Shopping Cart
There are no more items in your cart
Bodyboard barrel riding technique for beginners
If you want to learn bodyboard barrel riding as a beginner, you need a clear order to follow, not a highlight reel. The path runs from solid foundations and your first close-outs to reading the peak, taking off, holding a high line, controlling your speed and coming out cleanly, with safety checks at every stage.
Prepare your bodyboard skills for barrels
Getting barrelled starts on the beach, well before your first take-off. You need solid basics, a section that forgives mistakes and time spent in small close-outs. On their own, barrel tips won't make up for skipping any of these three stages.
Build the right foundations
The Academy of Surfing Instructors classes barrel riding as an advanced manoeuvre. Its Advanced standard covers surf up to 6 ft / 2 m. The ASI puts the whole Advanced level at 20 sessions of 1–2 hours plus practice, a total of 100–200 hours. That is a training framework, not a promise of how fast you'll get barrelled. Check these skills before you pull in on purpose:
- Wave catching: you catch unbroken waves reliably and choose to go left or right.
- High trim and bottom turn: you hold a high line across the face and redirect the board with a controlled turn.
- Braking and acceleration: you slow down without wiping out and speed up without losing rail control.
- Section reading: you can tell whether a section is about to open or close.
Lying prone makes it easier for a beginner to learn bodyboarding than stand-up surfing, because you skip the pop-up and the standing balance. Even so, good bodyboarding techniques for beginners still involve demanding skills: a proper bottom turn, rail control and eventually the tube itself.
Choose a forgiving first section
Once those skills are reliable, pick where you'll use them. Before you paddle out, spend 10–15 minutes watching a single peak. Note where it peaks, which way it throws and whether the hollow part stays open along the wave. For your first attempts, look for a clean peeling shoulder, an obvious hollow section, an exit you can see and a sandy bottom with nothing dangerous on it.
That's why a sandy beach break is the safer place to learn. Sandbanks shift, but the exits are often wide. A reef, by contrast, has fixed peaks that can end with you hitting a shallow bottom.
Practise close-outs with control
Small close-out barrels are where you get used to the lip, the trough and the shockwaves travelling up the face. After enough of them, committing to the entry feels normal instead of frightening. When the wave shuts down, stay with the board and come out through the back. Turning towards the beach puts you right under the pitching lip.
The same caution applies to the water around you. The RNLI advises bodyboarding between the red-and-yellow flags, wearing a leash and going with a mate. According to the RNLI, typical rips flow at 1–2 mph and stronger ones reach 4–5 mph. If you're caught in one, keep hold of your board, signal for help and swim parallel to the shore when you can.
Enter the barrel from the peak
A good tube ride is usually decided before you're even on the wave. Where you sit, how fast you're moving and which direction you set in the first second decide whether the lip throws over you or lands on you.
Read the pitching section
A barrel is the hollow tunnel left behind when the lip pitches over. The wave you want has a hollow section that travels along its length. A wave that closes out all at once is not what you're after. Before you commit, check four things:
- Your take-off spot: on or slightly behind the peak, not chasing a shoulder that has already broken.
- The shoulder: where the face stays open ahead of the hollow part.
- The likely exit: the point where you expect to come out.
- The rip and return route: where the current runs and how you'll get back safely.
Accelerate before the drop
Once you're sitting in position, speed becomes the priority. Paddle and kick hard before take-off so you have enough momentum to get into the wave and carry into its first hollow section. Catching a wave with too little speed leaves you hanging at the top as it pitches. Here is how to build that speed:
- Calm water: your arms do most of the work.
- Turbulent water: kick harder with your fins and coordinate the kicks with your arm strokes.
- Board direction: point the board the way you plan to go as the wave approaches.
- Nose control: keep the nose steady while you kick faster.
Keep paddling when you feel the wave lift your tail. Stopping at that moment can cost you the momentum you need for the section.
Set the entry line early
That extra speed only helps if you use it in the right direction. On a barrel take-off, you want to be heading along the wave, the way the section will develop, as you drop. Going straight towards the shore is the wrong line.
So pick left or right straight away and put your weight on the inside rail, the edge of the board nearest the wave face. Keep your body organised over the board and look down the line at the section you need to reach.
Don't automatically make a deep bottom turn, because it can leave you too low for the barrel. The difference comes down to the wave. Make a quick turn to get under a fast lip, or a longer, drawn-out turn to line up a slower one.
Hold your line inside the barrel
Once you're in, the job is to stay where the tube protects you. That means three things: a high line, controlled speed and a body position that can absorb impacts.
Stay high and engage the rail
Hold a high, tight line so the lip throws over you rather than onto you. The low part of the face is where it pounds riders. To stay up there, shift your weight towards the inside rail so the board grips instead of sliding. Put your leading forearm on the deck, press through your elbow, keep your hips on the board and keep your legs out of the water.
Match speed to the breaking lip
A high line only works if your speed inside the barrel matches the wave. The aim is control, not maximum speed. Go too fast and you outrun the section. Go too slow and the lip and foam ball end up ahead of you. Adjust with these moves:
- To stall: shift your weight back, dig in the tail, drag your inside hand or arm and let your legs and fins trail in the water.
- To release the brake: lift off as soon as the lip is where you want it.
- To accelerate: move slightly forward, cut drag and tail pressure, and aim for the steeper, more powerful part of the face towards the exit.
Stay compact under pressure
Those corrections work best when they're small. Brake early and gently as soon as you feel yourself getting ahead. A small adjustment is easy to recover from, but a sudden stall at the last second can end the ride.
A tight, tucked position helps you hold that high line while you keep absorbing the shockwaves the lip sends up the face. In practice, deep riding is a gamble of speed and control: you hold tight and adjust your speed without letting the foam ball catch you.
Exit the tube cleanly
Your tube ride isn't finished until you're out. Where you look, the line you choose and when you commit decide whether you come out onto the shoulder or get caught in the foam.
Look through the opening
Your eyes steer the board before your body does. Inside the barrel, look through the opening towards where the wave will open up. Four habits help:
- Eyes on the exit: fix your gaze on the opening, not on the lip above you.
- Peripheral vision: keep track of the lip from the edge of your view.
- Eyes open: don't close them, even when the wave feels heavy.
- Head up: only duck your head when you really need to protect yourself.
Watching the exit lets you steer early. Staring at the lip overhead usually means you change line too late.
Aim for the open shoulder
With your eyes on the exit, steer up towards the top of the opening, aiming for the open section rather than the collapsing foam.
How you use your weight decides your tube time. If the wave starts running away from you, lunge forward to reach the exit. If the barrel isn't racing, sit back a little and stay in longer.
At this stage, a successful ride means a clean entry, a line you held and reaching the shoulder. Spins, rolls and lip manoeuvres come later.
Finish the ride with awareness
The most spectacular way out is with the spit, the misty burst of water and air blown out as the barrel collapses.
When the section is closing, make your decision and stick to it.
Once you're getting out of the barrel consistently, you can finish on the open face with an el rollo, a backflip or an ARS when conditions allow.
Recommended products
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn them in order. Start in the foam and safe water, then learn to catch waves, paddle and kick, and hold the board. After that comes trimming, the bottom turn, rail control and speed control. Then move on to steeper take-offs and small hollow waves, and only then the tube and the exit. Basic riding comes quickly because you stay lying down, but turns and rail control take real practice.
The Academy of Surfing Instructors classes tube riding as an advanced manoeuvre. It comes after wave selection, take-off positioning, trimming, turns, weight transfer, speed control and safe exits. Before you try it, make sure you can catch unbroken waves, go left or right on purpose, hold a high line, brake and accelerate. Then practise in small close-outs before trying fast, hollow tubes.
The RNLI recommends a thick, wide soft foam board to start with, because it floats better and makes paddling easier. Bodyboards usually measure 32–46 inches (about 81–117 cm), and the right size depends on your level and the conditions. Fins become essential once you're in deeper water. Choose a 2 mm–3/2 mm wetsuit for water at 15–21°C, a 4/3 mm for 12–15°C and a 5/4/3 mm below 12°C, with gloves, boots and a hood.
Share this article:
