I do like the ‘drone’ coverage of the session.
Yeah, a bit too close for comfort for me, though I think I’m probably at the ‘safe’ extreme of this type of situation.
When I was learning, the location I was learning was dominated by surfers - I never practiced near them. I’d seen a WW paddler clobber into a surfer, damaging his board, not for me.
Well into my ‘learning’, to further decrease my chances of running over surfers or just anyone in the shallows, I learned a technique to get out of a ‘locked in broach’ (one that I couldn’t get out of).
I would intentionally roll (toward shore) - note, this action is very intimidating (especially in bigger surf), you are intentionally ‘windowshading’ yourself, staying underwater till the wave goes by.