Damn-Great Water Friday-Oceanside Pier Swim Training

Just look at this beautiful, crisp water in the few good shots that I captured above.  The ones with the sweet, sky-blue water with the series of well-formed, bigger waves-then the rough, white surge into the high tide.  I saw an inside current where the swimmers fought to keep their positions while the surge pulled them northward.  But I certainly underestimated it.  I wanted a no-fin training swim in big water and I got it.  The surprise was that I was pulled close to the pier a good hundred yards before I broke free of the surf zone. 
I swam my butt off to get through the breakers, and then...freedom.  The freedom of the blue ocean without the aggravation of the choppiness.  Just a smooth water with an up-and-down swell to the water as the pre-wave water formed the early stages of the breakers.
I continued to swim hard and I had good air in me.  Then, on the way in, the incoming, building swell carried my swimming body toward the sand.  The times when I rode upon the waves heading in with the un-asked for assistance of the sea was exhilarating. 
I scrambled through the breakers quickly without getting mauled and was carried up on the sand.  Neat.
What a cool swim.  I need to work on getting farther under the breakers on the way out to make quicker progress through the surf zone.  The problem is-air.  My lungs don't want to partner with me to help me stay under long enough to advance.  Under one wave-then, a quick grasp of air for the lungs and down under the next wave before it breaks on my head.