I had not been in my surf kayak in so long that it was full of leaves that didn’t all blow out on the trip down. I felt that I should not push it and spent most of the time inside the reef catching rides after the waves had wrapped all the way around and lost a lot of energy. The water inside was chaotic and solid white with foam. Out over the reef the water was smooth and dark when there wasn’t a foam pile from a broken wave going by. In some ways it seemed calmer the few times I padded out for a look. I let a broken wave side-surf me back inside and didn’t try to catch a real big-wave ride.
At one time during the day I tried paddling over to a shallow spot closer to the Princeton Harbor breakwater. I had once gotten some great rides there in my Coaster. But with a large swell the waves broke unexpectedly steep over isolated shallow rocks there. I fell down a steep face on one of these and went for a wild ride sideways and barely in control. But that edge of control convinced me I could probably survive the big waves if I did this more often and got a little more practice.