Summer Nor'easter packs a punch!

I got punched on my first run, broke a boom and blew out a panel in my sail. Why does this stuff always happen on the first run? I was almost out thru the waves, hoping to clear the last few, when a sneaky lip caught me and sent me over the falls because it was my first run. I know that the worst thing you can do in a munching is to let go of your rig. The mast can pole vault into the bottom and snap like a toothpick, rip your sail. So I held on to the boom to avoid that risk and the boom snapped and my sail ripped. I was pretty humbled but I tried to believe that the sail and boom were getting too old and ripe and that this was their way of telling me that they wanted to retire. After my thrashing I had a pretty good session on my next biggest sail 5.7, although it took me a long time to loosen up and start playing in the breaking waves again. Is it really still Summer? Nahant, Windsurfed, NNE, 15-30, 5.7/ RW85, with Scott, Martin, others. Picture- Scott, not breaking anything.