mccabejc:
Melvin, regarding the empty BC: If nailed by a bigger wave and with an empty BC, and the wave also knocks your reg out, I would worry that I'd be underwater with no buoyancy and no air supply, and a big tank on my back. Do you think the half inflated BC makes that much of a difference in whether you can dive the wave successfully?
Note, I am not the expert here, and there are thousands with years more experience. But since you ask, Yes, I do. Particularly if it is a bigger wave, I want to be on the bottom holding sand in my hands, rather than higher in the water column where the power of the wave will be tossing me around. A partially inflated BC will not keep you from being tumbled. A fully inflated BC will not keep you from getting tumbled if the wave hits you at the wrong moment. In fact nothing will. All any amount of air does in a BC is increase the mass of the BC and give the wave more gripping power as well as keeping you from getting under the wave.
Being under the wave IMHO reduces dramatically the ability of the wave to tumble you.
Last but not least, once I am in water that is over shoulder high, I am normally past the surf zone. If I am not, then I am not diving because we are talking some monster waves. So since I am only in shoulder deep water, and if the regulator has been knocked out of my mouth, I just stand up.
As for the regulator being ripped from my mouth we are back to the chicken and egg argument. If you are higher in the water due to a partially inflated BC then you are more likely to get tumbled. If you are more likely to get tumbled, then you are more likely to lose your regulator. The wave has less power at the sand and increases its power as you go up in distance from the sand.
If the wave will strike me at mid thigh or lower, I go over the top of the wave by either just standing sideways and bracing and crouching low, or by just jumping over it. If the wave will strike me any higher than that, with my top heavy body and that 38 pound tank on my back making me awkward, I will go for lying prone on the sand under the wave by diving into the wave as close to the base as I can.
Naturally, that is just MHO and my approach. A different technique may work better for you. Others have more experience than I, but having done my share of Maytag tumbles (some pretty cool ones where I landed back on my fee like nothing had happened), I find I do less tumbling laying prone on the sand under a wave or just giving a small jump over it.