Wave Height

[NthCurlyPoint?]

If you call one foot one metre, then you are an idiot! I have a ruler in front of me, and there are just over 3 ft to the metre. If you want to call waves that are 6-7 feet 2 anything, then call em 2 metres.
The whole idea of a "surfers" foot is retarded, cos no one knows how big a surfers foot is! It just depends on how much of a try hard the guy is who is measuring the wave.
Now I don't know abouyt the rst of you, but I think the reason that we put a height to waves is so we and others know how big it is, NOT so we can look like machos.
If your calling head high 2 ft, then the biggest waves ridden are somewhere around the 30 x overhead mark!
What we need is a consistent standard, so that some one can say the surf it 'x' feet, and you will know how big the surf is!
The easiest way to do that is to say 1 ft = 1 ft. Or otherwise, we could let the machos set the standard, and say: Well, if the surf is small, then one foot is one metre, but then if its say headhigh, then that is two foot, so then a foot is just less that a metre. Then the feet get progressively smaller as it gets bigger, until you hit the real big stuff, say over 30 ft, then a foot is a foot again.

[marcus]

ever noticed that nce it gets over ten feet, people stop there, because they are afraid of calling it bigger than 10.

this is how i do it..
1ft = 1ft face 2 ft = knee high
2ft = 2ft face 3-4 ft = waist high
3ft =3 ft face 5ft = chest high
4ft = 4 ft face 6ft = head high (im 6'1)= 1 fathom
8ft = 8ft fall from lip to trough= man standing in tube with room to wave arms above his head
10ft = 10 ft fall of the lip to trough, 10-12 foot= double overhead= 2 fathoms.
15ft equals what second reef pipe looks like, or lairds wave at teahpoo, 4th reef island ( osborne shoal usually breaking and jibon bombie wrapping all the way in to jibbon beach).
For outside island i like to use the bouy readings in meters, as a 5-6m swell at the island produces a 5-6m wave, but anywhere else it would be 4m max.
have surfed it on 7m swell days(according to boating report) and people have asked me how big it was, still dont know the answer because they prob wouldnt believe me.
but ive seen some very hawaiian looking waves out the back there...
i only trust my brothers with those stories as they wont hang shit on me.

[nubby]

no way marcus....are you seriously tellin me that when your out the island your callin a wave thats 8 vertical feet from top to bottom an 8 foot wave? come on mate, youd get lauged into the channel......and NCP, so youve got a ruler, wow, so do i. but my post up top is about roughly the consistent standard you are talkin about, ive been in joints in indo that are like the united nations of surfing, and everyone pretty much comes close to the formula i posted up top, like hawaiians under call it a bit, japanese over call it a bit and we seem to be somewhere in the middle ect, ect but everyone was always still pretty close...... appart from all the stuff about what clubbies have gotta call it, which for legal reasons is understandable......wave height calls based on actual ruler lengths are a hoax......mate ive never heard someone who rips sittin out the back on a 4 foot day goen "oh, its 6-8ft faces, stoked!" its just a 4 foot day.....and as for that ricky grigg thing.....i saw an interview with greg 'the bull' knoll, arguably a bigger legend in the hero club than anyone, and he said the whole wave call thing came about cause when you were standin on the beach back in the 50's n early 60's and it was 25 ft, you NEVER EVER said "oh, its 25ft, lets go out!" cause no one would have. instead they would all gee each other up by sayin "come on ya wuss, its only 12ft". and this has stuck, everywhere, cause it works. i remember surfing 12ft nias in 94' and everyone out there was sayin"oh, its 6-8ft solid" we all knew it was way bigger than that and later the vid showed it, but it helped calm us all down enough to surf......and ive never even thought about the back or anything.....ive just learnt what size a wave is called off older crew who taught me heaps of other pricessless sh#t, so ill keep on using thier method....and i reckon anyone who goes the actual feet call are just pumping themselfs up by thinking they are killing it in 12ft surf when its only 6ft...

[NthCurlyPoint?]

Well it is for that reason that I never put a size to a wave. If anything I will say how big it is relative to my head height. Chances are if it's big enough to be worth claiming, most of ya mates will have seen the surf, and will know how big it is, so it won't matter!
But suit yourself. One things for sure though, you'll never get a consistent standard by calling a foot a metre. (I know you say you have somthing fairly consistent, but from the posts on this thread, it is obvious you don't!)

[roscoediboscoe]

This could go on forever

I have 2 sons and when I ask them how big the surf was I get 2 completely different sizes. One says 2 foot the other 4 foot.

Also the guys I surf with wave size opinions differ greatly.

I prefer to use the overhead, double, etc - then you know for sure how big it is.

I know one thing for sure, If you get lip launched on an "overhead" at Ulu's - you can call it what you like.

[yappa]

Funny this whole argument kinda reminds me of my rugby days when your reading the player profiles in the programs there was always some jokers that would add 10-15kgs on their measly frames - i am sure i have pile-drived 110 kg wingers before, anyway now it is professional they all are that big

[marcus]

no way marcus....are you seriously tellin me that when your out the island your callin a wave thats 8 vertical feet from top to bottom an 8 foot wave? come on mate, youd get lauged into the channel...

i know i dont allways use that way of judging wave height, but i do prefer to get as close to the actual rule measurement as possible.

and some of my friends at the island with hawaiian experiance call it a 4ft day when guys are in the barrel standing up straight with thier arms in the air... for surf reports i try to be as close to actual face height as possible

[_cant_touch_this]

1'-2' is about kee-waist high, 3'-4' chest-head high anything above it is obviously overhead. not that i get much in the way of overhead condiditons very often. biggest iv ever seen my local surfable is 10 foot. it was about 2xoverhead

[thermalben]

OK.. sorry if I bore anyone here...

IMO, there's so much that constitutes wave size, that a numerical value doesn't often represent the surf very well (for what it's worth, I personally call waves somewhere in the range stipulated by Nubby above (although I quite like Baldric's system too ).

However, having looked at daily surf reports around the country in close detail for the last 6 years or so, there's a couple of things that I have noticed - there are mental size barriers that seem to pop up, depending on your location and experience. Why is this? I'm more inclined to think it's due to the ridicule some surfers bestow on others for overcalling the size (it's FAR more easier to be completely macho and say "pffftt... you call that 4'? Why, that's barely 2').

There are two frequent sizes at play with regards to this mental barrier: 3' and 6'. A couple of months back, I saw a solid 6' swell (location withheld) called as "4-5' with bigger ones", "easily 3-5' with larger closeouts" and "4-5'++" from three seperate reporters. What's the problem with calling the upper end of this 6'?? If you see a 6' wave, you see one.. geeeeez! The surf police aren't going to come around and lock you up.

The other wave height is 3', as this size category is where most surfers can really sink their teeth into the energy (usually somewhere around the head high range). Anything substantially less than head high usually requires more foam (read: longboard), enthusiasm and a bag of red frogs before you paddle out - for most regular surfers anyway. However, there appears to sometimes be some hestitation with calling 3' on a surf report, as this can be the call for everyone to call in sick for the arvo, and no-one wants to be the cause for mass abuse if the swell suddenly drops and the wind comes up. Better to call it 1-2'+ then!!

This doesn't happen quite nearly as much at places that gets a bucket-load of swell; the two areas reported daily in this category are WA and Vicco's East Coast. Woolamai and Portsea usually see a handful of 8' days every month (many more in winter), and as we all know, Margarets gets big enough to know that it really can get to 6'. Even 15' sometimes.

Just back onto actual wave height measurements; there's also a few reasons why the regular system of 30cm=1ft just doesn't work. Simply, it's near-impossible to ride a 30cm wave (put a 30cm ruler on the ground and imagine winding one off the top). It will rarely exhibit any energy, is impossible to turn on, and won't deliver anything surfable at 60% of reefbreaks. Therefore, what's the use in using a scale where the lower couple of increments are usless? I believe this is why surfers developed the system kinda like what Nubby listed above. The trough-to-crest measurement system doesn't always apply as there are plenty of waves where the surfable part of the wave is well above the trough (fat gutless surf) and below the crest (heavy thick pitching reefbreaks).

For most locations in the country, surf above double overhead is quite rare, so it's much easier to refer to anything in this range as part of a scaled size system. Simple really - head high=3', double overhead=6'. Divide those two into increments of three and you have 1', 2', 4' and 5'. Anything bigger? Well, aside from the fact that it just doesn't happen very often, size is also usually called with a 'buffer zone' ie 4-6', 6-8', 8-10' etc which should give you a range to aim for.

Take for example this pic:


(taken from my daily Gold Coast report last week)

Assuming the guy is a reasonable size (for arguements sake let's say he's 5' tall to account for the slight bend in his knees), the wave looks to be around 3/4 of his height from trough to crest (both pointed out with arrows). Although it's a bit of a crude guess, 3/4 of 5' = 3.75'. There is no way in the world that I'd call this wave 3-4'. The poor fella couldn't even turn on the thing before it closed out.

I could go on and on about this stuff, and I'm sure the size listing above will make for some interesting discussion, but that's all I've got in me at the moment. Lets wait and see the wide range in reported wave heights this Thursday!

[joeblow]

very interesting thread. I think I have a much better understanding now. Have to agree with ncp though in that its kind of confusing to call it feet when its not really feet. If I read ben & nubby right then:

1 surf ft ~= 2 real ft (although nubby went kind of non linear with the 8ft+ = triple overhead bit)

Thats pretty easy to remember and I reckon I can probably handle the maths.

[Innerview]

Take for example this pic

From the pict` above

that`s what I call 1 - 2 ft.

[marcus]

i would call that wave above waist high.
i like to use word like guttles, sloppy, heavy, powerfull, sucky, thick, lumpy.
have seen some waves out shark island that defy all surf size physics.

matt and i, saw this wave spit before it barrelled (it spat before the lip had landed)

also have seen barrels 3-4ft true face high barrel 9 feet wide and then totally collapse on itself under the weight.

the double overhead stuff that you guys call 8ft seems a bit weird to me, as i like to think double overhead is as high as two men standing in the pit, one on top of the others shoulders.
i thought 10ft would be double overhead.

[_cant_touch_this]

id call that wave 2'.....all that matters is its sitll big enough 2 get barrelled!

[nubby]

themalben, its 1-2ft for sure.......and joe blow, i spose you could say 1 'surf foot' = 2 'normal feet'......but i never actualy thought of it like this....ive just gone by what general concensus has been over the years ive surfed......and marcus, cause your on a bodyboard, doesnt that mean a 2ft wave is overhead?(sorry dude, ive been holdin off on the sarcasm on this thread and couldnt help myself...)and yeah mate, ive surfed a few joints that defy size calls....like you come home and tell crew it was 3-4ft but extra gnarly and they just laugh at ya.....like this one twisted right we adore in indo looks puss from the beach, then you get out there and suss it from side on and you just go "f#@k me!" cause its like 3 times wide as it is high.......

[_cant_touch_this]

i didnt surf there 2day, or go anywhere near manly but i did see newport this morning. now the swell seemed to be rising so id say 6' would sound about right. tomorrow should be a little bigger though

[stuey]

Nubby, ya've got it right sport! But, thats why I always use measurements we know, cockroaches, budgies, chimps, basketball players! There is no freakin way a 3 foot wave is hip hi!! strewth!!!!

[nubby]

im damn glad the forum facists didnt bar ya stuey.......damn glad.