You’ve never done the Monastery crawl?
There have been so many people there rag dolled in the surf, a few people killed too. One lady died then was revived only to die 8 years later from complications from the first incident.
I don’t do big surf, why??? The diving isn’t going to be that good anyway if it’s pounding on the shore. We don’t go if there is surf bigger than knee or thigh slappers. We have too many new divers plus we have nothing to prove. If you want to play in big surf, go surfing instead.
I described the shoreline structure at Stillwater Cove. It’s course sand at the shoreline and the sand extends out into about 3’ of water knee slapper waves will be breaking which is pretty benign, but then it goes into mini boulders with some larger boulders mixed in. Those boulders are smooth with a layer of algae and slime on them. You don’t step on top of one and expect not to slip off, then your foot goes down and wedges up in between two boulders and you hurt your feet and you fall over. This is where the ankle and knee injuries occur. Dive booties are not mountaineering boots. You can’t see the rocks because of the agitated foamy water. When the tide is at medium height and the rocks are around two to three feet deep is when it’s hazardous because there isn’t enough water to cushion a fall. So trying to walk out and navigate the hazards when you are stuffed into 7mm suit, weight belt, rig, and look like a Christmas tree with all the urchin bags, rake, lift bag, etc. and now me in 72 doubles, is a challenge.
This is why I pick an end of the beach where I found the sand to extend out a ways and I have everything on. I side/back step out and stay low feet apart, I work my way out to waist deep if I can and flop in and go. No trying to fiddle with my fins in the water I can’t do it. Coming in I either crawl out or depending on the tide and surf, if I find a smooth spot that I can stand I remove fins in the water and walk out. If I’m using the white Go fins you gave me then I can easily remove those and walk out, but with the XL Jets stuffed onto by booties held on with thick rubber tie down bungees no way, unless I use my gauntlet rake end hook to do it which actually works because I can reach it and get leverage to undo the strap
Like I said, after hip surgery I’ve had to adapt and figure out ways around limited flexibility and no rotation on my left hip, it’s very difficult to reach my left foot. I’ve stretched and stretched for years trying to free it up but there is too much scar tissue and it’s as good as it’s going to get.