ride em to the death i say.
some of the best barrels i've ever had were the ones i thought i wasn't going to make and the best "tubevision" always comes with the ones you don't come out of. The fastest way to start getting set waves at places like G-land or Scars etc, is to pull into everything!!!
To me tube riding is about subtleties.
counterbalancing your movements to keep your inside rail engaged.
i try to keep my stance (knance?) as sleek and compact as possible, keeping all my limbs out of the water until i need something to slow me down.
To stall i like to "push" water with my inside hand rather than drag it, using the palm of my hand infront of my body rather than behind. The response is immediate and its easier to control. Sometimes i use both hands to stall.
i often make little dicoveries about subtle little things i'm doing subconciously.Like my foot on the outside rail hooks onto the rail, sometimes to lift the rail cause hands are doing something else.i only found this out becuase i bruised the inside of my foot and could feel it when i was pulling in.
I think if you just pull into every hollow wave you catch, without hesitation, you will pick up your own little habits for getting in and out of em. If you don't hesitate you'll rarely get hurt.
Watching in the tube footage by Greenough, Brian Conelly and The Sparrow is hypnotic. All far better tuberiders than i'll ever be but it's interesting to put yourself in there with them. The lines they take and decsisions made are so different to your own.
i find myself weighting and unweighting in the lounge chair