Dumped on the beach wet through

I've been going through a pile of old notes, rather alarmed at how little my thoughts have moved on from what was pre-occupying me fifteen or twenty years ago. One note, probably made during a conference presentation, caught my eye. I'm assuming it is something I had just heard someone say, rather than something I made up. It's about the concept of surfing the web, and it points out that surfing is extremely difficult and ends up with everyone being dumped on the beach wet through.