What is DK4LIFE?
It’s a video, and yet it’s more than just a video. DK is a family, and we’re trying to build a positive outlet to expose it.

Who is involved with DK4LIFE?
There are a lot of people “putting in work” for the video right now. We see it like this—if you dropknee, video, or just simply respect dropknee riding, then you’re involved in DK4LIFE. We don’t want to come off as this elitist group of riders that makes everyone else seem like they don’t mean anything. It’s not even like that. Like I just said, DK is a family. And DK4LIFE is an attempt to bring everyone under the same roof.

Now with that much said there are actually people who are putting their money, sweat, and efforts into making this happen. They deserve to be mentioned: Micah McMullin is basically spearheading the overall project with help from Leroy Kaiwi, Kyle Matsumoto, Mason Rose, Zach de la Cruz, Evan Fa, and other video guys and riders like Euan Morell, and a lot more.

Who came up with the idea?
While a bunch of us were cruising at Grant Molony’s house in OZ a few years back, we noticed he had “DK4LIFE” stamped on his boards. Probably since most of us were dropkneers, it got us amped! He eventually stamped our boards with it. From there we all kind of thought it’d be sick to make an all dropknee video—a video that would showcase as many dropkneers, if not all, without the political garbage that typically goes into making and selecting who goes into a video.

Where is the footage going to be coming from for DK4LIFE?
We are currently spread out through Australia, Europe, California, and Hawaii. We have support from some of the legendary video guys of the past and innovators of the present. While we are excited with the support we are receiving from these regions, and really hope to collaborate with more and more people, the video is only going to be made possible through riders getting a hold of footage or videoing each other. In other words, we are asking dropkneers out there to “put in work” and get some footage that we can put in the video. It has to be very high performance and good quality. That’s a given. But for how much we travel and shoot, there’s no way we’ll be able to get every dropkneer at his or her best, in his or her element, and on those days that you really have to live there in order to score. For this reason we need YOUR contributions in order to fill in the gaps!

Why do think no one has come up this idea before?
Actually, we decided to create and run with the idea of DK4LIFE as a follow-up to (Joseph) Libby’s work in Fumanchu (Libby/Scotty Carter) and Untouchables. Both videos helped give dropknee riding an identity of its own. Whereas dropknee had previously been, to a certain extent, subordinate to prone riding, as well as videos only including minute amounts of dropknee, Fumanchu and Untouchables set dropknee apart and pushed the standards for high performance dropknee to a new level. In some ways, we even feel it gave drop knee more validity as a functional way of riding waves.

The difference between DK4LIFE and Libby’s efforts is that we are the new generation of riders with higher expectations. We don’t want to couch ourselves in the past or sit in the shadow of Fumanchu and all the other videos that showcased dropknee, but rather we want to build on all their efforts while throwing our own spin on things—something fresh, stylish, and unique. Bodyboarding, specifically dropknee, has developed and expanded far beyond where it was only a decade ago. This video is going to prove that.

How has the reception been of the concept thus far?
We’ve been receiving a lot of support from people around the world. It probably helps that a lot of us already know each other. But we do realize that there are tremendous amounts of dropneers out there that aren’t within our present network—those we’ve both heard and haven’t heard about. We hope that little by little, getting the idea out there about DK4LIFE, we can reach out to those riders, become friends, and show who they are and their riding in the video.

What riders are involved with the project at this point?
Here are just a few names (forgive us for not mentioning you since we inevitably will): Mason Rose, Kim Feast, Kainoa Mcgee, Grant Molony, Adam Dumas, Micah McMullin, Leroy Kaiwi, Fred Compagnon, Scotty Carter, Kyle Matsumoto, Cass Sonada, Colin Black, Kaleo Patterson, Derek Miyashiro, Asa Aquino, Aka Lyman, Robbie Crawford, Kawika Kaui, Sean English, JJ Ayala, Keith Sasaki.

How much footage do you have thus far?
Actually, we already have a lot of footage. Right now, though, it’s limited to a select contingent of riders, especially when you compare it to the amount of good dropkneers there are all around the globe. For that reason we are still far from where we expect to go with this project. We want the footage to include a far broader audience than any videos have accomplished. In order to do that we have to reach out to those dropkneers, underground or not, who are killing it in places that most of us are either familiar or unfamiliar with. For example, how many of us have heard of a guy named “Chucky” in Costa Rica? By the photographs we’ve seen, the guy is punting dropknee airs that would have most of the WCT stand-ups in awe. He’s the Costa Rican version of Bud Miyamoto from Kauai, vice versa, in that respect. It is dropkneers like him that need and deserve more exposure, and we want to give it to them. If guys like him are able to link up with better sponsorship deals and get shots in the magazines as a result of the exposure we can give him, we could honestly sit down and say we’ve done our job.

When do you think the video may be released?
At this point, we really cannot give a firm date on when the video is going to be released. A ballpark estimate would be in about a year and a half to two years. People might wonder why we’re getting the concept out there so early, especially if our release date is so distant. The thing is we really want to assure ourselves that all our bases are covered: we want to include as many riders as possible and establish a solid following. We also don’t want to put out a mediocre product, so we’d rather hold back until all the footage is superb.

How can people keep up to date with DK4LIFE?
Check out our Myspace page www.myspace.com/thedk4lifevideo for interviews of riders, our video crew, supporters, etc. Shoot us an email to thedk4lifevideo@gmail.com with questions about where you can send footage and whatever else you got on your mind. Also check out these other companies that support us (we expect the list we grow more and more):

www.dksessions.com
www.bodyboardculture.com
www.hollowpits.com
www.bodyboarder.com