Surfing Waves

Hey guys, I'm backpacking Nicaragua with my mom for my 18th, I leave next saturday. I'm really excited about the long left breaks and I'm stoked out of my mind about catching my first barrel. Any tips on barrels? Any of you surfed playa maderas before? Thanks!

Barrel tips , get your line drive working and your fine motor skills to hold yourself in the optimum position, you can take off late and drop into the pit and maintain your position ( A level game that) or you can drive down the line read the wave well and stall back and let the barrel catch up, ( the need here is to finely judge when to accelerate ).
Take your A game see if you can do it, a good surfing trip on long lefts will refine your surfing heaps, get your skills to be more instinctive and thought free and maybe just maybe you may squeak your first barrel. ( only counts if you make it out)
Cover ups head dips and pigdog face washes only = pseudo barrels
Simple rule; If you can see wave on both sides of your face in your peripheral vision it is a barrel,if you are back on the foam ball and there is a hole of light in front of you, you are in a very deep barrel. If the light goes out you are in a wipeout
Here are two waves that just qualify as a barrels. The guy is a top 10 WCT pro.

If you are a newbie the tendency is to try to take off on the shoulder. Often that will be impossible so if you find trouble taking off, try a little deeper and a little deeper. Eventually you will find a spot that lets you in. Work on your bottom turn. You may need to get a lot of speed from your bottom turn or to take speed off on your bottom turn so watch the wave and learn to judge what it is going to do. Try not to paddle out or be where the lip is coming down. Go around that area both for your own safety and for that of surfers trying to ride the waves coming in as you paddle out. If you have problems pearling try to take off at an angle instead of straight down the wave. You have to commit to the wave, if you hesitate that may be the difference between catching the wave and eating it horribly on takeoff. And most important have fun