MillersLocal
  • Home
  • Latest Shots
  • Blog
  • Comp news
  • Surf Report
  • SurfGuide
  • PHOTOS
  • Vintage
  • Enviro
  • Shop

Blog

Calling wave size explained....sort of

11/13/2012

 
You’d reckon it was dead simple to say how big the surf was hey?! I mean, you look out to sea, some ou is on a wave, it's 3ft over his head, the ou is 6ft....so that's a 9ft wave right? Maybe not!

I wish wave size was collective - cos then I rode 6ft in the bay today! Four 6 inch waves at Fence, and eight 6 inch waves at Millers - that's 6ft in total right!? If only.......

The way in which surfers measure wave height varies depending on who you ask. In general there's 2 approaches: Face height - which refers to the height of the wave from the bottom to the top as it breaks; or Swell size - which is a measure of the swell in general and not specifically at a particular break. Option 2 gets a bit tricky cos a 6ft swell is going to produce a bigger wave on a shallow slab than a sloping beach for instance.

Hawaiians of course have their famous Hawaii-size scale, where they measure a wave from "the back". The ‘Hawaiian Scale’ theoretically measures the wave from the back but in practice is more a matter of dividing the face height in half. So a head-high wave would be around 3ft Hawaiian style - of course! Thus the bay would always be flat by Hawaiian standards. Oh wait - at the moment it's flat by our standards too!

There might be another reason why Hawaiians tend to undercall the wave size - they just scared to call it bigger than their bro's think it is and be seen to be exaggerating - something manly about calling it small! Not often men like to under-estimate size. A classic example of this was from the "Eddie Would Go" big wave comp a while ago, when the judges were asked how big it was. After a long silence one of the judges said "Overhead!" (the Eddie is only held when Waimea reaches 20ft+!)
Picture
"So, what you reckon?" "Yah, must be at least 4ft!"
So then how do you measure Chopes using the Hawaii size scale - it doesn't have a back! It can be double overhead on the face and barely have a back. How do you call that?! "Oh, I reckon it's like 2ft out there..."??

Seeing as we don't get much Hawaiian size stuff in the bay it's probably the most accurate to just call it on the face height - cos then most peeps can relate to what you're talking about without having to do any convoluted maths calculations. Or just going with an even safer call of saying the wave height as a function of which level of the anatomy the breaking lip is at - so waist high, chest high, shoulder high etc. Of course a bit of discrepancy comes in depending on who's riding the wave - cos chest high on Matt Elliot (6ft6) and on a grom (4ft) are gonna be two different things.

At this stage it's been flat for so long I'd settle for knee high.....Matt size.
Picture
2ft Chopes style

Comments are closed.
    Picture
    LATEST POSTS
    More posts HERE

    Author

    Millerslocal

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Latest Shots
  • Blog
  • Comp news
  • Surf Report
  • SurfGuide
  • PHOTOS
  • Vintage
  • Enviro
  • Shop