Lessons
25.Throwing the fins out
26.Chop Hop
27.Grab Rail Turns
28.Carving Reverse
29.Off the lip Reverse
30.Backside Reverse
31.Backside Tuberiding
32.Frontside Air
33.Backside Air
34.Air Grabs
35.Alley Oop
36.Frontside Air Reverse
37.Backside Air Reverse
38.Superman Air
39.Rodeo Flip

31. Backside Tuberiding

Backside tube riding is one of the most difficult things to do in surfing! Although there are some cases where guys that don’t surf amazing can backside tuberide as good as your local hero. But at the same time there are some top pros who are busting airs all over the place and find it the most difficult move to get their head around!
I think the best way to sum it up is awkward.
The only way to get your head around it and feel comfortable doing it is to try and do it as much as possible!
We don’t mean to state the obvious when we say that backside tube riding is all about positioning. It may sound like a stupid statement to make but that is all it is and in particular body and board positioning.
There are a few different types of backside tuebriding, first off is the most common and popular one:
The Pigdog

The pigdog is done by grabbing your toe-side rail with your back arm and dropping your knee on your back leg to the deck! We will concentrate more on this style a little later.
Pigdog with stall:
A pigdog with stall is essentially the same style as a normal pigdog except you drag your arm and body in the wave to slow yourself down, perfect for slow but perfectly peeling barrels.

 

 

Layback

This is a full on old school move that still looks wicked today. You lie fully back in the barrel so your body fits the curve of the wave and use your back arm to guide you on the wave face.

No Hands

The Mack daddy of all backside tube riding! Chances are you will have seen this perfected by the irons brothers and Slater at Pipe and Teahuppoo and also the Hobgood twins have got this absolutely dialled. You need a wide gaping barrel to experience this to its fullest. You stand tall and relaxed as the carnage detonates around you! By far the hardest style to do when backside tube riding but by far the best looking.

So lets go back to the pigdog.
It is so easy to get slightly in the wrong position, end up too low on the wave and take the lip on the head or be too high on the wave and get pitched over the falls. You’ve got to position your board, your body and your arms in just the right place so that you can set a decent line that will allow you to ride the barrel and come out of it. Its much easier to take off and slide straight into the barrel than it is to set up for it halfway down there line, so an ideal wave to get familiar with them is one that has a barrel right on takeoff.

What you want to do is take off, grab your rail, drop your back knee so its almost touching the deck of your board and slide straight into the barrel. As the lip is coming over you, you want to twist your body so that your chest is facing along the wave and out the barrel. This is where the key positioning comes in. you need to be about halfway up the face of the wave, use your leading arm as a guide for where you need to be positioned on the wave. You need to be able to touch and run your hand along the wave face as you are in the barrel. If your reaching out for the wave face but cant touch it you are too low on the wave and you will take the lip in the head.
You need to find that area where you can slot into perfectly, you pretty much have to make your body fit into the curve of the wave as you lean into it. It feels very awkward and un-natural to begin with but the more you find the right spot and realise you are no longer getting clobbered by the lip the more it feels right.
Don’t forget, stay in the barrel for as long as you possibly can, its so easy to get scared and jump off before the wave has fully broken around you, don’t do this, stay on your board until you cant possibly any longer. Remember the safest place to be on a wave is in the barrel.