Wow! what a great string, being  relatively inexperienced at surf launches my pride feels a little better now having read about other peoples crashes.  So it's not just me!!  I think the reason my list is so short is because I don't go that often.  However I did have a pretty good crash about a month ago at Doran.  Launched at the jetty on a day with about a 6 foot swell so there was zero surf there, but knowing I could use some practice I headed for the south/east end of the beach about a mile or so away where it's more exposed to the swell.  Learned a lesson or 2 there.  From the backside the shore break looked pretty small, turned out to be maybe 3-4 feet and very abrupt at the beach.  As I slowly (bad) edged towards my commit point a wave (no bigger than the rest) came up behind me and shoved me forward like a rocket.  I was in my fairly new 14 ft Maurader and as the back end kicked up I thought I was in for an endo, I was plastered into the seat from the forward push and couldn't bail out, I'm thinkin this is gonna be ugly, (and it was), at the last second the wave flipped me sideways and out, face down into about a foot of water, having done this last year at Big Sur I was smart enought to bury my face it the sand and cover up as the yak flew over my head, less painful than the knock on the head last time.  Since I thought the surf looked really small I hadn't lashed all my stuff just the expensive stuff, I lashed my rod down tight, I usually have enough slack to pull the rod out and into my hands but not this time, so the handle was still in the holder but the rod had snapped off clean, lost a set of pliers that were in a securely vlecroed pocket, it's hard to get them out anyway, but the surf did it, the rest of my unsecured stuff just laid or bobbed around in the surf until I collected it.  Nice thing about the maurader is that you can easily stow an 8 ft rod in the hull, so as I nervously got ready to go back out the boat was absolutley clean the only thing not stowed was the seat and the paddle.  Of course I crashed again last week at Van Damme of all places, but I did finish the trip with a good landing, Practice, practice,,,,

I don't have one yet so I'm looking for suggestions.

Things to look for , brands, specific models, etc.

Thanks in advance,

dale

Well perhaps I meant GAF account, in either case you all know what it's like....

I hate to be the one to offer an explanation that might not be as exciting but over the years on 3 separate occasions I've seen sea lions eating large fish that fit the description of what you saw. These events had me pretty excited until I got close enough to see what it was, then it was pretty intereting to watch, (from my 20 ft Beachcraft) Twice it was salmon and the third was a halibut, and that was off Dillon just outside the mouth of Tomales bay.  The sea lions can't swallow these fish because they're so big, so they just tear them to pieces by grabbing a mouthful and violently thrashing them around on the surface until they come apart.  I was amazed at how violent a thrashing it became, also the birds loved it because of all the pieces that went flying. As for the white you saw, that could have been the belly of a big halibut,  Of course you were there and I wasn't, if it was a large white patch, then I'd also go with the GWS. Something special to see for sure.