No matter how you measure it top to bottom back front vertical it all does not matter as everyone seemes to have a different idea of what a foot is. I have been out and had guys say it is 6-9 foot and all I can think is if I am standing int he bottom of a wave it may come up to my chest. I am only 6 feet tall so how is that possible???? I think that people like to say they were out in 6-9 to make it seem like they are more of a man

AudioFn, those would be former Bass fisherman......"and it was thiiiis big, I swear"!

As Troutly's piece highlighted, wavelength (I always called it "span" as in bridge) is where you need hull length. It's also the main difference between ocean/great Lakes 3-4 footers and say Texacoma 3 footers...

Jayl13, I LMAO! That would be called judging by the seat of your pants....

Wave height is the distance from sea level to the top of the wave....OR.....ONE HALF the distance from Top to Trough. That's why 10 foot seas to wide eyed pleasure boaters are really five foot seas to Sailors......and why "2 to 4's" is a real challenge.

T2x

Well ... I ain't no stinkin' sailor, so I must be one of those wide eyed pleasure boaters ....

I'll agree with T2x about measuring a wave, but, I would think that when talking of the size of the seas it would be from top to bottom ..... So what I'm saying is 6' seas have 3' waves. Heh heh heh ...

Garry you forgot about the jack up on the shore. Remember that little place called the Wedge down there were you guys boat

T2X-

We're not talking about the height of the wave's top from sea level (the water's average mean) but the height of the "wave". A wave is a ripple in the water. To measure it, you measure the top to the bottom. Why the heck would you measure any differently?

A possible example (and a crappy one):

A building has 8 floors, two of them below ground. So is this really a 6 "floor" building? No, it has only 6 "stories", but 8 "floors".

How do you get the wave to hold still long enough to hold the tape measure on it?

A building that has three stories above ground and three below is considered a three story building....... Just as the WTC which with 114 floors above ground...as I recall...and 8 below.....was not considered a 122 story building....... nor is an iceberg 100 ' high and 1000 ft below water considered to be an 1100 ' foot high iceberg.

You measure them by going to the bar and waiting for some one to get drunk enough to claim that he ran 120mph in 12 foot seas and divide by the reality factor which comes out to 61 mph in 4 1/2 foot seas....until the distributer came off......or the deck, if it's not a Skater.



T2x

Here's how Ive heard it.
A surf wave is not measured by its face height, it is measured from the back. If you have a 9' wave face, in reality its more like a 5. I would think the same applies for an ocean wave. In my experieince the wave face is usually steeper and taller than its back. Because of this Im more inclined to think it would have to be a formula rather than crest to trough.
I like the more creative lame to ooohhhh **** scale.

here's another visual................