rare to see a kicker on the back. All the regulars know each other, rare for a dory to launch solo, almost always other dories in the area to call if needing a tow.
Can be a zoo when the surf is good and the dory fleet is active, few dozen surfers in the lineup the dory boats have to run through to hit the beach, can be 30 dories launched during season.
Majority of dory operators have it dialed, keep in between swells, at the last moment, seeing a clear beach ahead, will goose it for the landing.
The occasional knucklehead will run hard to the beach, however, endangering surfers.
In 2008, had just gotten out of the water, changing out of my wetsuit next to my truck, parked just above the beach, watching the waves, a good sized swell had been builing...see a dory coming in a reckless speeds, too fast for the swell size, would drop into troughs and not be able to see beyond the back of the wave ahead of him, then over take that swell and drop into the next trough, flying blind. And never sounding his boat horn to warn surfers in the water of his approach.
And so over taking another swell 50 yards off the beach, he dropped down it right onto a 14 year old surfer, cutting much of his arm off.
Thankfully a surfer who was a paramedic was right there, got the kid ashore and performed emergency compression, keeping the kid from beeding out.
The kid won 3.8 M award in a civil suit trial.
