Just a bit of poetic license in that story. Breakers on the way out were more like 3 to 5 max (2-3' swell). The swell did build, which was not forecast, during the day and we came in to 5 to 7 or 8 foot breakers (4-5' swells). The landing was right in front of a manned lifeguard station, so the only things likely to be damaged were our gear and/or our pride (I speak collectively of course
). Timed properly (aka waiting until the surfers say the set has passed
) there was no problem launching or landing. Almost nobody had the patience for that though.