Surfing Waves

What size wave height (face) would classify as a small wave vs. a medium vs. big wave?
For example what would you consider a chest high wave? Small, medium? head high wave...medium? big? what about overhead or double over? Big? Epic?
I ask because I'm thinking about getting a new board, and often times on the website the shaper says that a certain board is good for small to medium waves, or bigger waves and whatnot. How big is a medium or big wave?
Looking for answers, thanks!

What is considered to be big is relative to your own skill and experience. Again chest high waves are chest high, but on you not anyone else. So again relative. If in doubt phone up and ask the shaper or the shop its the only way to be sure. Asking on an internet forum where everyones skill level is hugely different will only muddy the waters.

KS

if its bigger than 6ft i'm scared to go out. small wave to me is 2ft and below

Thank you for your responses. Maybe I should've specified... chest high for a person of average height. I'd say I'm about that, at 5'10" and average skill level. Yes, that may be relative too, but you know... not a total kook, but not Kelly Slater either. The biggest I've paddled out to was about 12~14ft on the bigger sets, 10ft average. If under 2 feet is small, from what wave face height to what wave face height would you say is medium, big, and so on and...? I ask again because phoning the shaper/shop is not an option, and am hoping to gain some knowledge. Cheers.

Right let me see if i've got this right.
Your an average surfer who has paddled out in 12-14ft and regulary surfs 10ft? Yet you are having trouble working out wave sizes and board choice? I'm sorry but all this just doesn't ring true.

KS

Again, maybe I should've specified. What I meant... was the average wave size on the biggest day I ever paddled out was 10ft. I usually surf anywhere from hip to head high at best. I sure wish there were 10 ft waves on a regular basis where I am. I have no reason to lie, as I have better things to do than look cool on this forum like some. So kitesurfer big wave master, if you don't have anything positive to contribute, go start xxxxx with someone else. Or maybe you aren't capable of contributing because you're apparently not very bright, plus with all the time you spend on this forum, you obviously don't spend much time in the water.

papasurf wrote:Again, maybe I should've specified. What I meant... was the average wave size on the biggest day I ever paddled out was 10ft. I usually surf anywhere from hip to head high at best. I sure wish there were 10 ft waves on a regular basis where I am. I have no reason to lie, as I have better things to do than look cool on this forum like some. So kitesurfer big wave master, if you don't have anything positive to contribute, go start xxxxx with someone else. Or maybe you aren't capable of contributing because you're apparently not very bright, plus with all the time you spend on this forum, you obviously don't spend much time in the water.

Nope I'm just very good at sciving whilst i'm working!
But for what its worth in answer to you're original question. I consider small to be less than waist high, medium is between waist high and head high and big is anything over head.

KS

Small = 1-3ft
Medium = 3-5ft
Medium + = 4-6ft
Large = 6-8 ft
Huge = 8-12ft
Massive = 12-15ft
Gargantuan = 15-20ft
OMG = 25+ft
Suicide = 40ft+

Keep in mind you can surf a day with 3ft surf as the average height but still have a few sets tipping 5ft and even a rogue 6ft set. Also remember as surfers we tend to amplify what we surf :lol

Jut remember wave conditions play a gigantic role in not only how the wave breaks, power, but also what board you will need to take out. E.g if the waves were medium sized but punchy and fast i would be rocking my shortboard no question. If it was the same size but mushy and soft i would be using a different board. Its all about wave catching ability and quality of ride/performance.

Oh and why cant you phone/email the shaper?????????

Is that regular or Hawaiian?

To me...
Small = waist high and under
Medium =chest to overhead
Big = doubleoverhead upwards
Eeek! = more than triple overhead

Thanks for the responses, this helps.

isaluteyou wrote:

Oh and why cant you phone/email the shaper?????????

I tried already, emailed 3 different shops, and haven't received a response from a single one yet.
Go figure.

small is chest and below

med chest to couple feet over head

large couple feet over and bigger

big and heavy Double over and up......12 -14ft is big

mammoth your balls are in your chest and you feel the beach shake.....get a gun

papasurf wrote:Thanks for the responses, this helps.

isaluteyou wrote:

Oh and why cant you phone/email the shaper?????????

I tried already, emailed 3 different shops, and haven't received a response from a single one yet.
Go figure.

Strange you would have though with the economy people would be running after your cash What board shapes are you looking at getting maybe we can provide some insight / alternative idea's. Also where you located im sure someone here can put you in contact with a local shaper

Yes it is, but I suppose that's what you get for trying to contact surf shops in Bali. I guess they don't care about money? I tried a bigger name, ...LOST, and got the following response from them. Channel Islands still hasn't responded. I guess Al Merrick has enough money.

Small - knee to chest
Medium - chest to couple feet overhead
Large - anything bigger than couple feet overhead
Big - triple overhead +

I'm in Japan, and the local shapers charge an arm and 2 legs. Last typhoon season,(about 10~12ft+) I paddled out on my shortboard, (6'1"x18 5/16"x2 3/8") and was wishing I had more board. I'm going to Indo next week, and I figured now's a good time to invest in a board for the overhead to double over days. I weigh 150lbs, and would consider my skill level intermediate. The waves around here (Chiba) are kinda gutless,(not too many hollow waves) even on big days. What do you think?

^^^ ah japan all you had to say. My shaper does a lot of business there as boards are supposed to be pretty pricey. Check out http://www.sauritchsurfboards.com I know he ships boards out there. However by the sounds of it you are gonna be wanting a board asap for indo. The thing is is i imagine your trip to indo will be wanting a different board that what you would normally surf in japan. For your indo trip i would suggest a semi gun (pin tail) maybe 6'6. Difficult to judge as it really depends on what size and style of waves you will be getting. I mean a performance semi gun would translate okay to gutless big surf as well. But ideally i would opt for more width and thickness for those soft rollers.

Im just really guessing here throwing some idea's out wherever possible always chat to a shaper

isaluteyou wrote:^^^ ah japan all you had to say. My shaper does a lot of business there as boards are supposed to be pretty pricey. Check out http://www.sauritchsurfboards.com I know he ships boards out there. However by the sounds of it you are gonna be wanting a board asap for indo. The thing is is i imagine your trip to indo will be wanting a different board that what you would normally surf in japan. For your indo trip i would suggest a semi gun (pin tail) maybe 6'6. Difficult to judge as it really depends on what size and style of waves you will be getting. I mean a performance semi gun would translate okay to gutless big surf as well. But ideally i would opt for more width and thickness for those soft rollers.

Im just really guessing here throwing some idea's out wherever possible always chat to a shaper

Hey thanks for the link and the info. I think you're right, I probably want a different board for Indo than the big days in Japan, especially since at this point my best option is to pick up a board in Indo since I'm leaving in 3 days. Although, I hear the waves there have a bit more power and the reef's pretty sharp so.. head high is probably as big as I'm gonna wanna go. My 6'1" will hopefully be enough. We'll see I guess. Your shaper's website is pretty cool, with the different categories for requirements. It makes it easier to decide for sure. thanks again!

kitesurfer wrote:Right let me see if i've got this right.
Your an average surfer who has paddled out in 12-14ft and regulary surfs 10ft? Yet you are having trouble working out wave sizes and board choice? I'm sorry but all this just doesn't ring true.

KS

Not sure why this 'doesn't ring true'

I learned how in Ecuador 8 years ago...I was a beginner then..and haven't surfed since...but after 3 weeks I was out there in 10 foot waves or better...

who wants to learn to surf just to ride whitewash on a longboard?

if you're a good swimmer and you know how to get tossed....being out in ten foot waves isn't that scary

donwand wrote:

if you're a good swimmer and you know how to get tossed....being out in ten foot waves isn't that scary

Haha yeah and even more if you have already been out in 10 foot surf before you learned to surf. Boy this thread is 9 years old, you win the Frankenstein award for resurrecting it.

donwand wrote:

kitesurfer wrote:Right let me see if i've got this right.
Your an average surfer who has paddled out in 12-14ft and regulary surfs 10ft? Yet you are having trouble working out wave sizes and board choice? I'm sorry but all this just doesn't ring true.

KS

Not sure why this 'doesn't ring true'

I learned how in Ecuador 8 years ago...I was a beginner then..and haven't surfed since...but after 3 weeks I was out there in 10 foot waves or better...

who wants to learn to surf just to ride whitewash on a longboard?

if you're a good swimmer and you know how to get tossed....being out in ten foot waves isn't that scary

Ah I think i see what might be happening here. People who are pretty inexperienced are talking about it from their perception of wave height against their own height, or maybe from a '10ft' forecast, on some crumbly reef.

10ft in surf terms is at least double if not pushing triple overhead. Most spots that take that will be reefs or points and are therefore quite often fairly heavy. Taking one of those on the head can rattle even the most experienced surfers.

If you are being this casual about it especially with such little experience, either you found the most forgiving big wave spot going, or we're talking at cross purposes.

For context if a wave looks 10ftish whilst coming at you prone on your board, it's probably 5-6ft max to many surfers. Probably less in Australia and Hawaii.

I think I am the only person from this thread who still reads this forum. I think the concept that a longboard will only surf whitewater is misleading. Certainly there are those surfers who enjoy riding whitewater on a longboard. One person looks at surfing and says "this is what it is all about," yet for someone else it is entirely different. The first people to ride big Waimea did so on longboards. I think the OP wanted a reference to size based on what someone reviewing a board said it was good for. I think the person to ask is the person who reviewed the board. The extremes of how people view surfing was never so clear to me after reading what other experience here and in books. When I used to surf daily there seemed to be only a couple of types of surfers; what I call casual surfers and serious surfers. The casual surfers go to the beach daily but spend more time on the beach than in the water. The serious surfers were at the beach to surf. Two books opened my eyes to vastly different different surfers one was Board by David Flannagan who posted here a few times and "An Old Surfers Story" by Torben Andersen it was about an older European guy who decided he wanted to learn to surf as he approached 70. It took him 3 years of surfing several times a week to learn how to popup. Many would have given up but he loved surfing for whatever it brought him at this extremely low skill level. The majority of surfers I knew learned to surf quite similarly to me or so I thought until I came to this forum and learned how it was for most people learning to surf. There is a wide variety of surfers and what they choose to do while surfing. I was a bodysurfer before surfing so learned how to handle getting pounded by bigger waves before ever surfing. I am probably highly skilled in that aspect of surfing compared to people at my surfing skill level but never realized it till I came here and heard about what others experience.

Manufacturers descriptions have massively evolved since the OP posted this. Most websites are pretty specific and some even link to various online independent reviews for additional performance info.