Keith Sasaki

Keith Sasaki is without question one of the most important Dropkneers of all time. He made DK radical in the '80's by bringing in the swift, fluid, functional turns of stand up surfing, punchy lip blasts of ramp skating, and the quick 360 combinations of prone bodyboarding and mixing them all together to create a blueprint for modern Dropknee.

Keith was Paul Roach's primary influence during Roach's developmental stage (check the Roach interview on 'The Lackey Project' dvd for some great insight and anecdotes on Keith's influence upon Roach), and he made Dropknee not just more attractive and functional, but also  more accessible. What I mean by that is the moves Keith did were moves kids could attempt all over the world in pretty much any kind of surf. You didn't need macking Pipe (or even hollow waves) to begin attempting DK snaps, floaters and 360s, and I think this really made a huge difference to the history of Dropknee - effectively, Keith brought 'tech' to Dropknee.

Another massive achievement of Sasaki was his competition history. He won the first Bud Pro Tour riding 100% DK. And back when the Pipe contest served as a one stop 'World Championship' in bodyboarding (i.e before any world tour), Keith placed 4th in 1986 and 3rd in 1989, again riding 100% DK. These are incredible achievements that will almost certainly never be repeated.

If you can track down the old Morey video 'On The Edge', you can see footage of all the Pipe contests up until '91 and there's plenty of footage of Sasaki displaying his phenomenal, futuristic DK surfing.

Here's Keith talking about being a pro bodyboarder back in 1988...

Sasaki joined the Wave Rebel team in the early '90's and had a series of his own board models that were popular worldwide...

In the short history of Dropknee, Keith Sasaki is comparable to Tom Curren - both shaped the future of their respective sports with smooth, flowing lines and a forward thinking approach to their art. Both went on to majorly influence their respective sport's 'prodigal sons' (Sasaki - Roach. Curren - Slater). Also, both relocated to France!