Surfing Waves

How are you supposed to measure the height of waves....i thought it was just the height of the face of the wave compared to the water infront of it...

....then one of my mates said you measure it from the back of the wave??

can anyone shed some light on this??

In the UK its pretty much always the face.

So called 'Hawaiian-scale' is from the back of the wave.

Lots of posers in their Billabong shirts who dont really surf go on about measuring waves from the back, but anyone in the water (at least anywhere round europe, and most of the rest of the world) will be talking about the face

Then of course, a surfers three foot isnt actually thirty six inches


ankle, knee, waist, chest, head, overhead... simplest way

I live in Hawaii. The Hawaiian scale is about 2/3 the height of the face of the waves. When you say 6 foot wave (Hawaiian scale), that means 9 foot face.

now the thing about measuring a wave by the back, well thats something that has been bothering me. well that cuz i don't get it. i know people who do surf and will sit on shore and, well at least say they are measuring a wave by it's back. how can you do this if you are infront of the wave? wouldn't you have to be behind it? i use the face cuz that's the only way i know how, don't think i will be changing the way i measure my waves, but i do want to understand measuring the wave by the back. if you could shed some light on this i think many people would be greatful.