Surfing Waves

A while ago I was surfing my local break and felt that I was getting some of the nicest waves I have seen in my (short) surfing life. So after the session, I went back home (to get a camera) and tried to take some pictures of the waves. I ended up taking a few but when I showed them to my friend we got into an argument about their height.

The surf report for that day said one thing, I said another thing and he said yet another thing. I would like to hear your opinions and see if we can reach some sort of consensus.

Why? Well, for starters I would like to know what wave size I can handle. I don't think I am looking for anything bigger than this in the near future. Secondly, I would also like to able to call the height myself in the future and I apparently need some sort of marker to compare heights with. So if a couple of you guys want to weigh in on this, much appreciated.

i think its around 2 ft overhead.

I'd call it solid 4-5ft (hight)
6-7ft of (face)

id say you are doing ok

2ft over head is my answer too.

For the report I would call it 3-5+ft, if that is one of the larger sets.

id say 7-8 ! awsome wave! its certainly not small hhahaha

as you can see it depends on who you ask

on a day like that id say waves would have been 6-8ft or so

7' to 8' max or single to double over. In reality would not care if there nice like that would take calling them ankle high and surf the crap outta em.

Ok, well, the surf report for that day said 5 ft. That just seems too little to me: the surfer in the pic has got to be 5.5-6 foot and the wave is clearly bigger than him. Even though he is not standing upright.

I reckoned it would be somewhere around 7 foot. My mate said it would be 8-9 foot. Not that it matters much, but it is just annoying that people can disagree about something that seems so simple.

Either way, I had a fun day today, surfing waves about a quarter of that size. Rest of the week looks flat so it's just as well that my shoulders and neck are killing me.

You are all about right, but you are discussing two things at the same time. Swell is determined by the size of the water being displaced, not the wave size, so when the wave folds the actual height from the bottom to the top of the incomming surge. Waves are measured by the size of the open face.

So, for that pic, I would have to call it a 3ft to 4ft swell and a overhead and a half size wave since the surfer is not standing straight up

Wave measurement is an odd thing.

"Hawaian' scale measures the size of the wave before it breaks top to bottom at the back. Which is usualy close to half the creaking face hight.

solid 4 foot, no bigger

I think it makes more sense measuring the wave's face since that is what you get if you are wiped out. Anyway, I would say this wave's face has to be 7' or around 2m-2m50. And don't forget, this what you will slapped by if you shall fall

Spiney wrote:I think it makes more sense measuring the wave's face since that is what you get if you are wiped out. Anyway, I would say this wave's face has to be 7' or around 2m-2m50. And don't forget, this what you will slapped by if you shall fall

LOL, with the metric system you just lost me LOl

Yeah. I would say at least a couple of feet overhead. Another problem besides the variety of interpretations, is it's hard to judge from a single photo.

This guy is leaning into a bottom turn out a bit in front of the wave, also when you're standing on shore shooting down it can make the wave look smaller than at sea level

I'd call that wave headhigh +, but it would help to see the entire wave.
Different perceptions of face height is probably why most surf forecast sites now use knee, waist, shoulder...etc.
Since I don't ride the back of the wave, I don't care to see it measured there, in some cases it's just silly.

Bravo!! Best point made

themathteacher wrote:

Spiney wrote:I think it makes more sense measuring the wave's face since that is what you get if you are wiped out. Anyway, I would say this wave's face has to be 7' or around 2m-2m50. And don't forget, this what you will slapped by if you shall fall

LOL, with the metric system you just lost me LOl

you're a math teacher, should understand numbers and units

dukdiv wrote:I'd call that wave headhigh +, but it would help to see the entire wave.
Different perceptions of face height is probably why most surf forecast sites now use knee, waist, shoulder...etc.
Since I don't ride the back of the wave, I don't care to see it measured there, in some cases it's just silly.

Now that's a scary wave .
To the question i need to know your height, if that is you in the pic. Lets say you are 6ft, then that wave face could be 6 - 8 ft.
Some of you guys are way off, i bet you look at your feller and say now that's a good 12"