I don’t spend a lot of time down there at the bottom so why even factor in that last few feet?
Jeez, Marabout how many crack pipes did you smoke before coming up with that bell-clanger? Check out Rusty Long’s XXL winning wave from Dungeons. By your twisted logic they would call it about 30 foot. It was correctly identified and measured at 65 foot. Here are some shots from my local break over the last month breaking at a clean 2 foot. I rode a 2 foot 6 inch surfboard . Steve
Jeez, Marabout how many crack pipes did you smoke before coming up with that bell-clanger?
Ha! I’m not advocating any one else call wave sizes the way I do, I was just saying I don’t consider it overhead unless it’s over my head when I’m about midway up the face or so. Those waves feel overhead, you know.
I don’t ever remember a lifeguard drowning in the line of duty here.
(I stand corrected, Eddie Aikau paddling for help from the swamped voyaging canoe Hokulea in a squall in the middle of the ocean was the one of the few and deserves mention. He did what all great lifeguards would do.)
most of the time and its happened many times these past year, is it’s some innocent bystander trying to help out that tires out, has a heart attack or gets pulled under by the panicing drowner. Having the innocent do-gooder bystander drown is the saddest part.
The problem for lifeguards here especially on the northshore or sandy beach is that people just don’t heed their warnings and then expect the same folks to put their lives on the line to save their butts when they get into trouble or then sue the city or state when if they drown.
IMHO,The reason why some people use the backside of the wave to measure wave height is because it relates to the way other waves such as light waves, & sound waves measure their amplitude.
Amplitude: a measure of the maximum disturbance in the medium during one wave cycle (the maximum distance from the highest point of the crest to the equilibrium)
Although I think that it is not the back side of the wave they’re measuring but half the wave face. The easiest way to get an approximation of half the wave face of your typical wave out in the ocean with no instruments is to look at the backside of the wave. Sure, it is not anywhere near accurate. There are also exeptions such as teahupoo where it seems like the wave is actually falling instead of rising. So to answer your question, the reason people measure the backside of the wave is to get an idea of half the wave face because they want to know what the amplitude of the wave is. Just my opinion.
My head is full of “snapshots” of the most memorable moments in the water. I have these gems tucked away where I can recall them anytime, and they are in my head forever. They include visions looking down a forty foot face right at the point of no return, Lynn Boyer doing a headstand and knocking a rude snake off his board with her feet at San Miguel, my girlfriend Jenny splitting a hollow face in two at Ocean Beach, the guy at Hanalei with his leash attached to his speedo, Billy Hamilton spraying me with water when I was a grom at Trestles, many small openings on the other end of the greenroom, the six dolphins that shared a wave with me at Point Dume, and many many others from my 43 years of surfing.
Whatever the size of the waves are, the only things that count are that moment, and the memories you take away from it.
I couldn’t help myself after reading your post. Thanks, kc
Winter is our season here in the barrens. The fellow in the picture is in a wetsuit crouching. Memories of neoprene and early morning dark cold walls of water – I guess you had to be there.
PS
This ain’t got squat to do with wave measurement. My apologies to the thread’s author.
7/7/07 - Edit: Needed a post to screw around with markup; apologies. kc
they told me the reason of the HI scale was because dudes from town would call to country for the surf report, specifically, the north shore lifeguards for the surf report and since the northshore life guards were tight with the locals or were locals themselves, they’d give them the HI scale, and guys in town wouldn’t think it was worth the drive out there . . .
But they caught on and eventually everyone just used the HI standard.
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