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Presumably while ocean swell size might be 3 or 4 foot obviously the wave face is a bit bigger.....wot do you reckon?
Judging on the size of the surfer about 6ft up the face, hard to tell with the depth of the photo.
To help you out Kristi is 5'5
Interested to see the answers on this one as its always a point of discussion.
Thats why we use waist, chest, head, over head etc.
Phill
THis is something that spins me out also.. How do you get the 3 to 4 foot measurement?? And if a wave is head height and you are 6ft is it a 6ft wave??..
Can any one clarify this for me.. Ive head people say it goes on back face but how does that even work??? We used to surf a wave when i bodyboarding (before i saw the light) that had almost no back face but would be over 6ft front face because is was sucking so hard.. Sure trips me out 
Belly
Haha thats just silly 
so does that mean when teahupoo is 20ft faces its only 2foot??
I just dont get it..
Belly
2-3' depending. Can't really tell if the light shadow is making the wave appear bigger than it is, can't really tell from the angle either where the bottom of the face is. At any rate, no way I'd be calling that 4'.
Generally if you've been surfing in Australia for a while and know what's up, the safe way to measure is half the face then round down, be conservative. Also, there are certain wave sizes that don't exist, such as odd numbers over 5'. You can't say it was 9' today, you can say it was 8-10'. Same for 14' - it's 12-15'. It's something like either of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, etc.
You can also use face measurements if you use the "head" system, e.g. head-high == ~3', overhead == 4', DOH == 6-8', TOH == 10' or 10-12'.
That's just the way it is in Australia. If you measure otherwise, e.g. using the "foot" system for faces, expect to get called out or laughed at.
^ Amplitude is the same as what I was talking about, i.e. the Hawaiian system:
Number (1) in the image.
<edit>Whoops, didn't like the image much. Go to:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplitude
and look at the peak amplitude measurement</edit>
These discussions are always a crack up.
Its nose high.
Did you know the guys who do the surf reports in the mornings like on swellnet and coastwatch paddle out just before first light so they can accurately measure the height of the wave from behind. They learnt that from the guys in Hawaii.
Phil I reckon the knee high, waist high head high is the way to go to stop the crap of measuring in feet. Just don't convert the height of the various body parts to Imperial measurements or you will get laughed at.
Looks like good waves all weekend. Good luck to those in the Vic Titles but don't quote the wave height!
It's not that hard daletor. I've got no problems calling wave sizes in feet. Generally:
1' == waist high sets if you're lucky and you bend your knees
2' == waist to chest high
3' == head high
4' == OH
5' == almost 2 x HH
6' == around 2 x HH
6-8' == solid DOH sets
8-10' == TOH sets
10-12' == TOH - 4xOH
etc.
Don't need to paddle out to evaluate.
Or if you live around here, I'd also add:
3", 6", etc. for the more common days.
"With a glass and a half of full cream dairy milk in every half pound block", Professor Sumner Miller would say 4 ft, maybe a tincy bit bigger.
Easier other photos:
2'
Maybe 1' once it turns from a swell into a wave.
2-3'. For me to say 3' I want it to be clearly (at least marginally) above the person's head. Too big to say 2', and 2 1/2' doesn't exist so 2-3' it is.
I'll say "it's a solid x foot" when the waves are between x and x 1/2 feet.
And I'll use "it's x-y foot" if x == y - 0.5.
I tried doing something like that OG but that's where depth-of-field is deceptive. You've gotta shrink your daughter, but by how much? There could be a good 10m between her and the wave.
