Surfing Waves

A surf lingo question. I noticed that surf commentators use the word backdoor to describe going through a peak from the far side of it after the lip has started to tip over. Amoung my group of friends it was entering a tube that had allready formed from the far side and coming out the other side which is a much more difficult thing to do then just to tuck under a lip as it tosses out. I have sucessfully done that only a few times. One day in particular I was surfing a big left called Horners and I was way over from the bowl where most everyone else was taking off. I caught a wave and backdoored the tube (6 foot day so 10-12 foot faces) then caught like 4 more waves and totally got pounded. Paddling back out after the foruth pounding one of the guys who I knew from the group of guys who I knew every one of them paddled over to me and asked me if I was making some of those waves. I said "One out of five so far". He said "OK that's good but if you weren't making any of them we were going to drop in on you." Anyway it is not an easy task to accomplish so I wonder what does backdoor mean to you? What did you learn it to mean?

oldmansurfer wrote: I caught a wave and backdoored the tube (6 foot day so 10-12 foot faces)

You can call it whatever you like as far as I'm concerned

I always understood it to mean going under the lip just before the barrel forms, and then having the wave close up behind you, rather than being on the face and having the barrel wrap around you.

But, yes, often used to mean ducking under a lip in front of you, which is much easier (and about as close as I've got to backdooring any barrel).

That was a left too so backside for me. More often I got a backdoor tube by my definition at Hanalei even though I surfed there less because there is 2 main breaks Impossibles and the Bowl and they don't often hook up well but if you pour the speed on at the end of Impossibles you can often backdoor the Bowl. Hanalei is a right breaking wave so I am frontside there and it's a really nice mostly even breaking wave with a few sections and the wall even when it isn't breaking is steep enough to gain speed on. I bet there is no doing that these days as the crowds there are insane. I think the commentators I heard use the definition you learned. But I am not backdooring anything lately by any definition and not even getting tubed (other than the tail of my board or my feet.) If I do get a decent tube you all will be hearing about it....(sorry:) )

Had to laugh this morning after this thread...

I was out at Snapper this morning, but it was tiny and I was surfing the beachie for a bit when I heard someone claiming to have "backdoored a section" that was all of 1ft high and definitely not barrelling

The meaning of words change over time. Back in my day it was entering a tube that already formed through the back side opening and then making it out the other side. This is a difficult thing to do but maybe easier to accomplish at bowl breaks. If you don't make it out it might be called "taking gas." I haven't heard anyone use that phrase in a while. I can see that maybe just negotiating a section that already broke in front of you might also be called backdooring it. Yeah it could be the person claiming the backdoor was just bored and being sarcastic or goofy?

drowningbitbybit wrote:Had to laugh this morning after this thread...

I was out at Snapper this morning, but it was tiny and I was surfing the beachie for a bit when I heard someone claiming to have "backdoored a section" that was all of 1ft high and definitely not barrelling

This whole thread is giving me Roy and HG flashbacks.

This comment only makes sense to Australians, so apologies to everyone else.