What size is this wave face?

Hey Legion i did say "hint" after all.

It was shot from a long long way away and yes you would have to shrink Kristi as well, i reckon she was 10 - 15m from the wave.

IMO the face was 1ft over Kristi's head most of the time.

Yours terms 3 ft solid?

Phill

Legion with swell at 5-6ft on the open beaches and offshore that spot will be smoking tomorrow and so clean.

Phill

The average height of an adult is 5 to 6 feet so using head high etc can be confusing to some as their
idea of head high may vary. "Is he talking about his head height, my head height or the average head height?"
Double overhead could vary from 10 feet to 13ft quite easily. It is for this reason a mate came up with his
own theory.

I'm in no way trying to be racist but a few crew I know use the "Midget" theory.

The average height of a little person is said to be 4 feet. So if the wave face is 4ft high then it's 1 midget.
6ft high is 1 1/2 midgets, 8 ft high is 2 midgets etc etc. This eliminates any confusion.

It cracks me up when I ask them how big it was and they say "Ah...probably around 2 to 3 midgets". I know
it's really bad but they mean no disrespect.

So in conclusion, that wave is about 1 1/2 to 2 midgets.

Half to 3/4 of a midget at Tawharanui then.

hmmm my 5 cents 3footish depends on the bank or reef but yeh 3 foot

I wasn't trying to be insulting Kagey. I get the impression by your last post you might've been insulted. After a second look I might even call it 1'. When it's small and the lip has no strength it can kind of throw occasionally and appear bigger than it is. By all means post more pics. Love pics. Like the ones of the goater in the other thread, awesome.

does it really matter ?????
the length of a peice of string is 2 times the length of it folded in half.

6' == double head high. Anything from 6' up to a few feet higher (on the face) is DOH, therefore 6-8' is DOH. A straight 6' is easy, because it's two 6' people high. It's the overhead part that makes it 6-8'.

Same as 3' is head high, but 4' is overhead. DOH is just double 4'.

And I forgot the special case you sometimes see - 18'. Sometimes you see 15-18', which is when it's bigger than 15' but doesn't warrant the full 20' call. However, you're not allowed to use 18' by itself .

Generally as it gets bigger you use more of a range, because you get bomb sets and solid waves in between so you call them both as the range because even the smaller ones are significant. On smaller days you don't care about the in betweeners because only the sets are any good so it's more common to say it's 1' or 2' or 3' or 4'. It's only really when it gets bigger than that that you start using ranges. Or if you're unsure such as in the pictures that prompted the thread.

You might use a range if you're describing e.g. a whole day when the swell jumped, but that'd be part of the description too and would therefore emphasis how conditions changed.

To those that say it doesn't matter etc, it does if you're describing it to mates etc. E.g. if it's under 6' I'm going to treat it as fun, consequences not high. 6-8' is getting serious and I'd want to make sure I bring my A game and have a plan. 10' and it's very serious and you want to take things very carefully and have the right preparation and equipment. If someone told me it's 10' and they're talking some arbitrary face measurement system and I turn up fully psyched up with a gun, I'm going to be pretty annoyed when it's a playful 5' in reality.

Maybe . I'm not over 50 or ride a mal, and there aren't any unpopulated breaks near where I surf so you're not entirely correct. Not bad though.