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.

Bnaccas said...

... some as their
idea of head high may vary.

I've always thought of head high as 6', even when I was a grommet. That's what I understood the convention to be. Same as a foot is 12", not my foot vs. your foot .

Bnaccas said...

Double overhead could vary from 10 feet to 13ft quite easily.

DOH is easy, more than 2 x 6' people on the face. I.e. 12-15' faces, so call that 6-8' in proper (well, industry standard) measurement.

13ft . Remember, no such thing .

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.

Legion said...

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.

No not insulted, but I agree the pic is prob 1-2 ft at best and please take my word for it larger waves made an appearance....soo it was 1-2 ft with the occasional 3ft wave rolling on through...did I have de ja vue just then

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

OG, your comment makes me think of your avatar when I think of our foreseeable forecast.

way too criptic I am too many drugs engrisssh please

planesailing said...

does it really matter ?????

It only matters if you want to interact with other water users or make use of wave forecasts and reports. Otherwise use e.g. Bnaccas' midget system, or DJ's hobbit system.

Legion said...

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.

Finally this man had something sensible to say Totally agree, I would call that 3-4 ft and thats just the way it has always been and should always be, I would not even know all this talk about wave face this that and the other, it is what it is

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.

oliver said...

Legion said...

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.

So what part did I get right?

Grumpy?
Bald?
Fat?
Know it all?
Over 40 maybe?

I think I'm close to cracking my first cold case.

Oliver dont you know the term is "portly" not fat (and be careful last I saw you weren't Mr Universe )