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Tarping up. “You’re only the second person I’ve ever slept with.” Stop flattering yourself, stupid. You’ve been sucked in. Unprotected sex is dumb. God knows, we’re all guilty but for the sake of a little more enjoyable rutting, tarp up. Terminations, kids and STDs are not good. Gotta wear the chimmey chongers. |
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Call it what you like – barrel, shack, cave, pit or green room. it is the best thing in surfing. as a surfer, this is what you live for. I can’t imagine anything feeling better. Once you taste it, you will hunt it for the rest of your life. Work? School? Responsibilities? They’re nothing if there are barrels to be had.
Don’t worry, it’s not just you. Something special happens in there. I used to think I had had heaps of tubes until one day when I was around 11 or 12 my dad filmed me. I was thinking I was getting all these sick little tubes, then I went home to check out the video
evidence. The truth was cruel. I was absolutely nowhere near the tube! I remember thinking, “Whoa, I have really got to park it.” To save you the same embarrassment, here’s some tips about the tube.
Pulling in...
The best way to practice getting tubed is to pull into frontside closeouts (backside is much harder, and we’ll get to that later). Make sure the wave is throwing, not crumbling.
This time, you’re not looking where you’re going, you’re looking up at the lip. It’s a whole new ball game. All your movements will be in response to what that lip does.
The head dip blues. You may think that because your face and head are under the lip, you’re steaming through in perfect style. You’re not. You’re just in the pocket. Nice feeling, but not a barrel.
Keep your legs bent when looking for the barrel. Sure, you’ve seen photos of hot surfers standing tall in the barrel, but slow down, tiger, you’re learning. Besides, your first few barrels are not going to be that big.
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Don’t freak out. Don’t close your eyes in the tube. Ever. I know you’re only new to this game and used to spending a good deal of time falling but a lot of the time virgin pit riders miss tubes because they’ve got their eyes closed. Also, don’t give up. Always try to ride that barrel as long as you can. If you jump, it’s only because you’re afraid of falling off. Don’t jump, and you increase your chance of not falling. Just because you’re inside the wave doesn’t mean you’re toast.
Setting up the tube. When you’re in sucky waves, practice setting up barrels by staying in the pocket. Keep a low center of gravity, and get a feel for this part of the wave. It’s intense, and unforgiving. Run your hand along the face of the wave and get used to the feeling of riding high and low.
Waves that barrel are typically steeper and harder to take off on. Some give you an easy drop before building and pitching, in which case you’ll have to stall or slow down to get in it. But most barrels are straight after a steep take-off. If you’re paddling into a wave that looks like it’s going to throw,
paddle hard. Your last stroke is like a mini-maneuver, setting your speed and position for the barrel. If it’s a fast
barrel and you struggle with the drop, the tube will leave you behind. Lean forward as you stand up, take a quick look at the wave’s face, which is where you’re heading, then look up to the lip.
I’ve hinted that your ankles are
crucial to good surfing. Well, in the
barrel, they are everything. You don’t want to move your body around too much inside because you’ll get clipped by the lip. So to make adjustments in your line, tweak your ankles. You can even generate speed by using them to pump your board. The other adjustment you can make is to drag your arm in the wave face to slow yourself down.
The biggest thing is to identify which waves barrel. Only experience can teach you that. But don’t worry, once you have tasted tuberiding, you will dedicate your life to experiencing it whenever you can. After that, it’s working out how deep you can get. You may think I’m crazy, but play the surf game on PS2. This is really what setting up the tube is like.
Oh yeah, and as for Gerry Lopez’s famous statement that the safest part of the wave is in the tube, he’s right. I guess. Just try to ignore the horror stories on pages 120 and 150.
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