Question about long period swells

Yep. At Linda Mar a few months back we cruised in through the surf, and timed it well. However, a smallish wave picked us up and punched the nose right into the sand. Luckily we didn't pitchpole, and the boat landed flat on the beach.

Hitting the shore at an angle can be bad too, as we found out cruising up the to the beach at Bolinas; after a smooth and fun ride through easy-peasy surf, we nosed into the sand by the end-of-the-road at an angle such that the ama hit first and broke the plastic pin on the diagonal support bar (a smart safety feature by Hobie).

So yeah, for me, it's worth considering all possibilities when it comes to surf landings.

All good info, thanks. Most of my launches these days are HMB harbor or Linda Mar on calm days.

In the TI, a bad launch or landing is far worse than in a single-hull kayak; all sorts of things can break (rudder, ama, mirage drive), and a capsize would be catastrophic, relatively speaking. Hence my questions.

Well you neglected to tell us you were in a full on sail boat  azz over plastic CAN NOT be fun in anything with amas (never been on one but I have an active imagination). That changes everything I said. So my opinion applies only to us single hull guys.

Yeah, sorry, should have prefaced it with that info

In the TI ...

A whole different set of parameters apply to AI/TI launching (and especially landing).

Note to self: in the future ask if they're kayaking or sailing before making suggestions.  I know nothing about AI's and TI's.  Sorry.