What's the largest wave you've ridden?

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Trev]

yay, Trev's scale got owned..
yay, off topic tangent AND flame..

sorry for the cuffuffle, carry on

You're all kooks.
Get a ruler.
Measure from the top of the wave to the bottom.
as puurri would say, EOS.
I've never been one to follow the crowd.

[Jimi]

Double overhead is about my limit, and only when I'm pumped and in the mood for it. Been smashed by 8-10 footers, but biggest ridden would probably have been at Budgewoi. Big south swell, out front of clubhouse was 4 foot max, with a strong sweep tearing you north up the beach where sets were up to 10 foot. Found i'd unnoticably drifted among the bigger ones, got one a little bigger than double overhead, just a take off, start to find the rail for the bottom turn, see its closing out and turn straight. So dissapointed that it didnt give me some wall to play with, but got the adrenelin going non-the-less.

Biggest wave by sheer power and fear factor is from booger days, south coast heavy left. Probably 6 foot, could have fit a combi van into the barrels with room to spare. That was as heavy as id ever want it. BTW- never seen a surfer ride this wave, in fact, its such a fickle wave only ever seen one other person that I dont know ride it. But half the waves would be busting fins out of a surfboard over the shallow end bowl.
Its the only wave I can see myself getting back on the booger for.

[Trev]

^^ just keep drinking your horse piss Trev, you'll be right..

Thanks Iggs. Happy to.
In fact............. I feel like one now.

[lessormore]

I'm with ya on this one Trev!( and I don't drink horsepiss)

Wave height measurement is as arbitrary as scoring in pro surfing.
Take scoring in gymnastics or highdiving. A 9.5 would be given,as judged by peers, for a routine.This score should be similar if it was judged in Oz or China.(disregarding a score from 20 years ago might not rate today due to technical improvements)
In pro surfing a similar score could be given for a barrel at Chopes or a 3 turn routine at Trestles.The criteria for this seems to be making the most of the available conditions. But in comparison they don't really stack up.
If a swell is measurable from a bouy reading-say 5 foot-this swell, when reaching its destination, will be totally different dependant on the reef,sandbank,slab it ends upon.The slab might produce a 10 foot (measured with a tape or ruler)face where as hitting a gradually sloping sandbank may produce a 5 foot (measured) face.
Shouldn't we be calling a spade a spade and measuring it from the bottom of the face to the top of the lip at take-off(although there a waves ,like Voodoo,that grow in size as they move down a reef)?
Measuring from the back off the wave is next to useless as you either have to be in a boat or surfing out past the break to rate the size.
Then there are those that skirt the debate by calling it shoulder-head-double overhead high but this is also open to contention as everyone's shoulder-head-waist is a different height.
You also have waves in Indo or Vic where there may be 10+ waves in a set and a quarter of the size in between or a summer windswell that varies little over time.
So if someone asks 'how big was that wave?' what do you say?
I'm saying if a 6 foot person is the same size as the wall of water at take-off then it is a six foot wave.
Wind speed readings from the BOM are measured-10ks with 15k gusts.Surfing should be the same.

How do they measure waveheight in big wave contests?

[puurri]

FWIW I agree in part. My obs are that the wave can be measured abt 4 ways.
1. vertical from absolute flat water to pitching lip.
2. vertical from pitching lip to where it hits the face.
3. vertical from where the lip pitches to where the craft is at minimal height at critical trim.
4. Vicco.
5. open water storm waves.

I'd take it at 2 and 3.

[marcus]

i kinda agree with trev
surfings foot scale for surfing is bogus.
thats why i just call it the as the swell bouys call it (when its 4, 5, 6 or 7 m on the swell bouys, people can interpret that.)

to say sydney doesnt get over ten ft. bullshit. your not looking in the right places.
rust duckdiving a "10 footer" somewhere near cronulla, photo steve jones.

i think this was from the last big 5-7m swell we had, but not sure

[Nick Carroll]

s the shorey ok between sets?

Or was it wholly a pride thing? I mean let's face it Waimea ain't any great shakes as far as conventionally attractive waves go.

The shorey during a proper Bay day is not anywhere you'd want to be ... there's always waves breaking in there whether there's a set or not, and the water movement is extraordinary. Coming in you've gotta ride back at an angle into the keyhole bit next to the north corner, where the shorey is minimised (it's usually around 3-4', no not measured with a goddam ruler). Even getting up the beach can be pretty fun at times specially in a nnw swell.

can't answer for reefy on his feelings that day but sure can relate! Waimea isn't a conventional surf spot, it's all about the paddle in on the drop ... and the anticipation as a set looms. A lot of emotion involved. Tremendous feeling of having come close to all that energy. Much bigger rush than a 5 second tube on a 6-8' wave that's for sure.

[daryl]

i kinda agree with trev
surfings foot scale for surfing is bogus.
thats why i just call it the as the swell bouys call it (when its 4, 5, 6 or 7 m on the swell bouys, people can interpret that.)

to say sydney doesnt get over ten ft. bullshit. your not looking in the right places.
rust duckdiving a "10 footer" somewhere near cronulla, photo steve jones.

i think this was from the last big 5-7m swell we had, but not sure

What are all those deck grips?

[black duck]

I'm also with Iggs on the wave measuring system. That's how most guys i know do it and it doesn't really matter if it's right or wrong as long as everyone understands what it means. If I tell a mate it's 6ft onshore mush, he'll know what to expect - as long as the paradigm is accepted and understood. Rightness or wrongness is kind of irrelevant, it's just an agreement on a system that explains things in a particular way; at least in Australia. I've always liked John McGroder's usual response when asked how big the surf is ..."It's 2 to 8 foot, stop mucking around and get out there".

Measuring from behind = weird. I remember standing on the clifftops in Bali looking down at a solid 8-10 ft swell maxing out and hearing a local Balinese surfer call it 3 ft. WTF? Problem with that system is when it gets small it becomes un-measurable in any real sense.

[Lucky Al]

i was off my face last night, staying up late and talking shit on realsurf! i have a vague memory of crashing into the wall on the way to the fridge. i'm such a party animal these days. sorry to be rude, marcus!

[marcus]

no worries Al

[Damage]

I dunno exactly. How big can Curly hold do you reckon?

Probably just a couple of feet under that.

[steve shearer]

That shot of Boogs is at Phantoms.
An outer reef off the Backyards channel that'll put the fear of god into you at 20ft.

[marcus]

lol, is it? thought it was north cronulla thats what he said.

[steve shearer]

just recently i dogged the messiest day i have ever seen.
i was at lennox head the day of the floods.
i have some video footage of it on my mobile but it doesnt do it justice.
it was just this amazing messy sea state. maybe a local like steve shearer would be able to ride it on that day, but i had never been there before.
had a mal on the roof and a boogie in the car.
went down the bottom to get aeway from the carpark crowd and pood under a palm tree on the famous boulders.
watched in awe and tried desperatelty to figure a plan of getting out, and how to get back in if things went wrong. or even if nothing went wrong.
f#ck f#ck was freaking, were was a crazy local when you need one.
it was empty and huge and a mess of barrels and whitewash and rips.

i came back up the hill to my girlfreind sitting in the car looking worried.
a guy said to me they only way to surf that today mate is with a helicopter.
some guy asked me if i was taking the mal out.



sat in the car swearing at myself, texted stu to get steve shearer to go out first.
then just put the carin reverse and f#cked off like a tourist to look at the seas like everyone else from shore.
felt like the biggest kook, never backed down ever before, but i just didnt know the joint.
and it scared the shit out of me.
just drove away down to ballina and further on south through floodwaters with a bloody malibu on the roof.

Don't know whethr your taking the piss but there was no go-out that morning.
85knot wind gusts the night before as the trough line lay straight over the top of us and micro cells moved in off the ocean.

Morning was offshore but massive storm swell.
Probably 15-18ft.


No way out or any real line-up...some surfable waves off the back peak.
I went to the Iron Peg to see if there was a way off the rocks to get out there.


That wouldv'e been a quick trip to the morgue.

Drove to Kirra and that was washing through 8-10ft with a tow team out but no real line-up or shape to it.
Barred it.

[Revolution]

I'm f##ken disappointed Steve


A man of your calibre..........


......used to surfing local spots that are often a cross between Teahupoo/Pipe/Padang etc,







and you barred it

Keep it in your pants man.

[marcus]

Rusty Moran:
Marcus, mate, listen up:
This wave is Phantoms in Hawaii.
The board is 9'6".
The wave is 25 foot.

oops, sorry everyone i was a kook again

Steve, i wasn't taking the piss when talking about that Lennox day, was really hoping you or anyone would show up and go out first.