Estimating wave heights

June 22, 8:28 PMSan Jose Surfing ExaminerDog Man

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A subject that's never resolved in surfing is wave heights, and how to measure them. Thanksgiving week brought reports of "100 foot waves" at Mavericks, a truly incredible happening. So this article explains the DogMan method of estimating wave heights. Feel free to flame or otherwise respond with your thoughts on the matter. One thing's for sure, this topic will never die!

The basic method

A concise explanation of the DogMan method for measuring wave heights is this: Estimate the rideable face of the wave in units relating to a surfer's body. This is practical, doable, and useful.

Imaginary scenario

Imagine you are paddling back to the lineup after riding a wave. In front of you a surfer makes the drop on a wave, gets to the bottom of the face, and digs in for a bottom turn. Freeze that moment in your mind, and imagine that you are looking at it from the same level; your eyes are roughly level with the surfer's eyes.

Now measure the peak

Compare the lip of the peak behind the surfer with the surfer's body. If the lip of the peak cuts across his/her shoulders, then it is shoulder high. If the lip of the peak cuts across the waist, then the peak is wasit high, and so on. If the peak is overhead then imagine another surfer standing on the shoulders of the first. In this way you can estimate "head and a half," double overhead and on up.

Down the line

You can use the same technique to estimate the height of sections down the line. Typically the peak of a wave is taller then these sections, so it can be interesting to compare them. Many places in DogLand have peaks substantially taller then the sections. Makes for exciting entries, drops, and bottom turns.

Translate to meters or feet

If needed, you can translate this estimate to meters or feet. Most surfers are between 5.5 and 6 feet tall. When cranking a bottom turn it is normal to crouch just a bit, so the "standard" surfer unit for estimating waves is about 5 to 5.5 feet. Figure 3 feet in a meter, and you got it. Mostly, units relating to your body will do. Surfers can relate to "thigh high," "overhead," and other estimates.

Be conservative

One last thing; shave a bit off your estimate. There's always an error of some sort in any measurement, and it's a bit more seemly to err on the short side. You might be preceived as "stretching" it if you report a marginally overhead wave as "overhead." Typical DogMan practice is to report a marginally overhead wave as "head high." This sounds a bit more conservative, and less like you are bragging about your hellman qualities. Also scares lesser surfers who estimate wave heights with their fear more than their brains!

Let me know how you like this method, and how useful it is for you. If you have a different yardstick, let me know that too. I'll use the responses in a future column if the interest is there.

Billys wave

Sunday afternoon Billy Blaze read this article and emailed a pic you can see in the thumbnails at the top of the page. Billy asked "how big is this wave?"

It's really big

Basically this wave is MUCH bigger than any the DogMan has ever ridden. By the technique in this column, the wave looks to be six times overhead! In feet that would be 30 to 35 feet. Whatta ride!

It's really really big

BTW, there isn't any mention of the Hawaiian scale here, but since this wave is from Oahu it applies. Don't know how big this wave is on the Hawaiian scale, since we can't see the back of the wave in the pic. Assuming Billy is the one riding the wave, he gets the brass ball hellman award of the week. Way to go!