… Can be the difference between a good trip and a disaster.

Maybe you’re planning a mission to Indo this summer, maybe Mundaka in the autumn. Wherever you’re going, so long as tube time remains surfing’s Holy Grail, good pumping skills will always separate the men from the boys. Eric Rebiere takes you through this encounter with a Nokanduis bomb.

1. “Normally when you know you’re gonna be on a barrelling wave, the first thing to decide is whether you’re going to stall or pump. Either way, the best thing is to keep your stance tucked nice and low. That way you keep your options open – from there you can stick your hand in the face to stall, or stand up to pump if you need to.”

2. “Now with your inside rail in the face, if you have enough time and you know that it’s gonna be a fast section, you move both your feet forward on the board. If you’re going to be deep in the barrel on the foamball, your weight needs to be forward to drive out of there.”

3. “Now I know that it’s a fast one, so I’m pumping as hard as I can because I can see the section way in front of me. I know too that the wave’s not that big, which means you can actually surf inside the barrel, making all those tight little adjustments really quickly. When it’s a really big tube you can’t do that, it’s more like you just take a line and hang on.”

4-5. “Between 4 and 5 you can see I’m still pumping hard because I can still see I’m a long way behind the section.”

6. “This is actually my favourite moment in the barrel. You’re deep, you know you’re in a good place, you know the foamball isn’t gonna take you from behind, you have a few seconds to relax and feel just how good the barrel is. You can stand up more, relax, and enjoy it.”

7-8. “When you have a bit of experience from surfing hollow waves for some time, you can get into a situation like this where you know you’re still deep, you see the section coming and you can just pull your weight a little it forward to make it, but not without needing to pump. Still relaxing, still enjoying it.”