The ancient Kahunas‘ hang out?

[oldmansurfer]

I thought I would write about one of the best tube rides I ever had. A particularly beautiful tube ride I had was at Horners my home break. Horners breaks left mostly but this was a right breaking wave. The waves breaking left and right ended up by what we call the Horners rock which is a pile of rocks that sticks out of the water inside of the break. At that size and tide the waves from both the right and the left ended up meeting together almost exactly at the rock. Horners is usually a left but once in a while there is a big right (called Big Rights) and this day was about 6 to 8 feet. I liked both waves so I would paddle out to one then after riding the wave paddle to the other. I kept alternating between rights and lefts. While the rights looked better I was getting better rides on the left (getting tubed backside). I couldn't figure out how to ride the right. Basically I could only get a quick in and out of the tube whereas on the left I was able to get a sustained tube ride. Finally I decided to paddle all the way to the peak as previously I was taking off on the shoulder unable to resist taking off on such beautiful tubing waves. The first wave I went for at the peak was in the 6 to 8 foot range, at least twice my height but maybe a little higher and I took off and was completely covered by the lip and enveloped for a fraction of a second in whitewater. I had just barely popped up and the wave covered me up. But the scary start quickly developed into a beautiful huge tube. It was huge for the size of the wave. I was so amazed and thought I bet I can't even touch the wave if I stick my hands out. So I tried it and sticking my hands all the way out sideway reaching for the lip and the wave and I couldn't touch it. I was riding along with my hands straight out from my shoulders. It was so peaceful. I couldn't see out of the tube because the wave curved back toward the open ocean away from the beach and I was deep but for some reason I felt completely comfortable and in fact almost in ecstasy as the experience was so powerful. After a while I realized the rock was approaching but I could not see it as I was too deep and the wave curved but I knew the wave should be slowing down a little and I should be able to come out of the tube soon. Still my mood went from one of complete relaxation and ecstasy to one of increasing concern and apprehension. I knew that rock was coming up soon and once I came out of the tube I saw it was right there and the left breaking wave was right there too so I turned up the face to go over the back of the wave but just as my board got to the lip it pitched over a few inches and that stopped my board from going over the back of the wave and I was ejected over the back but caught by the movement of the wave and swept over the rock. I flattened out my body to make it less likely to hit the rock. It worked for the most part. I ended up with about an eight inch scratch on my chest and abdomen that wasn't bleeding and a scratch of a similar size maybe a little longer on the deck of my board. I think I decided to call it a day after that lucky incident. What a mixture of emotions on that wave. First the shock of the wave covering me up so quickly then the big beautiful tube ride then the apprehension of the rock and then the actual rock and narrow escape from serious injury. I have been so lucky.

[billie_morini]

Aloha, Ol' Man! ♥️ this story! I can only imagine what it is like to be inside a big tube like that. Thank you for sharing with such vivid description. billie

[oldmansurfer]

I just realized that many of my most memorable tube rides started with the wave covering me up completely right as I popped up or in less than a second after I popped up. This is not what you want when you are riding waves because that can mean that it's breaking too fast and you're not going to make the wave. But there was one break I surfed where every wave was like that. There was a reef break on the east side of Kauai that broke often when no other breaks were breaking. We called it anchors because there was an anchor on the reef that used to stick out of the water over there. It was a very different wave from any I have ridden. It was deceptively powerful for its size. You barely had time to stand up before getting tubed and actually sometimes you didn't stand up yet and were already tubed. You needed a fast popup. I only surfed there a couple of times and only at shoulder to head high size. But both times it was one after the other tube rides and nearly every single wave coming out of the tube with lots of speed and going over the back of the wave traveling so fast I could do three S turns in the flat water even though the wave was maybe waist high at that point. Some friends told me they surfed it at a bigger size (overhead to double overhead) and that it was very dangerous at that size. I had no desire to surf it at that size LOL

[oldmansurfer]

This was like 50 years ago or so at a break on the north shore of Kauai. I hadn't been surfing there in a while but heard the swell was up. Paddling out I had no idea how many surfers were already out. You couldn't see how many very well from the shore in larger surf. When I got out there were about 60 surfers! Yeah not much for some of you but way too many for me. I would have a hard time competing for waves with that many. Thirty surfers is the most I went out there with and less than that at every other break I ever surfed at. I sat there and tried to figure out which side of the crowd to hang out on because I would have a better chance to ride some waves if I hung on one side or the other. On the inside (the Bowl) I could catch the leftovers or the waves where people wipe out since every single wave will have someone riding it. On the outside (Impossibles) I may be able to get the wave before the others have a chance. After catching a couple shorter and smaller leftover waves I decided to try outside and paddled over. It was real difficult there too since a few others had already pushed out into that area. I knew all the guys in that area. They were all guys I surfed with often so I begged them to let me catch a wave. One of them told me "NO! You have to beat us paddling for the waves." I tried but they were better paddlers than me.

Then I noticed waves breaking over about 75 yards from everyone which only broke about every 15 minutes or so but no one there. The waves looked fast but ridable and with no one there if I caught a wave every 15 minutes that would be one more wave every 15 minutes than what I was catching where I was. So I paddled over there. The first wave that came in after I got there I took off on and immediately got covered up by the wave. I barely stood up and found myself covered in whitewater. I was in the tube but completely covered in white water and figured I would be lunching it soon. But suddenly my head popped out of the whitewater. I could see down the wave and I was so far back in the tube I could not see where the wave was breaking. The wave made a gradual turn toward the shore and I could not see the breaking part of the wave as it was hidden by the bend in the wave which was 30 yards or so ahead. I was at least 30 yards deep in the tube which is the furthest back that I had ever been. Gradually my body and board emerged from the whitewater and I could see light at the end of the tube but no sky because the wave curved a bit. I came closer and closer to the breaking lip and started thinking I was going to make it and sure enough I emerged from the tube to see 5 guys paddling to catch the wave I was riding. I figured maybe they didn't see me and yelled "WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO" Partly to warn them and partly because I was so stoked I just had to yell at the top of my lungs.

The first 4 guys backed off when they saw me but the fifth guy dropped in on me. He made the wave break where he took off which obstructed my view and made me decide to straighten out. I got pounded by the wave and towed for a while till my leash came off my foot. Then I had to swim in to get my board. I was a little disappointed because I would have gotten tubed again if not for that one guy. Still it was the best tube ride of my life so hard to feel very bad about it. By the time I got my board and paddled back out one of the local guys had punched the guy who dropped in on me in the face and was telling him to get out of the water. I don't know if he dropped in on someone else or what but I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it. I just paddled back to that spot again but never caught another incredible tube ride like that one again.

That break probably won't catch on because if you get caught inside, you'll get pounded. I got caught inside twice after the fantastic wave. The first time I wiped out on a wave and larger waves came in. I got so pounded and knocked back to the inside then paddling back out and almost there I got caught again. Repeat this three times then finally I get out again. I remember during the second set of waves on the head I was so out of breath I thought I was going to drown. During the third set of waves on the head I knew I wasn't drowning, but thought this was worse than drowning and I am doing this voluntarily. After resting and catching a couple waves eventually I wiped out again and got caught inside again but not wanting to take another pounding especially without catching anything even close to the fantastic first wave I caught I went in. At Impossibles you can try to go to the side and get out between Impossibles and the Bowl or if you are too inside just go around the bowl and back out but from this place that was a far paddle taking a heavy pounding all the time.

[oldmansurfer]

I was at University of Hawaii and heard the surf was up in Town so I grabbed my board and walked to the beach. Previously I found I could do that as quickly or quicker than taking the beach bus which was the only bus that allowed you to take surfboards in Honolulu. I got to my usual breaks 3's and 4's and the waves weren't breaking right for that swell but I could see the Alamoana bowl was breaking so I paddled across to Magic Island and the bowl was too crowded with guys breaking each others boards. but on the far side was a break with only 5 guys out and it looked nice so I went out there. I heard it was called "Concessions" and later that it was called "Tennis courts" still not sure which one. Anyway it was right breaking wave and was about 4 to 6 foot that day which would be wave faces up to 12 feet and real hollow, tubing out kind of weak slow waves.

I was so stoked to get a break with only 5 guys out and nice waves and paddled out assuming my place in the lineup. But these 5 guys were being possessive about the waves. One guy would paddle around me and another on the inside of me. Now it isn't cool to paddle around someone but it is their lineup so I just went along with it. By convention I had to let the surfer in the more critical position take off but when I backed off, the surfer in the more critical position backed off too and the other surfer to my right in the less critical position would take off. I was pretty good at late takeoffs so I positioned myself at my limit which was likely beyond their limits and I kept paddling until the deeper guy had to take off. He didn't a couple times and I caught those waves but then he went for it on most waves. He usually ended up wiping out and I did this repeatedly but I think at least one of them got real tubed on at least one wave. That was fun for a while but I still didn't catch many waves.

I noticed there were bigger sets (6 to 8 feet) coming in that broke outside about every 15 minutes and no one was riding them so I paddled out there and sat and waited. On the first wave that came in I paddled and popped up and the wave immediately covered me in a moist tube. It was unanticipated and alarming how fast I was covered by the wave but soon found myself coming out of the tube. Right where I wanted to turn was one of them paddling up the wave so I cranked a hard turn right next to him spraying him with water in a sort of fade back/cutback maneuver where I turned hard below the lip and turned back outside of the breaking lip. It turns out this was exactly the right maneuver for those waves and by accident because that guy was in my way. I didn't even know I could make a bottom turn in front of the lip so on the beach side of where the lip was coming down. The fade back turn slowed my board and I got in the tube again and when I came out another of them was paddling up the wave so I cranked another turn and sprayed him and got in the tube again. When I came out a third surfer was paddling up the wave so I figured what the heck and sprayed him too and got in the tube again. This was turning into a great wave and as I was in the tube for the fourth time I found myself wishing one more of them was there when I came out and my wish came true. I sprayed him too and got in the tube again. When I came out there were no more surfers but I cranked a hard turn anyway and got in the tube again. These were not clean tubes and each time I was completely covered in foam and also completely covered by the tube I am sure no board visible from the beach. The cleaner tubes still had small chandeliers falling from the top, not clean but I was deep and the wetter waves I was covered completely in the foam ball. The end tube ride collapsed on me but all in all it was a fantastic ride which still remains one of my best waves.

I paddled back out and the group of them paddled toward me. I thought ok now I am going to have to fight them. But they just talked to me and asked me if I was from there. I said no I was from Kauai. They said "Oh! That explains it. We just wanted to let you know we were going to let you catch waves now." And just like that they quit trying to hog the waves and we enjoyed the rest of the day surfing together and talking story. They were basically good guys but hated the invasion of surfers from elsewhere pushing them out of the spots they surfed since they were little kids.

The waves were slow weak thin lipped waves but real hollow and great for getting tubed. I never surfed this break again but I was glad I did this day. This had to be one of my best all time waves because I intentionally repeatedly got completely deeply tubed and also for the satisfaction of spraying those guys who were trying to hog all the waves. The whole rest of the day I didn't catch another wave like that one but then I never went for the set waves again. Take away from this to me was that other surfers often push me to excel. If they weren't there hogging the waves I wouldn't have caught that one wave or if I did I might not have made the right turn to get tubed again. Just lucky it all went down like it did.

[oldmansurfer]

Most of the time when you are trying to get tubed there is an effort made to match the speed of the wave. You slow down or speed up depending on what is needed. Those three waves I described there was no chance to do anything to match the speed of the wave and it was just luck to have already been at the right speed. That break Anchors my style of surfing matched what the waves did so it was all automatic. I didn't have to do anything different and perhaps that is why I made those three other waves as well. There might be some adjustments I do riding in a tube but mostly it's automatic but at Anchors it was too small to make any adjustments. On bigger waves, I go a little higher up the wave to go faster and more near the bottom to go slower and I rarely will speed pump in the tube

[TeeBee89]

"During the third set of waves on the head I knew I wasn't drowning, but thought this was worse than drowning and I am doing this voluntarily."

Lost count of how many times this has popped into my head over the years
I've had a really rough couple of months. Thanks for posting these.

[oldmansurfer]

Horners is a break that I surfed a lot because it was right down the hill from my house. One day it was huge
and hollow. I think it had about 15 foot faces which we called a solid 8 feet. Horners breaks left and I am a
regular foot so it was a little more difficult for me to surf (because I ride it with my back to the wave) but I
had a lot of practice. I had wanted to try stalling to get tubed backside as the rest of the times I had been tubed backside it was because the wave was faster than me. On this day the waves were slow and very hollow and big so I figured it was a good day to try it. I took off on one wave and made my bottom turn and did a tail stall where you bring the nose of the board up by pushing the tail down with your back foot. The board stalled completely on the face of the wave and
the tube covered me. Because it wasn't moving at all I started going up the face of the wave and as I got near the top I realized I was going to contact the lip if I didn't do something. Since I was crouching down and looking over the edge of the board down the drop which was getting higher and higher, I decided to try pushing the outside rail down. This did the trick and I started moving again dropping down the face of the wave. This was an accident. I did not intend to stall completely and every tail stall I have done previously or since then I didn't stop completely, but it worked okay. The lip was contacting the bottom of the wave in front of where I came down but the wave was slow and I had enough speed to cruise out of the tube. So I was thinking that worked and what now? I figured I would just try the same thing and I tried it again and again I stalled completely and got tubed and pushed my outside rail down and this came reached the bottom of the wave at the same time as the lip. Coasting out I figured if it was working okay why not do it again and got tubed again and came out in front of the lip. The tube was getting narrower and I figured rinse and repeat so one more time. Up ahead there was a section that was going to break and I knew I needed speed so I turned hard off the bottom and projected up and forward and snapped a turn under the pitching lip and got tubed again. I basically backdoored that tube and was very deep. It was moist and wild unlike the slower part of the wave. The wave spit so powerfully it almost blew me off my board but managed to stay on with one foot up in the air struggling to stay balanced. I rode off the end of the wave on one foot right up to a friend of mine who was paddling out. He said " Wow! I didn't know you could do that." I answered back "Me too". This wave was more typical a matter slowing down then speeding up to match the wave. The local surfers who had all been surfing much longer than me all thought I was surfing the wave too fast so they were happy I learned to slow down.

[oldmansurfer]

I thought I might tell this story because it shows my interaction with the local surfers and while I was white i was mostly accepted by them but I tried to follow the rules of the break. Lots of breaks had a group of locals who controlled the break and they had their own rules which were mostly the same but sometimes a little different.

I grew up on Kauai and was in the water from a very early age but didn't learn to surf till I was 18. I was very much into body surfing however and then paipo boarding and I knew most of the surfers because I went to school with them or I knew their families. It was a small island back then. I grew up on the east side and learned to surf there. But once in a while I would go somewhere else. This is about a trip north I made to Hanalei which is a fast right reef break. My surfing was just starting to progress to where I was on a similar level to the bunch of guys I knew and surfed with.

I think Hanalei was breaking about 4 or 5 feet (Hawaiian so 8 to 10 foot faces) a fun sized wave and everyone was surfing what we called Impossibles and at the end of impossibles was a slack section about 30 yards long and maybe 2 feet (Hawaiian) that connected with the Bowl. Back in those days those were the only two named breaks there that I ever heard of but these days they have named a bunch more. You couldn't however passively just keep cruising along and hook up with the Bowl. It would break well before Impossibles connected with the Bowl. I saw one of the guys do a bunch of speed turns and hook up the two breaks and I thought "Heck I am the king of speed turns. I can do that." So I did on my next wave and found that the bowl section was spectacular and well worth it. When I paddled back out one of the guys came over to me and said "If you want to stay surfing today,you have to back door the bowl." I said "That's crazy. I can stay surfing as long as I want." He said "Nope. In a little while Titus is coming and he won't let you surf unless you backdoor the Bowl." I said "Seriously?" He said "Yeah. He goes around and points at people and says you can surf, you go in." I had never heard of this because I infrequently surf Hanalei but not my break and the rules is the rules. I wasn't so familiar with surf lingo so I asked him what exactly does it mean to backdoor the bowl. He said I need to enter the Bowl section after the lip touched the water.

So I was up for giving it a try. So I had to speed pump through the slack section and time the peak at the Bowl trying to go up on the near side of the peak and stall and push the nose down when it seemed to be the right time. On most of the waves I would get down too soon and get into the Bowl before the lip touched down. On most of those I had the most spectacular tubes rides I had in my life to that point. The Bowl kind of grew in size and the shape of the tube was kind of different with a sloping face a a huge dome of a tube. The sloping face allowed you to adjust your speed easily by going higher or lower on the face of the wave while in the tube. So beautiful and fun and exciting but not what I was supposed to be doing. I had a few where I was too late through and got eaten up by the wave. Then after about 10 of the best tube rides of my life and 5 wipeouts and a few other decent waves where I didn't get covered I did it. I timed the drop just exactly right so when the lip touched I was right there and got the least beautiful tube ride of the day. It wasn't clean and there were chandeliers and whitewater all over. Imagine you are in the tube a big cylinder of water and from the top of the cylinder there are a bunch of 1 to 5 inch wide waterfalls which you have to surf through. I was really deep and as the opening of the tube got closer and closer the tube was getting narrower with more chandeliers and just as I was a couple feet from the opening the wave collapsed on me but I stayed on my board and cut out.

This was the beginning of a theme of my surfing life. I had some of the best waves of my life because of other surfers. (I was allowed to continue surfing). It seems obvious that besides getting those who can't make use of the waves out of the way of other surfers the rules also were incentive to improve. This getting in the tube is different from speeding up or slowing down typical of most tube rides although that was involved. It was about timing the maneuver to put you in the right place.

[oldmansurfer]

Most of my tube rides are just from happening to be in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. Sometimes this is accidental. This story is about one accidental tube ride that I remember. There are hundreds of accidental tube rides that I don't recall because they were just part of surfing. This is about when I restarted surfing after not surfing for 12 years. I had a 9'6" longboard with large single fin and 2 tiny side fins. It was on a stormy day and waves with around 12 foot faces. I remember the kite surfers saying I was crazy to surf there on that day but there were waves that looked good coming in. There was also a huge log jam of floating driftwood right at the border of where the nice waves were breaking. I kept track of the log jam as that would be a disaster if I surfed into that but the waves seemed to keep the log jam out of the way from the ocean it was just to the left of the right breaking waves. I caught a few waves but suddenly there was a nice looking wave and I took off. I had all these skills to keep the longboard from pearling on waves like that. One is to angle the takeoff and another is to shove the inside rail into the wave and also I make sure my rear foot is over the tail. This all worked well I remember seeing the half of the nose going into the wave at the bottom but it just pushed itself back out. Then I hit a big chop and the nose flew up and did an involuntary turn right back up the steep face. I was like "OH NO!" and tried to turn off the lip back to the bottom but the turn ended up stalling for a second or two. It seemed like a minute or two LOL but started back down the incredibly steep face and I managed the bottom turn equally well this time with no chop. I looked up and knew the wave was going to tube so I pulled up onto the face and just let it happen. I didn't try to speed up or slow down. I just went along with the wave. It pitched over me and I could see for most of the wave the nose of the board was in front of where the wave was coming down but my body was behind it, till the end part. The wave was getting narrower and I knew it was going to collapse so I was keeping my eyes open for the earliest exit. There was a notch in the lip up ahead and I aimed for the notch and made it out right before the wave collapsed. I remember even though I ducked my head, the lip contacting my head on the way out, just a gentle brush across my head. I was so stoked. Since I had restarted surfing I hadn't had a nice tube ride like that one. Just like when I started surfing the first time I worked on my speed and turns at the expense of getting tubed so this was entirely accidental. I am sure there would have been no tube or nothing remarkable if I hadn't hit that chop.

[oldmansurfer]

This is another accidental tube ride that I can clearly recall. This was at Hanalei and I had just figured out how to do a backside turn under the lip. It had been difficult for me to ride some tubing backside waves because my stance didn't fit the wave as well as it did frontside and I would contact the lip with my head which almost always resulted in me falling. Anyway this is a right and I was wondering if I could do that turn frontside as well. The waves were hollow and around the 4 to 6 foot Hawaiian size so good to try it on. I caught a few waves trying to work up the nerve to try it and I figured the thing to do is to try right under the pitching lip first then if it worked then try deeper. The first time I tried it the lip smacked my chest hard and shoved me back down the wave and to my surprise I didn't fall down. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Overall it felt good but the lip smack was pretty powerful and sent water flying all over the place. I wasn't injured so I figured I would try it again with a more committed turn and the lip smacked me in the chest on that one as well and again it seemed to work well just pushing me back down the face where I could do a bottom turn and maybe repeat the same turn again. After a while I realized the other surfers were watching me. At the top of my turn my head was above the back of the wave and I could see them looking my way probably wondering what that crazy haole was up to. Really my head shouldn't be above the top of the wave and that was why this wasn't working but try as I might I couldn't make that turn with my back close to the wave face which is minimum requirement for that to work like the backside turn. But it was fun and I was having a blast smacking the lip with my chest and spraying water all over the place, then on one wave I turned a bit more forward and the lip only touched my chest and kind of grabbed me and held me while my board without my weight dropped away on the wave below me. I was hanging there on the lip kicking my legs trying to get free knowing my board might be right below me. Finally I fell back first landing on my board on my back with my feet over the nose and my head by the tail. I was uninjured and happy the fin wasn't pointing up as all I could think about was Gerry Lopez who was injured by falling on his fin.

So there I was still on the wave face laying on my back cruising down the wave and I could see the wave was going to tube in front of me. I knew I needed to get higher on the face to make it so I grabbed the outside rail and pulled it up and got completely tubed. I couldn't do anything else as I was deep in the tube the lip was coming down a few feet in front of the nose of my board. So I just relaxed and waited for the pounding I imagined I was going to get. I looked up and could see the sky though the lip. It was an entirely different perspective and spectacular. Suddenly the sky appeared as I came out of the tube and I could see the wave was going to tube ahead so I figured it would be cool to stand up and do that tube while standing but I fell and that was the end of the ride. I think if it was a longboard it might have been easier to stand back up but my board was just a little longer than me and it was more difficult to stand than I thought. I started paddling back out and a surfer who was paddling out said "What do you call that?" I said "Falling down." He said "No not that the thing on your back. What's it called?......The coffin, yeah that's what it's called." I said "did you see how I ended up on my back?" He answered "No." So I proceeded to tell him about the turn under the lip and how the wave grabbed me and I fell on my board. He was like "That's still very skilled. I would have just wiped out." To me I was thinking the turn under the lip may have been a little bit of skill but falling on the board was just lucky. Anyway another accidental tube ride. It was accidental that I ended up in the right place and I knew waves well enough to do the right thing although at the time wasn't thinking it would be as right as it turned out.

[oldmansurfer]

When I was learning to surf, I tried to surf every day regardless of the conditions. So some days it was small and not a challenge to my skill level. On those days I would surf switch stance so I am regular foot and I would surf goofy foot from the popup. I had managed to get some minor tube rides regular stance but because I used to paipo board they were nothing as good as most of the waves I got tubed on paipo boarding. And unlike paipo boarding I rarely got tubed. Anyway there I was all by myself surfing at Kealia beach goofy foot because it was junk. I took off on a wave and messed up. I was at the peak and wanted to go frontside but I faded to the right because I lacked control and could not make the left breaking wave so I went right which was backside switch stance. I got tubed and came out. It was all automatic but I hadn't been tubed that well going backside regular foot so far. I was so happy I raised my arms up and shouted out and looked around but I was all alone. No one else on the entire beach to see me tubed backside switch stance. Oh well. That never happened again and in fact I eventually quit surfing switch stance which I kind of wish I hadn't because it impresses others and I guess myself included but it slowed down my learning to surf regular stance.

[oldmansurfer]

While learning to surf I had a bunch of friends who surfed from when they were a kid but for me I was into bodysurfing and then paipo boarding and didn't start regular surfing till I was 18 years old. They knew I was learning to surf and would offer to take me along with them on various surf outings and sometimes we would try some less common breaks. One of them we called Brazziers because it had two peaks. I'm not really sure why this break had 2 peaks but we surfed there twice and both times it had twin peaks. The wave broke along a shallow reef so it needed to be at least 6 foot faces so that you weren't right on top of the reef. Both times we surfed there it was about that size but we checked that break at other times and declined surfing because it was too small. You could take off on either peak and the second time we surfed there I just stuck to the deeper peak. It was a left so I was surfing backside and it was a hollow wave so in my mind more of a challenge but most of my friends were goofy footed so it should have been easier for them. I was having a blast getting tubed there on nearly every wave. After a couple hours my friends said they were going back to the car (my car) and wait for me to take them home. I was like "whoa. Wait a minute I'm having fun. These waves are a blast. Aren't you guys having fun?" No they weren't I said they should try taking off on the deeper peak and they said they tried it and it didn't work for them. So I went in too but I would have stayed a while more. At the time I didn't realize it but I was no longer the newbie. After that I noticed I was different from them. I would look out at the ocean in stormy big surf and see all these rideable waves and they would look out and say "that's too gnarly". In retrospect this became the end of me surfing with them. I don't recall any of these tube rides but there were maybe 20 or 30 small not very clean tubes. I didn't get tubed and come out without contacting the lip or being covered in foam inside the tube. Only remarkable to me because I was getting tubed backside on nearly every wave when my goofy footed friends were not getting tubed.

[oldmansurfer]

Before I seriously tried to surf my brother lent me his 5'2" potato chip board. It was just a little bigger than my paipo board which was 4 foot. I was paipo boarding the inside break at Horners and stayed right there. The waves had about 4 foot faces and this was a shallow reef break but I was quite used to it as it was right down the hill from my house. It took me about 20 or 30 minutes to figure out the right place in the lineup to take off on a wave but on the very first wave that I caught I barely popped up and stayed crouching because the wave covered me up. It was very wet and I couldn't see anything other than foam but it seemed like I came out of the foam and was in the tube momentarily before I emerged and went off the back of the wave. I couldn't believe it. There was a surfer paddling out right there and I told him I wasn't sure but think I got tubed there and he said "Yep". I said "All the ways or was it a coverup?" he said "All the ways" with a big grin. When I did start to surf I had no idea how long it would take me to get tubed as often as I did paipo boarding (it took a couple years of surfing nearly daily) because it seemed simple from that wave.

[oldmansurfer]

I have been tubed a few times and came out of the tube with dry hair. It was a thing I tried to do for a while. The guys I surfed with at Kealia all thought it was such an accomplishment to get tubed and come out with dry hair. So did I and every time I paddled out that was my goal till my hair got wet for one reason or another often just paddling out. After a while it didn't seem so great of a thing. The first time is like WOW! I did it! although to tell the truth I am not sure if I did it before I knew it was a thing. It's possible I did it by accident before I started keeping track. The second time is like okay so that shows it wasn't a fluke and the third time it's like okay so maybe this isn't such a difficult thing. I would guess that at the right break this can happen often, maybe even get tubed 2 times with dry hair although I haven't ever done that , that I know of. I do not remember much of any of those tubes only the feeling of accomplishment for having done that.

[oldmansurfer]

One day I was surfing Kealia my usual break all by myself. Suddenly a car pulls up and six surfers from California get out and paddle out to me. They say to me "I can't believe you are surfing these wonderful waves all by yourself." I answered "Not anymore." I caught a wave and got tubed twice on that wave which wasn't that common but not that rare ( I used do that once a month or so). As I paddled back out one of the Surfers paddles up to me and I was thinking he was going to tell me good ride or something like that but instead he asks "Did it get you?" I responded "huh?" and he said "did that fish in the wave get you. When you were taking off it turned and went straight for your feet. I could have sworn it got you." There were often sharks riding in waves at that size and in fact I noticed one in that wave but never gave it another thought. They ride along in the wave but seem to cut out when it starts to break. These are small sharks maybe 4 feet long. I explain that was a shark and no it didn't get my feet. But I figured I should probably go in because the sharks were acting different and who knows what they might do. I don't recall much about that tube except that I got tubed 2 times on that wave.

[oldmansurfer]

I went surfing once long ago when I had a short break in between things I needed to do. The waves were awesome but the beach was crowded. I was looking at the surf and realized the group of surfers seemed to be lined up in the wrong place, realizing they may have a reason but they were ten yards over at least from where I think I would be. I paddled out and sat with them for a few waves then moved over to the area I wanted to try. I let at least one wave per person come in that I wanted to catch and then caught the next wave. I was tubed immediately but another surfer dropped in on me. The wave had a very thin lip so although the face was maybe 10 to 12 feet It was remarkably thin and a nice clean tube that would have been a great ride but for the surfer that dropped in on me. I had the option right then of punching through the lip, just making a hard turn up into the wave and grabbing the front of the board as I did it so I did just that. It was just a couple strokes to be outside in the lineup again. I was looking for another wave but maybe I wasn't in the right place or maybe they just quit coming in. That surfer who dropped in on me paddled over and said "what are you up to?" I said "nothing" He said "I saw you on that wave you were in the tube and I hadn't seen anyone today get tubed." I answered back "well I was in the tube but you dropped in on me so I cut out." He said "How could you cut out? You were in the tube." I said "I punched through the lip." He didn't really understand so I said "I didn't want to surf behind you so I cut out." He said "you mean you just turned and went through the lip?" I answered "Yep." The he goes into this long ramble saying he was sorry for dropping in on me and don't worry the guys there would all take care of me. They were all guys I surfed with daily except for him. By then I had to go back in and go somewhere to do something important. I no longer recall what I was doing that was important then but I remember that clean thin lipped tube and the guy dropping in on me clearly.

[oldmansurfer]

One day I was surfing at my usual beak and the only other person in the water was my classmate from high school. He just happened to be there alone as I was also there alone. He was a very good surfer and Hawaiian and we had graduated from the same high school just a year or two earlier. We knew each other but I had not surfed with him as I was just learning and he had been surfing for years. He paddled over to me and gave me this speech about how he didn't want to see me on his waves. He said he didn't care if I was deeper or I was on the wave first if he was on it that was his wave. I think this represented the emergence of Hawaiian activism as I ran into the same attitude a couple other times back around that time. Hey but he was a better surfer than me so even though I surfed there nearly every day and never saw him there before, it was expected of me to defer to him anyway because he's a better surfer than me, so I figured I would just let him catch a wave and then I would catch a wave. Only two people out that would be an easy solution. It was working fine until I caught a wave and got tubed it was a nice clean tube but I was deep and before I could come out maybe 4 feet from the opening the wave collapsed on me. I managed to stay on my feet and emerge from the whitewater to see him trying to take off. I surfed past him with lots of water dripping off me no time to do anything and finished the wave as he didn't catch it. He started paddling over to me and thought Oh NO I am going to have to fight him now but he just said "How did you do that?" I had no idea what he was talking about so I said "Do what?" He said "Stay on the board when the wave collapsed on you." I thought about it and it wasn't any big deal to me having done that a few times but I thought back to when I used to surf at Wailua beach on certain days there were only closeout tubes to be had so I would tuck into a closeout and try to stand up and ride out of the wave through the lip. That was a very difficult thing to do as I had accomplished that less than staying on my board when the tube collapses on me. So I mentioned that maybe what I did then was the trick and that was lean into the wave as it hits you which pushed you down onto your board instead of off it. That was very surprising to me because he was a better surfer but I guess I knew a trick or two he didn't.

[oldmansurfer]

Not a specific tube but I recall a few similar tubes. It's a feeling that occurs when you are deep in a tube on a fast breaking wave and for me around the size of 5 or 8 foot so 10 to 16 foot faces. The first time I felt this it was paipo boarding but when surfing it feels quit similar. The board is pointed down the face rather than down the line because you are high on the face and the water is rapidly going up the face but the sensation is moving down the line. It's quite an odd thing but it seems to mean that no matter how deep you are in the tube you're going to make it out. I think you are high on the face near the top of the tube so you are in the power pocket and it just throws your board down the line even though it is facing more down the wave.

[oldmansurfer]

I was surfing at my usual break. It was big and gnarly somewhere around 16 foot faces. I brought along my "slow board". It was a 7 foot swallow tail that was made for me because I had a friend who tried to make me a fish tail board and it was a pig. I found a new shaper and showed him that board and asked if he could make one like that but one that worked? So he made me this board. Compared to all the other boards he made for me this was a slow board. I did not know how the surf was as my typical method of determining what the conditions were was going to the beach and checking it out. There is a long pile of rocks that protrudes along the left side of this break as it used to be a boat landing. It can break both left and right but mostly I try to surf the rights. This day it was breaking outside of the rocks and as big as I have ever seen it. Typically when it's like this the lefts are better as it was this day. All the local guys alway paddle out from the same place on the corner of the beach maybe 50 yards from the rocks. While on smaller days this is a quick way to get out on days like this it was torture but they all still went out from there. Maybe that is why they were all better paddlers than me. But when I saw the conditions I walked all the ways to the rocks and paddled out there in the shelter of the rocks. I walked past a couple guys who were going in the water at that spot at the same time I was walking up the beach. I probably caught a wave and paddled back out before they go out for the first time.

It was pretty easy as I just walked to the end of the rocks and paddled out in the shelter of the rocks and waited for a break in the sets then quickly paddled out. I probably could have tried to get tubed with dry hair and maybe I did but no longer cared about it by then. When I got outside there were a couple of guys who were sitting there in the lineup. They told me I could catch the next wave because they had to catch their breath after paddling out. So I went on the next wave. It was a gnarly dark tubing left breaking wave with multiple sections. I got tubed multiple times because the sections would just break over the top of you so you had no choice then you would come out and another section breaks over you and you're tubed again. On the inside part there was a section the was walled up and I knew I needed more speed so I did this backside under the lip turn where for a moment I was upside down with my face inches away from the wave. It was a maneuver I had figured out to help me on big backside waves because when I tried to speed turn I often hit the lip with my head causing me to fall. It worked well and I got deeply tubed and came out. Turns out maybe the slow board was right for this day, although if I had the two boards with me which I rarely did I would have surfed my fast board or my third board which was also fast which I shaped and glassed myself which was perfect for waves like this as it rode higher on the wall. Anyway I got to try my new maneuver repeatedly on this day sometimes twice on the same wave. I had a pretty decent day surfing and while the waves were initially scary, once I caught a few that changed. The tubes were dark and the waves were thick lipped with lots of sections. I imagined that if I had my fast board I would have had to slow down to get tubed or to try to stay in the tube longer. One of the surfers paddled over to me and said I was riding the waves further in than anyone else that day. That didn't seem right. For one thing you can't see how far someone rides the waves from the lineup so it had to be someone on the beach keeping track. But even then these guys were better surfers than me and many of them goofy footed. I couldn't believe it so I said "Maybe I am just getting caught by the next wave and getting pounded back inside (which was happening sometimes). He said "No". I said "Well probably they were all cutting out to keep from getting caught on the inside like I was". He said "No, that's not it either". I still couldn't fathom how I could have been riding further inside than these guys.

After a couple hours of getting tubed repeatedly I went in and while back at my car drying off, one of the best surfers on the island walked up to me and asked me if he could use my board. I knew him as did all the surfers on the island but his family and my family were friends and his older brother actually pushed me into a couple waves on his surfboard when I was a kid. He was in my younger brothers class in high school. I didn't loan my boards to anyone but he was persistent and maybe if he got to use it he might like it and give my shaper some business. So I finally gave in and let him use it. Too bad I didn't have my fast board. I don't know what he thought if it but my shaper called me a couple weeks later and told me it was time for a new board. I knew he was right but I loved my boards and never wanted to stop using them until they were falling apart. After I saw him I realized he was the one on the shore keeping track of how the surfers were doing. He did this often as part of his pre surf preparations. He watched how the waves were breaking and what guys were doing what and where on the waves and I guess he formulated a plan from that. It's possible he couldn't see my backside under the lip turns because the lip hid me. He was goofy footed any way so should have been able to do frontside speed turns in the tube.

Lots of the tube rides I have had were like this day where the wave had sections that broke over you and you kind of speed up or slow down to match the speed of the sections although because of the size I was mostly speeding up. Very often I would get tubed multiple times and come out due to sections and on bigger or faster days it was all by accident as I did not often slow down on bigger waves. But my fast board was a problem on days like this because it was fast enough to keep me out of the tube or maybe shorter the duration in the tube by quite a bit. I had to work at slowing down but was learning to do so. Anyway there was some tricks I know how to do that others didn't. Mostly it was because I learned to go fast before I learned to slow down.