My problem was that my first few launches were with very similar conditions and being that it was a Tarpon 140 (14 footer) with a rudder I saw no problem launching. There was also this one day, I forgot why but me and Kevin decided to leave our gear at the shore and we practiced launching thru surf and flipping the yaks once we were past the breakers. We did this quite a few times. So in my head I was "prepared" ...Losing the paddle well that's something else. Lesson learned
I also ordered a PA14, after being in hiatus for almost 2 yrs. My main vehicle to transport the tarpon had some issues. Now I got a trailer for my other car and gonna get back into it.
I only fished for 4 months so I am still a newb when it comes to inshore fishing. I still want to go to LJ and it will probably be the only place I surf launch...my Tarpon's seat broke after a few launches in surf and I will not risk damaging my PA. So besides LJ I will stick to Harbor launches. Looking back at it, I should've kept the tarpon for surf launches. That was fun, but I never lost gear since everything including my FF would go in the front hatch.