Its still not clear to me if there were one or two on the airplane for takeoff. As a side note, nose wheel airplanes will tend to drift downhill when taking off/landing on a side slope (in this case, into the surf). Taildraggers are the opposite, and tend to go uphill. The steeper the slope, the more rudder required to counter the effect.
Soft surface, small tires, water, slope, not much horsepower, too much weight. The Jab was doomed.