Old question revisited: please tell me how a wave like this could possibly be described as… 
I was told that “Hawaiian Style” waves are measured from the back. Supposedly the the back of the wave is about half the height of the face. So… an 8-foot Hawaiian style wave would have a 16-foot face. Hawaii weather and surf forecasters have recently switched from reporting “Hawaiian style” wave heights to full-face heights. The change came about because of concerns that the “Hawaiian style” measurements were potentially dangerous for tourists and beachgoers unfamiliar with local surf conditions. Some say the Hawaiian style system started with local surfers wanting to tell their friends how big the waves were without letting others know good the surf actually was.
8ft Hawaiian
Here’s a story on the topic from the Honolulu Star Bulletin— Weather service revamps surf-height reports Hazard-prone Hawaii joins other ocean locales with a new math for wave heights Hawaii’s beautiful oceans can turn into “killing fields” for residents and tourists unaware of the dangers of surf, says Jim Weyman, Hawaii area manager, National Weather Service. From 1993-1997, he said, the state had 306 drownings, mostly associated with swimming, according to a review of death certificates by state Epidemiologist Daniel J. Galanis. More than three-fourths, 238, occurred in the ocean or other saltwater environments. In the same period, a study by the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine shows 473 people were hospitalized for cervical spine injuries. Of those, 77 were wave-related, including 62 where the wave forced the head or neck to crash into the ocean bottom. Weyman and Tom Heffner, National Weather Service warning coordination meteorologist, discussed the hazards of surf yesterday in announcing changes in the way wave heights are reported. Starting April 9, they said, Weather Service high-surf advisories will report the actual (full face) height of waves, from the trough to the peak, which is done in other parts of the United States and around the world. The advisories will contain this paragraph: “The above surf heights are surf face heights which may be up to twice the wave heights that have traditionally been reported.” Hawaii lifeguards and surfers traditionally have measured waves from the back, or from the front, then taking half, Weyman said. Heights also are reported lower in some cases to keep people from crowding the beach, he said. Heffner has been working with the Oahu Civil Defense Agency, city Ocean Safety Division, Oahu safety training officer Mark Cunningham, lifeguards and University of Hawaii oceanographers Rick Grigg and Pat Caldwell to standardize surf measurements. “There are times you see realistic measurement and times you don’t,” Heffner said. “We haven’t had a standard everybody is using.” He said more training will be done, “so we’re all looking at the surf from the same size and standard.” The agencies also are working with the hotel association to get information out to visitors about risks at various beaches, he said. But it is not just a matter of presenting realistic wave heights for visitors, Heffner said. Of 101 ocean drownings on Oahu in the study period, 17 who died were surfers or body boarders, and seven of them were residents. Lifeguards suggested inexperience, a powerful shorebreak, alcohol and drug use were the major risk factors involved with water sports-related cervical spine injuries. Beaches are graded in four categories, from nonbreaking, low-energy waves in Grade 1 to high-energy waves with plunging characteristics in Grade 4. At Oahu’s Grade 4 Sandy Beach, once every 33 days, lifeguards respond to a neck injury, the study said. About twice a year, a serious cervical spine injury occurs there requiring hospitalization. Grigg, a surfer, said it is unrealistic to measure waves from the back because surfers cannot see the back and the shape changes. He noted lifeguards reported the wave height at Sunset Beach yesterday at 2 to 3 feet when it was actually 6 feet. Although all lifeguards have not adopted the “full face” standard of measurement, acceptance is growing, Heffner said. Grigg pointed to a “huge issue of liability embedded in the problem” because the state and counties are required by law to adequately warn the public of risks at beach parks. Hotels also have a duty to warn guests if they know of dangerous conditions, he said. Settlements have ranged as high as $3 million to $8 million in lawsuits against the state and counties for ocean-related injuries, he said. http://www.starbulletin.com/2001/03/31/news/story10.html
On the coast of Georgia it would be right at 80 feet plus.
Howzit Dale, that wave actually looks closer to a 10 footer,welcome to Hawaiian Style. Aloha, Kokua
I call it “really big.” That’s one up from “way overhead” and one below “really, really big.” 
This topic reminded me of when I had but recently moved into the tiny village that was to be my home for a dozen years, and consequently ended up giving surf reports to anyone who called. I am 6’2" tall and rode an 8’4" board at the time. I am also a literalist. I could judge pretty well how big the wave was on me at takeoff, or how it measured up against the length of my board, and called sizes accordingly. The problem is the wave tapers down quite a bit as it peels along, so it all depended on where you took your measurement. I always tried to judge it at the obvious take-off spot, to avoid calling it bigger than what was rideable, as it was always bigger on the rivermouth bar, although mostly unmakeable from there and so not surfed that often. (I used to take off on one or two close-outs on my way across the rivermouth from the cabin I first lived in, just to get briefly tubed.) I’d tell someone on the phone it was six foot. An hour later they’d be sitting on the point looking at it and calling me a kook 'cause it was only four feet. It hadn’t changed size a bit in the time it had taken them to make it out from Victoria, yet somehow I was off by two feet. Never could figure that one out and realized it didn’t actually mean anything in the big picture anyway. As long as it was big enough to ride and not TOO big to ride it was ok with me. They could call it whatever the heck they wanted. Take care.
I prefer the knee-waist-chest-head-overhead-doubleO-tripleO-ohmiGod scale. It gives you the general idea of the size of the surf. That said, a doubleO wave in Hawaii is propably a thad bigger the a doubleO at my homebreaks. Regards, Håvard PS. I surfed chest to waist high waves today on my just finnished fish and had a blast. STOKED!!
If that wave was 8 ft. Hawaiian, then this wave is… 1 foot??? 
Here’s my theory on Hawaii wave size: It goes by the swell size. Those old timers were soooo tuned in that they would see huge waves on the north shore and know that the swell size was only 8 or 10 feet and call it that. I don’t know when the buoys came into effect, but sure enough 20 to 25 feet on the buoys and pow The Bay is cranking. 10 feet and sunset is reeling. Sure, the face size is much larger, but, the swell size=the wave size. 20 foot swell=20 foot waves. Right? I’ve seen 3x over head on a solid 8 @ 17 at the most exposed spots…All that macho bs about exagerrating wave size…nah, man that’s just the size of the swell. Question: I heard that NOAA recalibrated the buoys sometime in the last 10 or so years any body know anything about this?
At Ala Moana, pole sets were called 8 foot, until one flat day, James Jones went out with a tape measure and shinnied up the pole and dropped the tape, 18 feet to the water
8ft Hawaiian, 16ft California, or 2ft Kansas if you don’t know what the f@#& your doing your going to get drilled, actually even if you know what your doing your going to get drill. As for the tourists that can’t tell a big wave from a small wave, What can be more primal? Fire & Water? That wave is hidiously ugly, you wouldn’t have to explain nothing to me. So I guess thats natural selection process at it’s core? It’s always fun to watch the tourists walk down to the shore break at Sunset and watch them get their legs blown out from under them, then sucked into the rip. It always amazes me the uncanny ability of the lifeguards to watch them and gauge when they are finally at lifes end, and pluck them out of the water right when they are finally sinking for good. Outstanding bunch of educators,teaching life everyday. -Jay
…Back in the days,Buffalo would have called it 2 foot and blown out! …Best stand-up tubes I have ever gotten in 2 foot slop! …I guess that’s why the radio station stopped giving the westside report from Buff. LOL…Herb
This is what I have heard regarding Hawaii wave reports. Take the face height of the wave, cut it in half and then subtract one. So a 16’ to 20’ is acutally 7’ to 9’.
its more about the feeling of power around you then the actual size of the wave above the water
…Northwest Tidal eddy? Herb
How did that wave get through the mountains and all those trees?
The two most astute takes on this, outside of this group of course, that I can recall came from Tom Morey and Chris Ahrens. “Increments of fun!” - Tom Morey Ahrens wrote that great story about a guy recent to the Islands who learned how they measured waves, and who then applied the same scientific system to cutting lumber on a work site. LOL just thinking about that. But speaking of science: trough to the crest at the highest point of the wave - from the front. Very simple, but life isn’t simple these days, is it? So that kayker in the photo Dale put up is suffering through a horrid flat spell…