How many times have you been barreled...not just a head dunk cover-up, but full on pitted then spit out of the tube barreled. How many??
I have been surfing a long time, and although I am not the best surfer in the world, I would say on my best days I'm a bit above average. In all these years I have only been truly slotted, in the barrel, fully covered like 10 times. I know they are few and far between because I remember almost everyone. By barrel I mean in the tube with enough time to realize I am in there and have a second or two of the lip being about as far out as the tip of my board. I guess I don't usually look for the barrel and tend to drop down to go around a pitching lip, or I'll race out ahead to do a round house type of move. I have been covered countless times but I wouldn't call that being barreled.
Too many to count. From being able to drive a bus in the barrel to just squeaking through and everything in-between.
DAMN... reading all of these comments makes me realize how bad of a surfer I really am. Naturally, I've dipped my head in a barrel, or pulled into a barrel (sorta like a closeout section), but I've never been inside one in full control and been able to get out. I guess you could say I'm a barrel virgin.
Take my 10 count with a grain of salt. The salt being years, about 30 of them. That's like one true barrel ride every 3 years, surfing almost every swell . Oh man I really do suck .
thanks for giving me hope... hahaha. I've been surfing for about 3-4 years so according to your ratio of barrels:years, I should be due for a barrel sometime in the very near future!! also, I don't surf nearly every swell, I'm mostly a spring/summer/fall regular. In the winter, it is just harder since I live further away, so I only get in somewhere between 5-7 times during the winter months. Maybe that is holding back my chances of getting a barrel and the potential of my skill level. In either case, surfing has been fun so far without a "real barrel", so getting truly pitted would just be icing on the cake.
"By barrel I mean in the tube with enough time to realize I am in there and have a second or two of the lip being about as far out as the tip of my board." And then get out and ride on...that's the question...
Probably 20 since last march (when I got back on a board but I just really dont mind pulling into 20 closeouts to get one). I am also counting the double cover at the cove in indian river. I am the only person I have ever known to get covered up two times in one wave and make it out on a walden cd that has to be a record. (for the record I made a really bad board decision that day)
Once? 10 years later, I was finally barrelled this winter, but according to Zippy's acceptable definition of barrelled, I wasn't. I'm not sure I'll ever get barrelled on a 10' Harbour 19
Well, to the guys on this thread who are bummed about the whole barrel count thing, just understand that barrel riding is a skill and a style that has to be developed specifically. My particular surfing style is all on shortboard thrusters, so speed etc. is a huge part of my style and surfing. Most of the time, I am so hell bent on finding an air section or practicing the most radical turns I can come up with, I often times over the eyars would find myself looking back into a huge gaping barrel that I should have been in, rather than pulling off a roundhouse. So, over the years, surfing with different really good barrel riders has kind of changed the way I look at all the waves I surf now. A buddy of mine, who lives here down the street from me. He is about 32 now, but moved here from central florida about 12 years ago... This guy absolutely rips. I mean, probably the best guy I know. And year after year, I chase this guy. Trying to keep up with his moves and surfing... And now, these days, when he is 32 years old, the guy is like a barrel magnet. I kid you not, it will be 2 feet out, on a waist high wave, this guy takes off on his 6'0 thursters, drags his arm and gets completely pitted on a 2 foot wave... And when we are out on a big day on the reefs, forget it, the guy gets lost in the barrel he gets so deep and everytime, he flies right out... Anyway, after spending a ton of time surfing with this guy, I have really focused on staying at the right speed, on the right section of the waves. I usually surf a bit too fast, so when there are no small air sections, I have to take a step back, hit the breaks and stay in the hollow section.... So, my advice to the guys who are hungry for barrels, just go out every session from now on, focusing on only one thing. The barrel. You will be surprised how many you may get in one session if you just put complete focus on slowing down, keeping you backfoot stomped down a bit to get under the lip and positioning. then pump out of it... But anyway, just attach every wave you are taking off on and tuck into the barrel section... maybe 9 out of 10 will close out, but keep you EYES OPEN, and I cant stress that enough and hold on. The worst feeling is bailing in a barrel that you could have made... Even though you feel like the lip is gonna spin you over the falls, just hold your agnle and try and keep yous fins in.... It will eventually work out.... Then paddle back out and repeat it.... Most guys problems that I surf with as far as barrels go, is that most commonly, they are moving too fast on the face, and then the second leading cause of bad barrel riding or missed attempts is setting up to slow under the lip... Its hard to make a huge fast bottom turn, then change directions and slam on the breaks under the lip... then the thing will out run you and you will get tossed. Anyway, thats my advice... keep your eyes open, hold on the whole way through and most of all, you gotta go for it.... Every wave, just try and pull in a little behind the lip on the take off. Basically backdooring the drops, and eventually one of the take off sections will hollow out right in front of you and you can line up and spit out!!! And I am not "johnny gets barreled every day" by any means, but I have had the pleasure of some really nice ones over the years...
I'm pretty lame, I've never made it out of a barrel before (except for that one time when my friend caused a chandelier of whitewater to fall in my face - he claimed I was in the barrel, but if I don't see the vision, it don't count). My barrels consist of: pulling into shorebreak, trying to duck under a mush section, driving into a closeout barrel.... but on one particular day, I got nice legitimate barrels for a few seconds before the foamball bucked me off. Yeah, every time a get a "good one" the foam ball bucks me off. I can legitimately ride the barrel for at least a few seconds, I just haven't found "the one". Although last night I had the most rad dream that I was getting pitted so deep and making it out EVERY TIME. My dreams have taught me how to duck-dive before... maybe i'll get lucky again.
Funny that you mention that. I feel like there have been multiple tmies in my surfing career, that because I have focused on something so hard in the water, at a later time in a dream, everything clicks and make sense. 6 or 7 years ago, I was obsessed with airs, and trying to perfect them... I was working on it everyday for like 2 weeks, but was not connecting the dots. I couldnt get any grabs down, the board would rotate and I would land fins up etc... One night, I had a dream, where I was surfing this wave and I was doing perfect air reverses. Something clicked in my head. About 2 days later, I was going into a turn, and everythig clicked. I landed a perfect air reverse with a grab... After attempting the trick 100 times, it took a fake instance in a dream to set off something in my head. I had seen it a million times on videos and other people in real life, then finally, it clicked, and since then, that move is second nature. Weird how the brains works... On a similar note, I spun out a mr2 turbo back in the late 90s going about 130MPH down 83 North in Baltimore... Took it sideways for like 1/4 mile around and bend, and after streering in and out of it, I got the car in a patch of grass completely unharmed... Point is, the only reason I was able to get out of this... was the Playstation game, gran tusimo. Me and my friends played it so much, it gave you a pretty eralistic glide and drift thing on all the cars, so after playing the game 1000 times, my mind naturally referred to the things I picked up in the game and I basically did a professional rally race steer out of a near fatal accident.... lucky me, and my friend in the passenger side... Never drag race!!!! But yeah, all because of some game I played...
speaking about tricks.... http://www.volcom.com/blogs/blog.asp?blogID=17 i have been following this contest for about 2 years now. I will be so stoked when someone lands one and gets it on tape
google a guy named Zach Rhinehart. He lives in Oceanside and he has been landing crazy kick flips on film and camera, consistantly for a few years. Him and "surfride" surf shops designed some crazy skate/surfboard too that he uses. Pretty sick... There is video of it somewhere online... The guy is insane... and his name is zach, which is always a plus =)
