Reported 1.7 meter (5.5’ plus) surf. Kayak fisherman (experienced with surf) not hurt but video is a testament to the power of surf (worth reading his comments):
-sing
OUCH!! Not good.
Yeah… The look on his face, a split second before he ditched the boat and paddle, said a lot. He did not have much choice with a fishing SOT (without thigh straps).
sing
I wish they had the forward facing camera on for when the big wave hit.
That does look a very light layup boat.
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Not sure of his background, but this is a masterclass in how NOT to exit the surf zone.
He times the initial set well, but then inexplicably hangs out in the worst part of the break zone, lollygagging, wiping his face, stops paddling every wave, slow to restart pading, doesn’t appear to be sprinting between swells, gets un-perpendicular to the waves, and more.
When exiting surf above head high, ideally you…
Time the set to a lull.
Sprint as soon as you decide its go time. Sprint until you are 100 yards past the break line then continue hard until you’re well outside the breakers.
Remain perpendicular to the waves at all times.
When over head high, you can brace for a split second as the wave hits you, but paddling should only be interrupted for a second. You gotta GO!
No hanging out inside the break zone for any reason unless you’re physically impared by a situation.
Good video, he probably learned a lot, but could have had a pretty clean exit if he sprinted between the sets instead of slowly exiting.
Surf is unforgiving. Even as an expert surfskiier I have a hard time exiting overhead surf (overhead relative to Sitting at water level, so 3’ or 1m surf)
That was my thought too, pretty flimsy for taking on heavy surf. I think anybody who has done much ocean paddling has had that big ominous dark line marching and rolling toward you while it’s jacking up. and paddling as hard as you can go in hopes of a miracle getting over or punching through. Not much you can do without thigh straps in an SOT.
When my oldest son was 14 I bought a hobie oddysey tandem kayak after we had some surf zone lessons. We were itching to try it out in big waves and one night after work we paddled out into overhead hollow waves. I still remember getting my helmet banged on the bottom in what had been 15 ft deep water. The local life guards paddled out to make sure we were still alive and once they found us in one piece (missing sunglasses was the worst damage) they almost died from laughing when we told them we sort of under estimated the break. We now know the spot is called Train Wreck by the locals.
He’s paddling a Stealth Profisha 475 which is a good fiberglass fishing kayak but it probably hit a sand bar. The badly attached GoPro kept him too busy.
And Cost him a boat.
The pictures are never never that important.
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The surf has cost me three GoPros. That’s the equivalent of a good pre-owned boat. 
-sing
This is why I don’t and won’t have them. I take only things that can float or things I can afford to lose.
It’s a shame with the Go-Pro mounts you can’t have a safety line attached.
Singing sands were cool. Churp-churp-churp-churp-churp-churp.
So, umm, why did he bail?
I did similar damage to an old 70s-80s light layup river kayak when I buried the bow in the surf-sand, but it remained in one piece never to be paddled again though.
Good thing he had all that ropy stuff all over the place, so he could strangle himself if things went even further south.