Best Tube?

[HMARK]

Figger I trow one out.

Your most memorable barrell. tube time, stoke-a-boka time.

Variety.

Meanest. Bestest. Gnarliest. Death Barrell. Came out hoots. whatevas.

Let the stories begin.

CW's Summer '02 - fricking around all day and time to kill. Was enjoying the day and crowd (!) not much by summers standards. Catching choke waves and just shouting out all around - perfect surf stoke day - caught a bomber all the way to the channel - just loving it - and paddling back out - when this absolutely retarded wall starts feathering in front of me over W in the bowl. 1 bro inside, and ...just gotta go. what the fuck I thinks, eat shit, and die or it is glory hole time it just looked soooooo perfect. the set up, everything. Going. drop turn, perverted perfection. The light coming thru the lip was just blues and greens, the tube just standing. I thought i would creem my shorts. I shit you not. This sucker was PERFECT. Line drawn, going, just could not ask for more perfect of a setup. This was just the stoker of the life. No way was this going wrong. She came thru, just giving me the tube, just releasing the energy to be mine, it was a total stoke the sucker just BEGGED to go. Was maybe 6:15 PM all kine light action. Was a unreal feeling.

Whew.

I gonna dream that sucker.

Till da next one.

[solo]

one special one comes to mind, my first big tube (relatively speaking).

summertime, 1976. ala moana bowl dawn patrol... i lived in waikiki, and KNEW it was bombing. i was on a homemade 7'2" single fin pin. (back den, fiberglass hawaii sold surfboard kits for 50 bucks.)

it was over my limit, i was only 19. the waves were threatening to close the channel, and i was SHITTIN' BRICKS.

paddled out and it was bottomless kine barrels, just square and heaving... after playing channel marker for about an hour, i went for one. took off early, and faded to the bottom, seventies single-fin kine. eased the bottom turn into the bowl. it was bending, sucking, and just plain pissed off. i thought i was gonna get fucking hammered.

easing off the bottom, i turned right into the pit and watched the lip just pour out over me. the damned sound inside the thing was the most memorable: giant vacuum cleaner action, just so hollow and liquid, with MUCHO juice. i was hanging on with my toes, and crouched over even if i coulda stood straight up and had room to spare... the thing let me out easy, and to this day, i can feel the butterflies, still...

my first big tube... fo me...

[Maleko]

Winter 2003. i was on my 6'4" single fin swallow tail. a friend and i decided to check out 3rd dipz. i knew it was going to be big. we get there and the waves were up to 10 ft faces. there was 1 guy out on a body board. i was scared and hoped my friend was too. he starts to paddle out so i had too. we're sitting their for about 5 minutes when we see the sets coming. the body boarder takes off on the 1st wave, the 2nd goes by, then the 3rd. i knew either catch the next one or just be too scared for any of them. the 4th set's getting closer so I start to get ready as I start taking off i hear my friend yell YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!!! it's too late, i've started to stand up and make my bottom turn. next thing i know i have this huge ass wave going over my head! i'm thinking to myself don't fall off!! I've made it inside the barrel. now i'm saying don't fail me now! I get barrled for what seemed like forever and come shooting out into the tiny channel and head stright to shore. my friend never caught a wave that day and hasn't gone back since. i on the other hand only go there now when it's a bit smaller. that's my most memorable surfing day Dec.18, 2003

[surfer9joe]

Jockos I think, about 6-8 foot. Took off on a 6 footer, slightly inside. Drop in bottom turn on a 7'2" , not even thinking about a barrel at first.......turn on the face and then just stand there, the whole thing pitches over me. Traveled for soo long I had time to think, "whoa, I'm still standing on my board!" . I could see the lip penetrating like 5 feet in front of my board, I was prbaly 10 feet back at one point..man that was sick

..came out at the end through a curtain of spray and just had goosebumps all over....ah yes, its been a while since I had one like that.

Irs amazing how you enjoy a barrel like that more when its over, in your memory banks

[LGREANZ]

Shit that s a hard one. I try and think of one then another comes into my memory. I never have luck getting good backside tubes so I'm gonna have to say this one out at armies where I just dropped in late, had to go for the tube to make it, grabbed rail and got shacked, pulled into what seemed like a close out but the thing just opened up and stayed wide open, clutching my rail just barelying hanging on, the lip throwing out way down the line looking like a waterfall and then PHOOSH I'm out on the shoulder with these old timers that looked like they just crawled out from the bushes and they're in the channel hooting foor me. That one felt good. But my first barrel in Hawaii will always be memorable, and that one on Xmas day, and that one on my first wave of the day on a brand new board at Rockies Left I paddeled out from the sunset side of Rockies and this peak just came to me and jacked I went right had to pull in , thought it was just gonna shut down on me but somehow I fit in that tube and the board held on and it was so dark and frothy couldn't see out the wave gutted and spit me out at Rockies Rights. That was the longest and deepest tube but I could'nt really see anything. I could've just left the water that day after that one wave. I was stoked on that one for weeks. All of them are memorable, and that s why were on the net checking forecasts religiously, at the beach at the cracka dawn, driving all over this damn island, all in pursuit of the Barrel.

[bammbamm808]

Backdoor Lighthouse. Lighthouse lefts. Summer '82. Like 15 G-Lands strung end-to-end. Read the entire Tolkien trilogy in the barrel and had time for the Silmarillion, too. Came out at Barbers Point harbor and hitched back to DH. Shhhh don' t tell anyone it gets like that.

Free Ride was what made me change from being a sponge (Makapuu/Sandy's) to stand up surfing. I've put in much time at Backdoor/OTW and have had numerous boggling delirium-inducing barrels out there back before it was so damn crowded. I was a 3rd Dip addict for a while too, and didn't miss a day for about 3 years. Back then, no one used to surf the Dip before 8:30 or 9:00, so I'd dawn it and have surfed it alone and perfect many times. Scared shitless and getting impossible barrels one after another, with just the packs of little wild dogs and some opihi picker to witness.

There was one morning at Lighthouse around....88 I think. 3-4', dead glass, SE swell and minus tide. I was out alone on a weekday around 7:00 in the morning. The inside was doubling mindlessly. I caught an inside wedge behind the peak, little freefall in, then straight into a long, thick tube. I travelled for a while, then the wave spit hard. When the spit cleared, I was still a couple of yards back in a perfect barrel. I came out after the second spit. For some reason that one was memorable. Prolly cause...what are the odds of that at Lighthouse? Well, better than most of you would think ;-)

[HMARK]

Whoooeee!

Tankx for da stories!

Lotsa variety in the thread, and thats all good.

15 G-lands strung together..., shittin bricks..., over the head..., YOURE GONNA DIE!..., lifes little episodes of fun!

Somehow, I always say this to my bro' ... " waves of/with some consequence really make you feel alive"... It is really true, that when you push that limit or envelope a bit, the rewards justify the chances. Sure you get doughnuts here and there. (in my case, sometimes im making full on Malasadas)...But the 'pucker' factor seems to payoff in spades.

This 1 time out at FP, i still in 20+ years have yet to see it like this again, the Point was feeling some weird SSE swell, and the tide was like either super minus or just on real strange low. Standing on the beach, (real low vantage point) it seemed like the whole ocean was out there heaving. The funky part was (this was I think 'round 98-99) it was like the arena was like 15 yards from shore. I swear, the "devils rock" was far out. It was sooper strange. Caught this real freak of a peak, it stood right on the rock, and going left, was like not even pitching until inside by 1/2 P. But by this point, I had been on the sucker for a good chunck of time. By the time I was swallowed up by the envelope of water, the Boogie board bros were just scratching over. ( but still, I never was even near shore) warps, bends and vortexs later, I remember paddling back out thinking that was choice, but when i looked shoreward, i was hardly even past the bathhouse. The thing was like one of those freestanding wavepools, i shit you not. It was truly bizarre.

more wet dreams for the file, i guess

[bammbamm808]

OTW, '85 or '86 I think. The Day of Dreams. Still the best I have ever seen OTW. Think of th best you've ever seen it. For most of you, it's not even close. Dawn patrol, me and maybe 5 timid Japanese surfers. My friend was puking hung over on the beach in front of the Cal pros house. Jimmy Hogan, Dino Andino, you remember that crew. Were they all G&S guys or was it Infinity? You get the idea. Near the end of one of the best 3 sessions of my life, I pick up a 6 footer a little wide--you know the ones that push inside a little and really double? I get in nicely on my 7' Rawson and lean into a bottom turn. The thing ledges really long and just swallows me as a Japanese surfer paddles over the shoulder looking down and in. I travel along completely gone from view for a while, foamball nipping at my rail, but keeping up nicely because the thing is so fricking perfect. After a long while of this, I notice the tube getting sandy and a little warpy and realize I'm tunneling through Insanities now. After a bit of
that, the wave opens up nicely and I get a nice big mousehole to straighten off out of before the wave closes out. I hear a bit of a noise from the beach as I jump off after the explosion. My friend later told me that as I took off and disappeared, one of the Cal guys said, "What if he comes out of that?" There were several snickers to that question and the wave barrelled off down the beach. When I popped out several seconds later there was a collective, astounded cheer from the whole Cal gallery, which is what I'd heard from the water.

[bammbamm808]

3rd Dip, around 89 or 90. Just me and 2 friends on the best day I have ever surfed there. Still don't know where everyone was that day. Straight North swell and minus tide (safest tide for there--believe it). Solid 5' and flawless. We were all having a very on day, surfing without fear and just making the unmakable time after time, surfing completely "out of our minds". I picked up a big one just off the end of the bowl that breaks in front of the shelf. It was really really long but I got in early on the refraction off the back part of the shelf and was already trimming straight across it as I stood up. It was already throwing out way way ahead of me, but it was one of those days for all of us and we were just GOING for everything and making it. Travelling through this thing, I couldn't even see the hole, but was focusing on the section immediately in front of me. There is that one shallow section in the middle of the break, where the asphalt from the edge of the road is broken and hangs down, and you can see it from the lineup. The wave was bending over this shallow spot and I actually had to steer down into this pit to keep from running right into the ceiling of the barrel and getting annihilated. I settled nicely into the next guttering mindless bit and just flew through that for a few seconds before eventually getting spit out down at the end of the break by the paddle out crack. I was literally speechless after that wave (really amazing for those that know me)

[HMARK]

There was this one day out at T**tles, rain coming down, straight down, and me and the crew were living in the valley at Kuliouou. Friend living on the K highway calls up and sez T##tles is going off. You cant even SEE the bay, much less T**tles. But he swears it'll be perfect. OK, we go. I mean its GRAY. Gray like a toupe wearing boss gray. Like UGGGGGGLLEEEE gray. But oh well, might as well. So we paddle, we walk, and we get there. Parting the clouds, and rain drops splashing straight down, IT is perfect, I mean glass perfect. not hardly a drop of water outta place. (cept for the pock marks from the raindrops) it is going off. 1 guy out already (7am) and it is my friends brother. He had been out since B4 dawn. go figure how he knew. He is just cheshire cat grin ear-to-ear. Howzits all around. Get to the bizzness.

Lotsa perfect cylinders going L. Beautys. But hours on in, staring a these looong ass rights (well sorta long) but the wall, the way the thing was lining up, it just was giving the sirens call. (Come get me, and eat shit, sucker!) The R breaks super quick and Shorties will grind it no prob, kick out and alls good, but but it on LB mode, and things get innnaresssing pretty quick on the right wave. Any how, this one just lines up, and thinking L, but leaning R, I give 'em a go, ( while 1 of the 3 of us was on the inside) I go backside, fade R, all good, 'till i hear this real clear "Oh,... no... fucking way!!!!!!!!!" from inside. I was concenrating on the drop, L hand pullling pretty hard on the outside rail of the 9'0". Hearing the (warning?) I kinda glance forward and down, to see the mother of all coral heads (you been out there, you know which one I mean) just sitting in the line I am taking. At this point, I started thinking really light. Like I wish I was about 30 to 40 pounds lighter. Truly thought I was gonna be impaled. All this clear blue water, gray skies, no wind, and this HUGE ass black rock right there next to my outter rail. It couldnt have been inches away. Glanced at it, looked forward, saw the smacking of a exit, and balls out, got outta there, kicked out the back, and thought how the hell did I make that?!?!

Worse part is, my 2 bros figgered I was toast, and were scouring the insides for jetsam.

We still talk about that day.

[bammbamm808]

Gums around '87 or '88. As good as it gets, about 4-6'. Flash forward to maybe '94 or '95. I run into Tony Moniz and we chat. He says that he saw me get a barrel years ago at Gums from the access next to what was then Lopez's house. He says I dropped in real deep and then it was just the wave barreling and warping down the sandbar/reef, going and going. He totally wrote me off and then, at the very end, out I pop. I remember that one, just that I couln't see a thing the whole wave, and was feeling my way through all the way.

[surfer9joe]

Am I allowed 1 more? here we go:

This was when I was in UH, living in the dorms. Weekend, nothing to do but look for surf. Started out 7am checking at kaisers, bowls, then DH, then Sandies then up the east side, checking every spot. Windy uglt day, but I was on a mission.

4 hours later arrive at PCC's, wind is blowing pretty hard offshore, I make the call, we are out there. waves are about 4-5 foot. If you ever surf PCC's there is the wave most surf, then the left over more to the north, that's were we are.

Very first wave drop in late, its like a 5 footer, drop in, bottom turn and pull in backdoor, waaay deep, like 5-8 feet back in the tube. Come out clean somehow, there is this guy on the shoulder paddliong out who just screams, "that was the sickest tube Ive ever seen!"

10 minutes later the wind picks up to like 40 mph, I caught one more wave, in.

5 hours + driving for basically one wave, man it was so worth it, I still think about that one for some reason, must have been the effort I went to get it.

[Sokiak]

WOW!!! All these stories are sick....OTW, Gums, Turtles, 3rd Dip & Lighthouse(what?)....Great stuff.
My turn....
It was about '97-'98 and I was in my senior year of high school(I'm a youngsta).
A friend and I crack it to Pyramid rock on a solid east/northeast swell. The winds are light konas and we pull up, the rock and the reef are completely flat, but we peel our eyes down the beach and see a perfect 5 foot wedge ripping off the runway jetty.....WHAT! Nobody is on the beach and the sun is just coming up over mokapu. We practically sprint down the beach. There is no sandbar developed anywhere except around the jetty and it looks utterly weird as the whole bay is flat except for the jetty, the water is light blue and the beach is beautiful. We get down there and it looks a little heavy, sucking hard and looking like Kirra. We paddle out and the take off spot is a little hairy in front of the rocks but the wedges peak up, bowl hard and puke themselves into a little channel once you pass the rocks opening up for a couple vert turns and eventually dying out where the sandbar ends. My boy was a really good bodyboarder at the time, he was sponsered by 4 companies and killing the HASA, anyway he's pulling in way deeper than I am, I'm on a 6'4" and he's telling me to come deeper, but I'm getting pitted one after another, so I don't care. Finally after about an hour of us trading pits and turns I decide I'll sit where he is, about 15 yards deeper than where I was originally. We're cruising and talking and out of nowhere a solid 6-7 foot set starts stacking up, the first one comes in and is kinda warbly...we both pass, next one comes really east and almost side ways, he says he got it and I see him slid in and notice an atomic peak wedge up for him on the inside....next wave comes even more east and has two atomic wedges lining up on the inside, I really don't want anything to do with this one as I think it will close out, but I know I'll get shit for awhile if I don't, so I swing around, put my head down and start scratcing....
as I'm paddling I hear my friend yell as he gets spit out, turns around and starts yelling again as I'm gettin to my feet....now I haven't looked at the wave or the line cause I've been paddling, but the thing is starting to suck out hard, I some how make it down the face, even air hopping a lil double up, I lean hard and duck a little, the two sections merge into one atomic mass destruction of a wedge and I freeze up completely in awe, the thing folds over me and erupts but I can't hear a single thing all I see is light blue all around me and beautiful oval opening and my friend going bonkers in the channel his hands are in the air and I can see him screaming, the opening feels so far away and my tail is starting to slide, I snap out of it and lean on the tail a little, I'm still getting pitted as my friend passes and I see another section fold over and I'm even deeper, then I feel a vaccum like suck and everything slows down and feels like its going backwards for half a second, followed by and explosion, whitewater spit everywhere, snap out of slow motion as I get blasted into the channel with spit, I come out and there was a perfect section to smack, my instinct was to hit it, but as I went up my legs were jelly and I didn't care so I ate shit. When I was underwater it all kinda hit me and I kinda wanted to cry, it was and still is the wave of my life.
It's even more memorable because my boy got in a car accident shortly after that and passed away at the ripe age of 17. RIP.

[omar_P]

hey Sokiak, that is one GREAT story...the kind that brings a tear to your eye.

[townie_boy]

she was 5'6, skinny, big chichi, tan and super pretty local girl.

wait i thought u guys were talking about pu in sai? ?