I am a fly fishing new bee. If this question is too stupid, please forgive me. I went to Mustang Island to fly fishing in the surf last week. Man, the wave moved so fast, the fly line was beached within a few seconds. It took me a lot of effort to cast enough of line to reach the water. So how do you guys keep it in front you?

stripping basket.

Well, that depends. When I fish the surf (which I love to do, always seem to catch something) I generally will use a stripping basket if fishing the wade gut or second gut, but after that you are into water up over your waist so it doesn't do any good to have a stripping basket. If you are not in the water, then that's probably your problem. When in the surf I expect to be drilling loops into a decent headwind (unless a miracle occurs and the wind dies for you)so I don't expect to cast more than 40 or 50 feet, at the most, which means I wade out to the fish. Not saying that there aren't times when the fish are thick in the wade gut, but the majority of the fish I catch are knee deep and deeper. When the sun is high, fish deeper. When the sun gets lower in the sky move back little by little.

If you are still puzzled, ask your question in a different way so maybe we can kickstart a eureka moment.

+1 Got to get out there where they are. Then, use false casting to get your line in the air and up out of the water.

You might also try an intermediate line. It sinks below the surface - avoiding the wave action - and allows you to retrieve a fly at your own speed rather than having it pushed back at you.

That very thing worked very well for me, I used my floating line not long at all before I needed to make the switch to sink.

Intermediate, or sinker.