Your best tube ride...

General Discussion
41

No exotic places on this one. I have had a ton of good tubes in my life,but one of the most memorable was this season. It was memorable because it was recent,and mostly because it was on the Gulf…my home area. We don’t get too many good swells in these parts,I mostly travel for my surf. There was a good low that dragged its a*# across Texas and into the gulf,digging in and creating a good fetch pointing at a beach just south of home. Dawn patrol revealed a head to a little plus swell smacking into an offshore breeze and the bars were peeling.Hit the water before the crowds for some fun. The wave was solid and with good pace,I dropped in and pulled up ready to enjoy the view and the eventual pounding into the sandbar. This wave opened up so nice it was sick and just kept going and going,behind the curtain, waiting for the axe. Must have been 150 yards or so but felt like miles,spit out clean and tidy. The next day was back to flat as usual with the passing front and offshores. On the beach with the family it was hard to believe the waves the day before…maybe it didn’t happen…because we all know the gulf does not get any surf… peace and waves…

Sean.W

42

“best tube ride…” v. most memorable tube ride? I may have had tube rides that would seem better to one watching than it seemed to me, and I am sure many of the times I have been tubed, or so it seemed to me, being completely inside the tube, I was surfing alone, or in very uncrowded situations - lucky me, and crowd avoiding me. I’m not sure I could choose one best tube - three deep clean tubes on one overhead wave at “out side rights” 6’8" Local motion w/Marty H. on your tri-plane. In the pocket all the way at Maleea harbor. Lahaina harbor with one of my girlfriends students out looking right at me as I pull in to an overhead grinder. Big camp. Rincon. Looking back I wouldn’t choose one, but I would choose the barrel.

Good question to ponder… Peace, Taylor

43

(Here ya go, Lee):

A Bedtime Story

It`s nearing dusk, and you are airborn on takeoff, drifting down the face of a newly discovered secret wave. As your craft finally touches the surface and finds its line, you begin a long, smooth fade to the left, and toward the strange, angled base of this thickening maul. At the outer edges of your vision you can see the peak heaving itself skyward, and then as the shadow of the lip passes overhead, you quickly straighten, aiming hard for the the bottom.

There is silence in the instant before impact, and then heavy thunder lands close by on your left. But looking away, you focus on the oddly swirling water directly in front of you. The surface is pulling lower, pouring off the rock shelf to meet the incoming wave. At the last possible second, you twist completely over on your inside edge, banking so far to the right that you can`t see much of anything, straining to raise your head, as a great unseen force drives you firmly into the deck, and the tightening arc of your turn throws you over the watery glaze of the reef and safely back up the face.

Leveling out, you skim across the vertical, upper third of the inward-bending wall. While far ahead, the inside bowl rises ominously, stretching out as it grows larger and thicker than it was when you first caught it. Now is the time to let go, and you unwind at nearly full power. The familiar soft chattering of your craft has become an unusual hissing, whispering sound, as you strain to hold a tight high line. As your velocity increases, you wonder if this is what a seabird might be feeling as it soars across a wave, along the upper edge, sensing the invisible pathways of maximum speed.

Fast approaching the inside section, you can see the turbid boils and lifeless, broken kelp that hint the end is near. But without prompting, your vehicle begins a descent toward the surging trough, falling deeper into this coiling hole, the textured, backlit, bluegreen hues becoming dark, oily slick and hard. As if trapped in a slow motion dream without escape, you watch the massive roof of the tube propel itself outward and far ahead. You quickly tuck, but it nearly drags you off as it rushes by.

Instinctively, your grip tightens as you lean closer to the uprushing wall, surprised by the mysterious pull of the building momentum and the fact that youve never ridden anything, anywhere quite this fast.... as you streak toward your waves last escape portal, time has finally slowed to a single moment. And just before it winks shut, you look back at your spiralling, shimmering wake, swallowed up by the swirling darkness, and surrender to the unnerving suspicion that this surf mat of yours is somehow surfing… itself!

http://photothru.com/photo_filedb1/A5/E7/E4/A5E7E4/viewable/A5E7E4_131CB475BF2_1.jpg

44

Hi Wouter,

Ive had all kinds of tube rides, mostly in waves under 10'. Because they were all so different I cant really say which was “best”.

But… one special tube ride occurred at least 25 years ago, just before sunset, on a fast, bowling left, at a headland break known as “Starfish”.

A nice, thick peak loomed up, and I swung around to catch it. The wave appeared to hold promise… perhaps a shallow double-up section on the inside… As expected, the drop was vertical, the apex morphing into a long, hollow wall.

There was no time for a bottom turn, and the lip quickly threw out hitting the trough several feet ahead. I raced through the inside section, the backlit wall illuminated by the evening`s translucent green and golden colors… flying deep inside the spiral.

Of course, it seemed longer, but the wave followed its familiar path along the reef, the arc of its face filling out, the barrel tapering down, approaching the deeper water of the channel… and in a few seconds the ride was over.

As I eased out onto the open face, I remember glancing over my shoulder. You see… another surfer had been riding alongside me inside that tube from the beginning… and both of us were smiling. He was a stoked young kid who I had helped learn to ride waves a few years before. He grew up to be a much-traveled mountain climber and guide, professional home builder, outdoor photographer and a very fine surfer.

My most memorable tube ride… was shared.

45

ive been reading this thread for a week ,every time i go to post a reply ,i cant make up my mind on which tube is more memorable,so many different barrels all unique and worth a story…but finally ive made a pick…

the glassy season autumn 96,a trip up to our north west with a long time buddy who also owns a surfboard factory…

the place,tombstones…

the condititions ,very long lefts ,comfortable size ,not deadly ,about double head,throwing slabs in all the regular spots,perfect conditions…

the board, old reliable 7’ 8" pintail gun, flater tail for accelaration through the long sections,super light for the ocasional snap under the lip…

paddled in forehand,tippy toes take off ,lost a bit of ground on the late take off,the wall was racing away fast and the lip was already over me ,but i wasnt deep at this stage,was working my board as fast as i could keeping an eye on this section 50 meters down the line that was already drawing water off the steps,as im approaching the steps im geting deeper and deeper,so now im fully sloted before i even get to the regular barrel section,i was contemplating trying to pull out through the wall ,coz you have to go wide and pick a line through the bottom step but coz i was already in there i was worried about a lip bashing…

i see this lump emerge out of the face in front of me so i drop as low as i could before being pasted by the lip,and pick this narrow gap, by now the top 2 steps had morphed into the lip to create something that was wider than it was high,id backdoored into the sickest cavern,once again finding myself a little deeper than i wanted to be , i heard the lip slam down on flat water like a thunderclap,and i could hear the roar of the wave ,that section ran away from me ,leaving me to focus on the exit,all of a sudden it went real quiet no noise at all ,the only thing i could hear was my rail gently lapping the face,it was like i was sailing on a gentle breeze …a few seconds later i was blown out with the spit ,back into the noise and the rumble of the wave…

my theory is i got so deep that all the noise was being pushed forward by the pressure building up about to spit,leaving me deep in silence…

i paddled back out ,my mate says " i cant beleive you made it out" he saw the first 25 meters and it wasnt looking promising… i told him about the silence , he just gave me smile like i was on drugs or something…

everyone ive told the story to ,has never had something like that happen…

has anyone else ever had a silent barrel???

regards

BERT

46

I don’t have a particular ride that I would say was my best barrel but I do have a most memorable one.

At Poipu beach, Kauai, the break in front of the Marriott which is primarily a left with a walling, sectiony right breaking into the bay there towards the park. It’s 6+ feet, medium tide I decide to go kneeboard the right since it was basically being ignored by the 20 or so guys out. Been out for about an hour sharing the rights with another guy and the waves are getting bigger and faster as the tide drops. I take off and proceed to drive high as the thing walls up in front of me and I quickly find myself in a big dredging tube making a noise like I’d never heard before. I make it out of the barrel as the tube collapses and the wave flattens out as it hits the deeper water in the bay. As I start to paddle back out a local guy paddles by and says " You one crazy buggah, brah" I’m not sure why he said that so as I paddle I watch the next wave as it barrels along over dry reef for about 10 yards. I realize that head high barrel I was riding had reeled acrossed a section of dry reef and had I not stayed high and made it through the section I would have been slammed onto the dry reef.

One lucky buggah!

47

most memorable - my first genuine - in and out barrel - february 1990 tamri - morocco. Ican still remember every nanosecond and my friend hooting as i got spat out