My first hulli/yard sale

The YouTube video on the high brace for whitewater kayakers has good information.  I'd only add two things to it:

1.  Keep your paddle in the water (a good idea with all kinds of kayaks).  When kayaking, the idea is not to bob along holding your paddle up in the air, and then desperately slap the water with your paddle if you start to get tipped over.  The idea is to keep your paddle in the water, so you can respond instantly and instinctively to any disruption of your balance.  That's why I suggested that you practice alternating a high brace and a low brace, using a sculling motion and without taking your paddle out of the water. It's like keeping your hand on the bannister as you run down the stairs.  Paddling steadily forward produces much the same result, because one blade or the other is in the water most of the time, and ready to respond instantly if you get tipped off balance.

2. Practice a sculling brace (if you have a sit-inside kayak).  A high or low brace provides you with short-term support.  A sculling brace provides a whitewater kayaker or a sea kayaker with long-term support.  Sculling involves sweeping your paddle across the surface of the water, keeping the front edge of the blade up as you sweep the paddle forward, and the back edge of the blade up as you sweep the paddle backward, so the paddle blade doesn't dive.  The following video shows how to scull:

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To practice a sculling brace, lean back on the back deck of your kayak, let your kayak roll over on its side so your shoulder and the side of your head are in the water (which provides you with some flotation), and start sculling.  You can stay in that position, with your kayak on its side, with very little effort.  Then, pop yourself upright!  Practice this on both sides.  Stop sculling and let your head sink underwater, and then scull gently to bring your head back to the surface.  If you're sculling on your right side, keep your right elbow bent and as near as feasible to your side, keep your right hand near your face, and keep your left hand low and near the side of your kayak.  This will keep your right shoulder in a strong position.  Don't straighten your right arm and hold your paddle over your head when sculling, as that puts your right shoulder in a weak position and exposes it to damage.  You'll see a couple of examples of risky position in the sculling video, such as in the first picture of a kayaker sculling.  You want the low powerful paddle position to become instinctive, not the high risky paddle position.  Once you get good at sculling and can do it instinctively if you get blasted over on your side, you'll rarely need to use your roll, because if you get knocked over on your side, you can take a scull stroke and pop back upright.  When a whitewater kayaker learns to roll, he or she becomes kind of bombproof.  When a whitewater kayaker learns to brace and scull upright if he or she gets knocked over, they'll really be bombproof.  The whitewater sequence at the end of the video is a good example of how having a good sculling brace can keep you from needing to roll.

Chris, I'm not dissing your capability -- but it appears that the water is about a foot deep...You definitely got surprised by that sneaker, and it doesn't take much to huli once you lose your balance.  Glad you recovered your stuff and willing to share the tale.

Pete - I think you should come out to Oregon next year and provide a surf clinic!  That river drone footage was sick!

I've been watching the surf in various spots near Newport-- just imagining trying to get a kayak through some of the waves.  There are definitely some easy conditions and I'd be smart to pick one of those days to go out. Like this past Saturday, Flat as a lake!!

I'm not the guy to teach a surf launch and landing clinic, because I'm from Montana, and there isn't a lot of ocean surf in Montana.  I've done some ocean surfing in a whitewater kayak, and I've spent a little time in the surf zone in a fishing kayak, but there are many many people on this forum who are vastly more qualified than I am to teach a surf launch and landing clinic.

But I do have a theory about why Hobie kayaks get hulied so frequently when pedaling in through surf.  It's because the flippers of the Mirage Drive, which make Mirage Drive kayaks wonderful fishing kayaks, are in a terrible position for surfing, because they are in the front half of the hull of Hobie kayaks.  The fins on a surfboard are at the back of the board, so they tend to turn the board so it's heading down the fall line of the wave when surfing.  Because the Mirage Drive fins are in the front part of Hobie kayaks, as soon as the kayak turns even a little to the left or right, the fins steer the kayak abruptly further in the same direction, and try to make the kayak spin 180 degrees so the fins are towards the rear of the kayak.  But as soon as the kayak gets sideways on the wave, the pile tries to side-surf the kayak, the fins catch water sideways, and the kayak instantly flips over towards the beach.  Boom!

It seems to me (and keep in mind that I've done a lot more whitewater kayaking than surf landings in a fishing kayak) that if you have a Mirage Drive kayak, there are several ways to reduce the chances of getting your head handed to you in this manner when landing through surf:

1. If the surf looks big enough to surf your kayak as you head for the beach, pull up your Mirage Drive and paddle the kayak in.

2.  Buy thigh straps and install attachment points for them on your kayak, so you can clip them in before you paddle in towards the beach through surf.  Thigh straps will give you much more control over your kayak when front surfing or side surfing in surf.

3. If you start to get surfed by a wave when pedaling in towards the beach, or when pedaling in the same direction as large waves away from shore, instantly push one pedal forward so the fins go up against the bottom of your kayak.  You'll need to practice this, because it's counter-intuitive.  If things get exciting in surf, the reflex is to brace hard with both feet against the pedals.  That reflex will leave the fins sticking straight down, which will maximize the chances that your kayak will veer sideways, that the fins will catch water sideways, and that the wave will dump your kayak towards the beach.

Pete, with few exceptions, everyone I know in a hobie pulls their drive out on a surf landing. It seems to be S.O.P.
In OP's video you can see his is out as well.

Pete, with few exceptions, everyone I know in a hobie pulls their drive out on a surf landing. It seems to be S.O.P.
In OP's video you can see his is out as well.

This is probably an indication that the people you kayak with have a lot of experience.  There are a lot of entertaining YouTube videos which show Mirage Drive kayakers getting trundled while trying to pedal their kayaks into a beach through surf.

Regardless of how the surf is, I always pull the Mirage Drive when I'm ready to come in.  I've seen too many people mess up/bend their fins by forgetting to extend the fins alongside the boat.  Without a drive in, you can ride that wave in for a long time if you just "brake" to realign yourself with your paddle.  I haven't attempted it with surf over 5 feet, but anything under 5 is manageable.  Prepare for the worst though, and ensure everything is tied down.  Launching and Recovering is one of the things I like most...it gets your blood pumping.

Nangusdog and I had some interesting landings...one in the dark(without lights).  Oh, and you gotta love a 1/4 mile of breakers...paddling a outback though that was tough.