Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

Fess up- what do you mean when you report "overhead" waves in a kneelo post? Is it over your head kneeing, or IF you were standing up?
Just curious

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on a related subject.... does anyone else out there have the experience of a wave seeming bigger when your riding it than when you see a picture of yourself riding it.... ie; my last wave was head high no no, it was chest high at the most... no, I was riding the thing, it was head high I tell you....

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I will stick with Beeline's def. But many timres when looking at pictures after a go out. The waves seemed larger or smaller.

I always remember it being much bigger than it probably was... and that's why I take NO pictures.. TRUST ME DUDE.. IT WAS DOH...

I too will always use Beelines def, except in my story I caught that rogue wave.

Wave height is from the bottom of the trough to the top of the crest.

It all depends on the bottom contours and *how* the wave is breaking.

I understand in Hawaii they measure the backs of waves combined with the height of the surfer if they were standing on their head, then they determine if the surfer has short or long legs, ...ie "that wave is a short overhead wave", or that wave is a tall overhead wave.
Gee, I wonder if Sonny Garcia is gonna kick my butt now? Ooops, he's in jail

Sonny Garcia's conviction made me feel like

I once read an interesting article about how the hawaiian scale of wave rating came about. The author said it was originally developed in 60's by surfers not wanting to hoenstly indicate size of the surf on the north shore. That way they limited the people driving over from honolulu. Its not the back's of the wave they are talking about but apparently its some weird compilation bouy size and direction. This system was adopted by the NWS and Pat Caldwell. A few years ago some tourist got themselves killed playing in north shore surf. They sued claiming the size predictions posted on the NWS site were misrepresentative. Now all surf height predictions posted by the NWS are in Face height.

Bill E. I agree with you. In the matter of science, wave height is defined as the average between the trough and the crest of all open-ocean waves that pass by a stationary point over a given period of time. Open-ocean wave height is a primary indicator for surf size. There has traditionaly been a gap between the actual trough to crest height of a breaking wave and the height as measured by surfers.

3 ft waist high-4ft chest-5 ft shoulder-6 ft HH.Close enough for rock&roll...
All my long time friends have a different take on size,my 3ft is not their 3 ft.. But we all know what me/they are saying,works out just fine.

The classic scenario.watching folks hunkered down in the stink-bug stance,then ranting about it being overhead.... ...classic!

And obviously buoy heights do not equate to wave heights at the beach.No doubt we've all figured out the mechanics of those equations.


cheers

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