Barrel riding

Crouch low stay close to the rail and tight in the pocket. Not getting anxious in a pit, well you learn that over time. Skateboarding helps a bit as does visualization.
Visualise yourself in a tube of a vid or live at a break, imagine pulling in and staying calm, keeping a good line through it.
To be honest 90% or so of the time if you want a good pit you're going to have to have a fairly gnarly takeoff.
Easy roll ins into a good tube are pretty rare so getting takeoffs sorted are more important.
Ninja to your feet quickly.
You can get it wired in nice liney 2ft waves easier then work your way up.
Boards suitable for tubes help, fins and rails right help a great deal.
There are a lot of ways to take off, I still have a few I need to work on myself actually.
You can take off in the bowl,or from outside paddling a dropping into it, or sideways, under the lip, knife in, roll in, swing around late (this ones harder as you don't have much momentum into it,) no paddle thrown with the lip, no paddle straight into the tube,
A lot more ways to takeoff too but that about covers what will get you a few barrels.

It'd be good to have the run down of how to's for those from a few people and a photo but its probably easier to watch on vids in slow mo, and surf a lot than read instructions he he. Get the feel then push on harder.

Generally your bottom turn is to position your board to run on a low line across the face. Bend your knees, stay relaxed, square your shoulders and look where you want to go.

Here's some good tips.
http://www.redbull.com/au/en/surfing/stories/1331596322005/10-tips-for-b...

As they say there:-
"Don’t be surprised.
Beginners, or anyone rarely tubed, are often so shocked at finally finding themselves in a barrel that they freeze up. They get stage fright. They don’t want to blow it and waste their shot, so of course they do, and that’s frustrating. But avoidable! Don’t be surprised when tubes happen. Relax. It’s just like being on the open face, but with a ceiling"

Forehand barrels:

Apart from barrels on take off, I think there is two types of barrels, ones where you stall and wait for the section to fold over you and ones where you come in with speed like racing through a fast section or even back dooring a section.

For me the stall folding sections barrels are easier as a stall seems to put you in the perfect place on a wave and you naturally regain speed after a stall, so you basically just have to keep your eyes open and keep a strong stance and before you know it your out.

Especially the mid face Tom Caroll type stall, those things feel so good and they work so well and unless the waves are heavy are easier to do than they look and even if you don't get barrelled they feel and look good, but if you do a normal stall for a section and don't get barrelled you kind of feel and look like a goose..

Down the line barrels I've always found harder as its harder to pick how deep you are and such a fine line between getting too deep or not deep enough, you also have to pick your line and the barrels are normally longer, these kind of barrels are easier when bigger and harder when smaller.

Back hand: Don't ask me I'm useless at backhand barrels I'm always to high to low to slow to fast.

Find a consistently barrelling wave and surf it a lot. That's numbers 1, 2 and 3.

Pull into close outs for practice.

Keep your eye on the point in the lip just as it's pitching. Focus on that. There's a lot going on in there so it helps to have a focul point (for me anyway).

Start by reading Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outlier's', paying special attention to the "10,000 hour rule". "The key to success in any field," says old Mal, "is a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours."

10,000 hours is the equivalent of working on barrel riding for 416 consecutive days.

Drink lots of water and wear lots of suncream.

stunet wrote:

Start by reading Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outlier's', paying special attention to the "10,000 hour rule". "The key to success in any field," says old Mal, "is a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours."

10,000 hours is the equivalent of working on barrel riding for 416 consecutive days.

Drink lots of water and wear lots of suncream.

Interesting book but should be listed in fiction rather than non fiction. Not to undermine your point though stu, practice is the key.

if you're over 20 and don't live in Indo it's too late, you've already missed the boat.

But, there are some reef pass waves where you literally cannot ride the wave without being in the barrel. They are shallow. Find one and surf it until you can.

silicun wrote:

Interesting book but should be listed in fiction rather than non fiction. Not to undermine your point though stu, practice is the key.

And would you believe I haven't even read it? I just quote it when I'm trying to sound knowledgeable...

Anyway, to conflate Malcolm Gladwell's flawed theory, Freeride's latest post, and also whoever mentioned it earlier on, there's simply no substitute for practice. When I was younger I used to read the surfing tips column in magazines but I came to view them as a complete waste of space. Yeah, you may be able to take the vaguest notions with you - relax, keep your eyes open etc etc - but the truth of the matter is that to learn you just have to pull in again and again and again and again....

Aside from that, the only thing I'd suggest is to paddle out at a heavy, barrelling wave. You don't have to catch anything but plant yourself on the shoulder and watch real closely how good surfers paddle for the wave, choose their entry, adjust their board speed to the speed of the wave, engage their rail, and how they keep their weight over the board.

Barrel riding is a very subtle art form but in heavier waves those aspects are all exagerrated somewhat. Watching things in real time you'll learn more than any surfing tips column, or that fraud Malcolm Gladwell could ever teach you.

indo-dreaming wrote:

Back hand: Don't ask me I'm useless at backhand barrels I'm always to high to low to slow to fast.

I take it that you are a goofy footer then Indo?

Most of the tips have been covered well, however there is one tip I'll give ya free, via the great Jim Banks.

Use that front arm as your steering gear, where the hands points, you body and board will follow. Best piece of advice I ever had for forehand barrels.

For back hand, go find a nasty little hollow wedge and just go for it, pig dog till you can pig dog no more.

It really comes down to rote learning and critical thinking.

trippergreenfeet wrote:

Most of the tips have been covered well, however there is one tip I'll give ya free, via the great Jim Banks.

Use that front arm as your steering gear, where the hands points, you body and board will follow. Best piece of advice I ever had for forehand barrels.

For back hand, go find a nasty little hollow wedge and just go for it, pig dog till you can pig dog no more.

It really comes down to rote learning and critical thinking.

That was originally a quote from López in a mid 70's trscks read it in my teens. Never looked back

yocal wrote:

indo-dreaming wrote:

Back hand: Don't ask me I'm useless at backhand barrels I'm always to high to low to slow to fast.

I take it that you are a goofy footer then Indo?

Ha ha ….ironically no I'm natural, I'm always searching for rights in Indo, which suits me fine because all the hollow lefts are always crowded anyway.

true! I thought that was a no-branier guess! Whats your favourite right over there?

yocal wrote:

true! I thought that was a no-branier guess! Whats your favourite right over there?

Nusa Dua hands down.

If you can borrow (or own) a lid I think its worth finding a uncrowded smallish beachy (~2') and practice pulling in just to get used to the feeling without having to worry as much about technical aspects. You can probably get ~25 barrels an hour doings this*.

*You won't make all of them. Don't worry. Pull in very deep, you'll be surprised at what you can make.

yocal wrote:

true! I thought that was a no-branier guess! Whats your favourite right over there?

I guess we can all have a dig at this, lacerations, donuts and krui right all are pretty fun.among a long list.

groundswell wrote:

I guess we can all have a dig at this, lacerations, donuts and krui right all are pretty fun.among a long list.

Ha yeah why not. For me I had an epic sesh in 2006 at Bankvaults it was 6ft+ and heaving big pits. That's probably my favourite, or Shipwrecks... can't match it for a perfect barrel & then nice vertical wall and ramp at the end on every wave.

I guess there are a number of world class rights in indo, but really Rifles is the only one I can think of which matches the famous lefts for length.