1) Of or relating to a tube.

2)Constituting or consisting of tubes or a tube.

3) Shaped like a tube.

4) stolen from science by the surf culture and later by pop culture (in the 1980's).

5) see tubeular for more

6) of or relating to a good thing. See tubeular, supra.

used mostly in the 80's, or by people mocking the 80's to describe something 'awesome' or 'excelent' ie, good.

From 1986....Sufer way to say cool. Relates to the tube a wave forms when cresting. First started in the Maplewood/South Orange Area of NJ and moved up and down East coast surfer comunity. Was in use in the west coast by 1988.

TUBULAR has been uttered since the 70's in the surf world. 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. We used it to describe when waves break like a barrel. 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. 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. You would have been over heard all this exagerated lingo at the Encino Gallaria in the very early 80's. 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 mak...

Very cool. Rad. surfer lingo Term is from Maplewood N.J. the East Coast usage stopped by the early 90's, but became very popular term in the West Coast.

Tubular is in referance to surfing in the barrel. the tube. getting in a tube is awesome, hence the word tubular : )

Late 70s and 80s slang, adj. As groovy and as it gets. Too cool to be just a passing fad, like saying tubular turned out to be.

Derived from a way cool 1973 album, titled Tubular Bells, by Mike Oldfield.

Vals picked up the word and that was the death of saying tubular. If it weren't for so many Vals saying, like tubular that other people associated it with Valspeak, people wouldn't have become afraid to continue saying tubular when Valspeak went out of style.

A once-popular expression meaning, essentially, 'really cool'. Synonymous with far out and awesome. Rarely used these days, except as a joke.