Surfing Waves

HOW TO MEASURE A WAVE by Ricky Grigg

I was surfing the North Shore in those days, the late 50's, 60's and 70's, and what started to happen very slowly over this time period was a gradual tendency to underestimate waves. As it got worse and worse, everyone started realizing that the smaller the estimates were, the smaller the reports were on the radio and TV, and fewer and fewer people were showing up to surf on any given day. Hey, man, this was way cool. A super cool method began to develop to keep the surf a secret….

The surfers and lifeguards simply invented a new system of measuring the waves from the back. It worked great, because, of course, waves from the back are about half their size from the front. Since few people could actually see the backs of the waves, few people could disagree or claim otherwise. Fewer Townies went to the North Shore and the local guys had the waves all to themselves. The lifeguards liked it too, because they had fewer people to guard and so they could go surfing longer. The system prospered and more and more surfers grew up believing that measuring the waves from the back was the way to do it.

dtc wrote:To me wave measuring has little to do with actual measurements and more to do with an understanding of what the other person means - for example, if someone in Australia says a 3ft wave or head high, I know what that means, even though its neither 3ft high nor head high really; its probably a 6-8ft face (ie if you are watching from behind, you cant see the surfer after takeoff). But I know what it means so it works for me.

For websites, I just have to adjust what they say to what I see a few times and then I 'understand' what they mean as well

For example, this coming holiday weekend (in Australia) when it says Sat 0.5 - 1 ft, Sun 0.5-1ft and Mon flat, I know it means '$%#%$'

Big H wrote:All I know is waves look smaller now than when I first started to surf....

girlgonesurfing wrote:I'm confused - I've only ever surfed in Australia. Is that not how people elsewhere measure wave height??

waikikikichan wrote:I always wonder how newbies and beginners post that they've been riding 6 footers. Now I realize they actually mean 2 foot.

jaffa1949 wrote:There is also the unridden zone...... Does anyone know anyone who has ridden an 11ftt wave

oldmansurfer wrote:What jaffa means is it is an off size. Usually you never hear someone say they surfed 11 foot waves it will be 10 or 12 but not 11. I didn't say anything because I surfed 11 foot waves but I know what he meant. 13 foot is another neglected size. I am pretty sure I never heard anyone say "I was surfing Pipeline and it was perfect 13 foot waves"
Yeah and the day of my worst wipeout it was 17 foot which probably is also neglected