Greg Bertish giving some insight into how to Ride Barrels.

[Brendon]

Greg Bertish one of Cape Town's pioneer SUPers gives us some insight into riding barrels. Most of the pics are from a recent trip to Madagascar.
http://suphq.com/faqs/this-site/610-ride-barrels-with-greg-bertish

[endlessfight]

great read man and some great tips. the two problems i have most is paddle placement, and being able to hold a good enough high line without getting sucked up the face. has a ton to do with the wave you are catching obviously. i will get barrled on my sup one day!

[diesel]

Good info.  I finally caught two good tube rides this summer on the Oahu south shore.  Got one on the biggest swell that hit around september then got another the week after.  It took a lot of practice.  About two years of practice and a bunch of tossings from pulling in too high but I finally feel pretty comfortable pulling in and making it out.  It is worth it, keep trying.

[SoCalSupper]

nice!
Barells at a break in socal that sups are even allowed at are rarer than right turns at a NASCAR race.
Wish i had some barells to practice the tips in!

[soulpaddler]

What socal said.

[diesel]

The break I surf at ala moana is a break that I have been surfing for years and the guys know that I can surf it on regular boards too so they dont hassle me about SUP.  Although I have to say that that when I was learning I would not go out there for about the first year because I knew that once I started surfing there on SUP that I wanted to be at a competent level and not ever really fall down or blow a takeoff on a good wave which is the ultimate sin.  I practiced at a remote offshore reef for that first year.  I really put in time to get better so I didnt embarass myself.

In Hawaii, I think that SUP is a lot more accepted as long as you are at a competent level and not wasting good waves by falling down.  There are a lot of really good surfers who surf SUP and regular boards.  I guess we are lucky here.  I know that the crowds get pretty crazy in Cali.  Although, it is important to really invest in surfing one break over and over and becoming a regular so you get respect in the lineup if you want to surf those quality type waves that throw a nice tube.  I also work for myself, so I am lucky and can get out in the day when the crowd is at work.  I have to count my blessings I guess.

Keep trying for those tube rides.

[SoCalSupper]

nice Diesel-i have never supped hawaii and i have heard conflicting reports about overall SUP vibe-i know each island and spot is a little different but it does boil down usually to one universal concept-dont go out if you dont have the skills for the wave you want to ride. I like what you said about putting in the time and honing the skils before you try a more difficult spot.
I see the Hanalei cam and prone/sup mingling going on, looks like a pretty mellow vibe-hard to tell though from a laptop in Socal!
Im self employed also and can log more time than the office guy so that is nice-wish the local lifeguards would let the good spots self regulate like Hawaii-so many better quality waves around me that i cant get to on my sup due to the ban.
Did you get any of that last all time swell at bowls a few months back?

[exetersup]

I like barrels! I think the biggest thing is to overcome the hesitation factor. Commitment is everything in surfing (as most of us probably know=), and letting go of that "what if..." thought in your head is key. That and some dignified balls!
I think it also takes a lot of sacrifice on your wave count: time spent in the soup gathering all the gear, getting gassed more frequently, pulling into sections rather than hitting/floating sections. It all comes down to reading a wave, setting up, and having the cojones to pull in and stay in.
I like Bertish's claim that its safer to fail in the barrel, rather than outside dodging it.
I cant wait to surf again...

[diesel]

nice Diesel-i have never supped hawaii and i have heard conflicting reports about overall SUP vibe-i know each island and spot is a little different but it does boil down usually to one universal concept-dont go out if you dont have the skills for the wave you want to ride. I like what you said about putting in the time and honing the skils before you try a more difficult spot.
I see the Hanalei cam and prone/sup mingling going on, looks like a pretty mellow vibe-hard to tell though from a laptop in Socal!
Im self employed also and can log more time than the office guy so that is nice-wish the local lifeguards would let the good spots self regulate like Hawaii-so many better quality waves around me that i cant get to on my sup due to the ban.
Did you get any of that last all time swell at bowls a few months back?

Howzit SoCalSupper.  Sorry to write in so late but I have not checked the forum for a while because so busy.  I did catch that reall big south swell and I surfed it at the biggest and surfed all five days at my homebreak at ala moana.  It was strange because my break was one of the few surfable spots for the first two days of the swell but I dont think many people knew because I surfed it with only a few of my friends.  It was really good and big for south shore.  I was catching the medium size waves which were still head and a half to double overhead and were peeling off nicely.  The big ones were gnarly and closing out.  The first two days did not pull into any tubes because I did not want to eat it on the wave and get drilled by all the big ones behind it.  I was riding those all the way to the channel and I was suprised and how comfortable I was out there on SUP.  I could really move around and get outside to clear big closeouts and get in quickly to catch the medium size waves.

Third day was best day I have surfed at that break.  Was breaking perfect and totally throwing tubes on almost every wave.  It was about head and half high or hawaiian style 3 to 5 feet.  I pulled into two nice tubes but did not make it out. Then made it out of a really good one.  Surfed that swell for two more days. 

Then another great swell it the next weekend and I got another really good barrel ride out of that swell.  Of course, I caught a ton of waves on these wells but tube riding oppurtunities only present themselves on the best waves so gotta be picky.  So stoked about those tubes though.  I hope I can repeat that again now that my technique is a bit more refined.  Thanks for listening.  Aloha.