The start to Dane Reynolds‘ 2011 season — assuming there is one — will be rocky.

Reynolds injured his knee during his stay in Hawaii late last month. He’d nevertheless surfed the Billabong Pipeline Masters on what looked like a bad wheel earlier in the month, which means his problem has been nagging him for a while. In an effort to fix the problem once and for all Dane is headed for surgery tomorrow.

After a few hard landings in Hawaii Dane Reynold’s has been grounded by a knee injury. Photo: ASP/Kirstin

Things could have been worse. Apparently the doctors feel the injury isn’t as bad as they originally feared. “The good news is that it’s not an ACL injury,” said Quiksilver’s Michael Crawley. Crawley told Australia’s Coastal Watch. “Once the damage is repaired he’ll be back in better form than before.”

Recovery will keep Reynolds out of the water for up to ten weeks, which puts his appearance at the first stop of the 2011 ASP season in serious doubt. The waiting period for the Quiksliver Pro begins February 26.

Dane finished fourth in the world last year, a feat all the more impressive given it looked like he was putting very little mental effort into his mission. He’s regarded by many as the best surfer on tour. Like many surfers, he’s expressed doubts about a life of traveling from contest to contest. Those doubts have turned into speculation on whether he wouldn’t even come back in 2011, after he expressed some of his feelings to STAB Magazine.

Either way, ten weeks on the sidelines will give Reynolds plenty of time for soul searching. The big question is whether being forced out of the water is more or less likely to light a fire under his ass. The clock is ticking.