryan was one of West Ozs top Dropknee riders throughout the 90′s. A few years back Chris swapped his flippers for cameras and is now regarded as one of the finest  surf film photographers getting around. Photo Holtzman.

Three of the sports first stars competing in the early 80′s for the prestigious World Title at Pipeline.Pat Caldwell, JP Paterson and Jack Lindholm.

In the early 80′s Sasaki was the first Drop Knee rider to bury his rail and do full carving turns. This shot taken more recently shows he hasn’t lost any of his original flair.

In the 80′s and 90′s  incredible moves like this inspired bodyboarders world wide to Drop Knee

When the sport really took off in the 80′s the unique  image it projected was of strictly fun and goodtimes. Where surfing was littered with scandal and casualties in the 80′s the new sport was all about fresh smiling faces loving life on there Boogies which gave it a much broader appeal. It was mostly Bodyboarding Magazine that was behind the clean cut look . Today those endless grins are long gone and the image of the sport has caught up to and is on par with surfing in most ways.

 

 

Manny first came to the bodyboard worlds attention in an early young gun style profile in Bodyboard Magazine. Since then he has become one of the sports most visual,vocal and well known promoters and contest announcers. This shot showing Manny’s flamboyant functional style from Threesixty Mag.

Check out this earlybodyboard/spoon kneeboard prototype. Made of a rubbery type material it has been scooped out with a George Greenough type design and cut outs for legs. Age unknown.

Mason Rose grew up at Port MacQuarie surfing with Eppo, Kingy, Thorto, Todd DeGraaf and The Murray Bros. To standout in this highly competitive are you had to rip and Rosey rose to the challenge. Today he lives in Hawaii and continues to be one of DKs most important ambassadors.

 

Jack Lindholm was the originator of Dropknee  which was known at back then as the Jack Stance. Times and styles may have changed since The Ripper first paddled out at Pipe in the late 70′s and changed Bodyboarding forever but there’s still no denying  that Jack was years ahead of his time.

Two legends of the sport share the good times in Hawaii after another Northshore season.