need to get surfing asap, need a short trip.

[surf patrol]

I've seen plenty of good groundswell at Cromer and Runton (never over 4ft though )
One of the older guys I surfed with at Cromer, a local there for 25 years before I started surfing, showed me a picture of him taken there when he was younger. It was a lovely wave a couple of feet overhead - now that was suprising to see.

[GazinOz]

But, without getting into the issue too much, Australians use the 'hawaiian' scale of wave size, so 5ft Australian is maybe 10ft UK. Or, putting it another way, 5ft Australia is 1.5-2X overhead and in the UK that might be called 8-10ft. Or might not, depending on what part of the UK you are surfing (as I understand it).

I have never heard 'hawaiian' scale (seriously) used in Australia. Not where I have surfed (QLD, Sydney, W.A.) at least.
5 feet waves are shoulder high.

[dtc]

I have never heard 'hawaiian' scale (seriously) used in Australia. Not where I have surfed (QLD, Sydney, W.A.) at least. 5 feet waves are shoulder high.

Maybe it's an age thing, or where you first learnt it that means you use one scale or the other. Anyway, I think head high or waist high or whatever is far more useful. Of course, when you are in the water it's always head high plus, then you get out and look back at the waxes and they are chest high at best...

It does make boards confusing. I mean, if a board is for 1 to 4ft conditions, 1 to 4 ft Hawaiin is useful for most waves (ie up to a bit over head high) but 1 to 4 ft faces is only up to chest high, which is a fairly narrow range.

[oldmansurfer]

The way I learned was 6 foot face equals 3 foot wave, overhead to 8 foot face equals 4 foot wave. above that divide wave height by two and add two. Something like that only we all usually agreed on the size of the waves somehow. You knew it from other waves and talking to other surfers. So 20 foot face equals 12 foot wave.