Wave sizes

[Otter]

I'd like to submit an idea. Many people post about a wave being 3', 4', 6' etc. I'd like to suggest that instead of using the "Hawaiian" or Oceanographer's method of wave measurement, we use the surfer's method. Knee high, waist high, stomach high, chest high, head high, overhead, etc.

My understanding of the Hawaiian method is that the wave height is measured from the trough behind the wave to the crest of the wave. Not only is this extremely difficult to estimate, it's also extremely inaccurate without proper measuring devices. Most folks are similar in height and stature, so unless your a midget, er... ahhh... little person, a head high wave would have about a 5'6" to 6' face. For surfing purposes, this seems to be entirely more realistic and easy to estimate a wave's size.

Any ideas or comments?

[The Fafanator]

From now on nobody shall use feet, it only spawns arguments, lets just say it as it is, plus for a small guy a 5ft wave is worse than for a big guy, and vice versa.

[O_Danny_Boy]

arguments arise from people i.e you, lying about their ability

[The Fafanator]

Or if they are trying to explain there ability and people misunderstand them i.e. you, when I say 6ft I mean head high (I am 6'2", so something that is as high as my head must be 6ft too), and that isn't big at all, I mean, some of you guys say you surf double and tripple overhead, and tripple overhead is more than 18ft (6 x 3 = 18 ), and that makes my claims seem, well, quite claimable.

[O_Danny_Boy]

Or if they are trying to explain there ability and people misunderstand them i.e. you, when I say 6ft I mean head high (I am 6'2", so something that is as high as my head must be 6ft too), and that isn't big at all, I mean, some of you guys say you surf double and tripple overhead, and tripple overhead is more than 18ft (6 x 3 = 18 ), and that makes my claims seem, well, quite claimable.

these guys who claim they surf o/h and double o/h have been surfing for years, you have been surfing at the least for 4 weeks and at the most a few months. i know plenty of people who surf none of which would have claimed to have surfed a 16 ft point break with your experience

you post in every single thread, most of the time its pure nonsense you found using google, giving out bs advice to people who are honestly on here looking for info and help

you babble on about size/hawaiian scale/double overhead/getting hurt surfing/getting worked in big surf, it impresses nobody and shows everyone just how kookish you really are

i used this forum for a while just looking for info and eventually joined last year cuz it seemed like a chillaxed place where people were honest about how good or bad they were. since you joined ive never seen such agro on the boards-in a way your ruining the forum, well done faf

rant over........

[CHarvey]

Digging it Otter.
I never understood measuring the back of the wave because I don't surf the back of the wave so why would I care how big it is?

[surferdude_scarborough]

theres many ways of measuring the waves. i often use knee, waist, chest head .....etc. but i also use feet sometimes. BUT feet is not actually an accurate representation of how high a wave is? how many people on here (uk especially) would read head high if i wrote 4 ft? can i have a hands up? you see faf as far as yes people are about 6ft so the face of a wave may be 6 ft when its head high but thats a surfers 4 ft as far as i work. 6 ft is overhead.

[Sillysausage]

i think its difficult, by comparing to people it can be different because a surfer is rarely standing straight up, usually has bent knees and leaning into the wave or standing low and going up and down the face etc.

are you talking about the size of the face? because once the wave breaks it can half in size etc...

it is confusing either way but i prefer to use feet talking to surfers but then if i'm talking to someone who doesn't surf then i compare it to a person.

[BoarderDave]

Yeah I'm always a fan of comparing it to surfers height..

..however, I get lost when Im bodyboarding.. cause technically, I could be surfing some "overhead" knee high's..

[isaluteyou]

ya on a body board everything is basically overhead

The flaw in measuring waves by body parts is that if a dwarf were to do it over head takes on a different meaning - I always measure body parts with a 6ft person in mind, i think thats the standard anyway when you use body parts

[Otter]

I think the idea of using a surfer as a measuring tool is based on a regular sized person, say 5'7" or maybe 5'9" standing upright at the bottom of and on the face of the wave. I use myself (6'4") as a gauge, so if I say it's overhead, it's about a 3.5 to 4 foot wave and if I were at the bottom of the wave, standing upright on my board, the wave would appear to begin to break just above my head if the viewer were standing on shore.

Being a longboarder, I often stand upright on my board riding the face of the wave.

[BoarderDave]

Yeah.. I tend to just say face height, picturing a 6ft person at the bottom of the wave. I myself am 6'4 also.. but I figure 6ft is a good average man size..

[oldwashaway]

Just one more thought to confuse the matter is steepness.
At one area on a beach such as a sandbar the same swell can produce head high breaking waves great for longboarders (but not so steep), whereas the same swell can produce much higher and steeper breaking surf down the beach great for shortboarders.
So, you've got long period versus short period swell, and how that swell breaks by what is under water. Variables.

[smallwavegrovellerchick]

They say that Hawaiian scale is the measurement from the trough to crest of the wave and Surf News Network approximates that as about 2/3 of the wave face. However, the way most of us calculate Hawaiian scale is half the wave height. A double overhead wave would therefore be 5 - 6 ft Hawaiian scale with approximately a 10 - 12 ft face. If I'm talking to a local I'll use Hawaiian scale and if I'm talking to someone who either doesn't surf or probably wasn't born in Hawaii I'll measure by surfer height. Using surfer height seems to be the best bet to avoid confusion. However, most of us in Hawaii tend to be kind of small (about 5'2" for women and 5'8" for men) and where groms are concerned, sometimes 3 ft (Hawaiian scale) looks pretty close to double overhead.

[CHarvey]

That just seems more convaluted then it ever needed to be. Almost sounds like it was thought up for the ego trip more then anything else. Just my 2 cents.

[smallwavegrovellerchick]

This was pulled off Wikipedia. I was wondering what the origin of Hawaiian scale was, but I would have to do more research. Might have been a macho ego thing.

"Hawaiian scale is the conventional wave height measurement used by surfers in Hawaii, also used in Australia.

The measurement is always in feet and scaled so the actual height on the face is roughly twice what's quoted. So a 3-foot wave would be head high (to a 6-foot person), or 2-foot around chest high. 6 to 8 foot would be 2 to approaching 3 times head high. Large waves are difficult to judge though, and the measurement becomes a little fuzzy towards 20 feet.

The origin of the scale is obscure. The candidates are

Hawaiian life guards calling smaller sizes to keep tourists away.
The measurement is "from the back" of the wave, or from wave buoy readings.
Macho understatement by early surfers."

[smallwavegrovellerchick]

That just seems more convaluted then it ever needed to be. Almost sounds like it was thought up for the ego trip more then anything else. Just my 2 cents.

It is, but it was just the traditional measurement we grew up with here. Most of the surf reports (websites, newspapers, evening news) measure by wave face now and the one report that uses Hawaiian scale, also uses wave face. I think too many tourists were getting confused and drowning on swell days.

Most of us being minorities here, we tend to try to hold on to our cultural traditions whether it be removing your shoes before entering someone's house, dancing hula, speaking Pidgin English, eating sticky rice with every meal, having Hawaiiana/Hawaiian studies as required courses in our curriculum, or using some obscure wave measurement to confuse all non-locals.

[Otter]

Great explanation Groveller,
Appreciate an expert Hawaiian putting in their ideas and knowledge on this thread. I sure would like to visit your home someday...

[CHarvey]

Thanks for the info gravellerchick. AAfter reading both of your posts I can understand the use of the "Hawaiin Scale" for wave height. And, I also hope that hawaiin culter doesn't go away. Some of the coolest people I have ever met were born and raised hawaiins. I hate what it is all turning into for you all. I wish your local government would curtail all the big bussiness moving in and help make things better for the people that live there instead of just trying to make things better for johny millionair that wants to go there for a month. All of you that inherited the islands as your home from your parents are on my mind quite a lot because of this.
Hope this post makes sence.
Thanks again for the info.

[garbarrage]

if it clobbers me or i had a really fast ride i don't bother with either....
it was frickin huge man, i swear.....HUGE!

but the rest of the time it has to be as above (head high etc based on a 6' surfer) - wouldn't want to take anything away from the 10 year old i saw rippin it on triple overhead waves a couple of months ago!