Surf fishing when the pier is closed

Today the Pacifica pier was closed. Now that’s pretty rare (aside from COVID). And there was one crazy guy who probably didn’t care and had to fish from the surf. Oh boy, everyone was looking at this lunatic. He survived exactly 10 seconds. The surf was so rough I think even the fish were expelled from the beach.

Oh, and excuse me for the lazy edit...

Looks like a great day for a surf launch!

There has been some impressive surf in Santa Cruz recently too. I've seen some large breaking waves in places where I normally fish from my kayak...

Isn’t it funny that once you become a kayak fisherman, you start to evaluate every break and every wave as if you were right there with your kayak?
I was actually thinking what would happen if you surf launch in such conditions, and I think the white wash would hit you well before the breaks. You will tip over, your kayak would get pushed super fast to the shore, and you would be tumbling in the wash.

Isn’t it funny that once you become a kayak fisherman, you start to evaluate every break and every wave as if you were right there with your kayak?
I was actually thinking what would happen if you surf launch in such conditions, and I think the white wash would hit you well before the breaks. You will tip over, your kayak would get pushed super fast to the shore, and you would be tumbling in the wash.

Lol, thinking exactly the same thing!
And look at that surf, its nuts!  It hits the bottom of the pier, that's a monster (starting at 0:31 ... 0:48 ....).

I wonder how buoyant a kayak would be in that whitewash. It's more air than water.  Big scary waves.

I was there last weekend when the waves were smaller, but still huge.  The booms were Dolby surround sound quality and were spraying the houses on the other side of the street by the coffee shop.