I'd bet it was in Hawaii or Auz BEFORE any of us heard it. I idolized Mark Richards, the surfer, so I can assure you 'tubular' didn't originate in god damed Jersey '88 like two hodads claimed in one of definitions. I had Dad get me my first skateboards at the Valley's #1 surf and skate shop on Ventura Blvd: Val Surf circa 1977 (a Logan Earth Ski and an Alva board with Tracker Mid Tracks and PowerFlex wheels). I lived it kids - born in Calabasas (a rich part of the San Fernando Valley that's nestled in Malibu Canyon fire country) and we moved to Malibu and then on to OC's Newport Beach. In 1982 Moon Unit Zappa and her dad put out the song that lit the fire: 'Valley Girl' - and from that day forward the world began to mock the So Cal Val's adopted surf lingo and make fun of it or acutally USE it themselves. You would have been over heard all this exagerated lingo at the Encino Gallaria in the very early 80's. All the Val's picked up that slang because of their close proximity to the beach and their love of ' Fast Times,' OP, Quicksilver, and everything SURF and SKATE. In the early 80's the slang spread fast in So Cal beach cities when in Frank Zappa's song 'Valley Girl' written and sung by his daughter Moon Unit Zappa makes fun of a girl from Encino (a rich part of the San Fernando Valley) who uses adopted surf lingo / words like 'tubular' as a word to mean 'cool.' 'Her name? Her name is Ondrea, Onndrea Wil-son.' A girl like Andrea (rather 'Ondrea,' as she'd likely pronounce it, would travel the 15-20 miles from Encino to Malibu Beach to try to party with the surfer boys and boogie board on weekends - and she dates Val Surf boys who cross Malibu Canyon to surf but live in the snotty-materialistic Valley - that's where she picks up this lingo that identifies her as a Val along with her obsession with shopping designer at the Encino or Sherman Oaks Gallaria. We used it to describe when waves break like a barrel. I am from Newport Beach and Zuma and we said it in 78 - not sure if it was used earlier but we used it by '78 for sure.

TUBULAR has been uttered since the 70's in the surf world.

Tubbler slang