[/quote]Hey Chris, I find the waves not that easy to ride down there. Once your inside where they break it's a very short ride until your close to the beach and back into the current from hell and shore break. So it's one or two hits then fight for your life to get back outside and back up wind. [/quote]
Hi Michael,
The only things I can think of was that you hit it on an extremely high tide or the wind had just come up quickly and the swell hadn't built to any appreciable size. You might have also had a WNW wind which would almost be dead onshore.
On a normal 4.2-4.7 day down there with a mid level tide the waves typically start breaking several hundred meters offshore. The waves usually break straight onshore with the wind coming in side on from the left.
The typical setup has you reaching off the beach on a 45-50 degree angle sending you right into the faces on a port tack. The waves are normally spaced 100+ feet apart on the inside making it easy to time and pop over the whitewater. There are lots of frontside opportunities coming back in on starboard. Getting off the beach usually isn't an issue on the normal SW-WSW wind direction.
With the typical SW-WSW wind and W-WNW waves you usually find yourself half a kilometre upwind off the beach in two tacks. I normally don't ride the waves closer than 100 meters from the beach. The biggest waves start breaking and rolling in from several hundred meters offshore on the big days. It keeps you out of the shore break and gives you time to get going if you bail too.
I'm thinking you caught it on a WNW wind direction which would have been straight onshore. Those conditions suck the big one down there. It's very hard to pinch upwind and get out of the shore pound and it's all backside riding. You need a big SE-S wind, 30-40+ knots, switching to westerly to get the dream setup.
Last Tuesday had perfect wind direction, wave direction, forecast and actuals for West Beach. There was a very strong SSE wind before it clocked westerly. I think I mentioned to go a "few" times before last Tuesday
Here's a few videos I dug up to give you an idea of the wave to wind angle on a normal 4.2-4.7 day. You can see in all three videos the guys leave the beach on about a 40 degree angle relative to the shoreline. Tuesday's conditions would have been much larger and even more spaced out. The surfing video with the tiny wave is for GB
Cheers,
Chris
West Beach Front Side
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z9NewHb9xEUWest Beach Normal Wave Angle
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=liYMDvGp0LUWest Beach Small Wave Surfing
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFY2SW0LkfgWest Beach Windsurfing Beam Reach Angle
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8so7XPSzAyw