Rate the rough water?
 

Is this 3' to 4's or what? Pictures are from destin.

http://i54.tinypic.com/i2ud1f.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/2bwuw5.jpg


Thanks

always looks smaller in a picture but I am going to say 1-2's

Hard to tell without scale but 3s in the top pic.

no frame of reference, very hard to tell. I have pics that look like that and it was easily 3-5's. Other pics look the same and it's tiny 1 footers.

to me they look like about 2' rollers.

The perspective may be misleading me, but the first pic looks like they might be at most 1'ers - meaning 2' from trough to crest.

If you were telling a story about racing a guy in them and winning........they'd be 6s.

:lolhit:

Agreed with 2'

Funny, but TRUE:drink:

I got in a long arguement on THT 6-7 weeks ago about wave heights on some pictures I posted. (42 Tiger at speed, out of the water, clearing 2 boat lengths). I called them 3, occasional 4 and everyone there swore they were 1-2's. That first pic looks very similar to the pics I posted.
Someone did finally say that wave height should be measured by the average 2/3rd's of the waves and from "level" to the top of a wave and not bottom of trough to top of the wave (1/2 of the total height we seem to measure).

How do you know where LEVEL is ?
Shouldnt measurement be from the highest water that the boat can ride on to the lowest water the boat can ride on?

Never heard of 1/2 the distance.

OK so 2 to3s?
Ran from Destins cut to PanamaCity and back on the gulf.

First pic was the water we ran in. What a ride . Lots of air time.

Its hard to react as fast on the sticks as the motors rev. (ros280s) HaHa.

Boat pic was taken earlier in the day from the beach. got alot rougher later in the day.

Thanks

Yes. 1's. Most people think 1/2's are 3/4's. REAL 4's are pretty big

To me they looked like 2-3'.

because the constant is always changing the calculation starts at half. meaning while looking at a beach with waves, the waves may come up 4 feet at crest and braking however when they go out they may go down 2 feet under normal level. there fore making the constant 2 ft above center :)

I just wish I was there to see for my self:drink:

But if I'm in rollers like in the pic and I am NOT launching the boat into the air and I fall 4 ft. into a hole where the boat rides next in the water, am I not in 4 ft. waves ?

Am I in 2 ft waves?

A few more pics.

http://i51.tinypic.com/mimgya.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/118lgs5.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/jtt3mf.jpg

We call that "Flat" on Lake Mich.

Its a hard one to say especially from pics. we used to go out to glamis (Imperial sand dunes) youd take pics and look at them later and the place looked flat compared to how tall the razor backs really were.

Works the same in the waves they just look flat on camera.

I would call those pics 1 foot or less here in the bottom picture on LI sound!

But that could just be the camera flattening it out. We dont see the rollers you guys do down in FLA unless wereout in the atlantic then its a whole different story

Last pics I would say "dead flat". But the sunset is beautiful.

according the everyone on THT that is correct......and remember, I was in a Top Gun running beside a Tiger and at 70 we were getting 1-2 boat lengths of undisturbed water under the boat.
A number of other photos were posted and all had the same results. They claim was also made that true 3-4 footers would require enough wind to create that they WOULD have significant white caps.

Here are a couple of the photos I posted and was told they were 1-2's: linked from Randy Nuzzo's site.

http://photos.powerboatphotos.com/p2...69151#hf3ea188

http://photos.powerboatphotos.com/p2...9151#h111d7d45

http://photos.powerboatphotos.com/p2...9151#h12049c9b

Theoretically yes, ...see chart below

Wave Anatomy:

* Still-Water Line - The level of the sea surface if it were perfectly calm and flat.
* Crest - The highest point on the wave above the still-water line.
* Trough - The lowest point on the wave below the still-water line.
* Wave Height - The vertical distance between crest and trough.
* Wavelength - The horizontal distance between successive crests or troughs.
* Wave Period - The time it takes for one complete wave to pass a particular point.
* Wave Frequency - The number of waves that pass a particular point in a given time period.
* Amplitude - One-half the wave height or the distance from either the crest or the trough to the still-water line.
* Depth - the distance from the ocean bottom to the still-water line.
* Direction of Propagation - the direction in which a wave is travelling.

that's where the interpretation takes a turn, for all general purposes this shows total wave height. from trough to top

Nice pics

In the 1st pic, 2s.
In the 2nd pic... flat.

Either is not rough, even for a 13ft whaler.

I was looking for that chart we all thank you for posting it.

So this is the answer ??

Wave Height - The vertical distance between crest and trough.

First pic is rough for me running 80 to 100mph.

For your 13 foot whaler it would have been sunk if you made it thru the cut. lol

Heres a wave crushing 13' cat.
http://i54.tinypic.com/118io2q.jpg

Im gonna say 2's. It was a blast either way.

thanks

that water looks like it has a chop 1' and a wave height of 2 to 3 ' height and length of 15' apart which would give you the air, to me anyway. the length is like the start of a ramp as you go over it at 70 plus you get air sometimes ending up in a trough or crest. I have seen that low wave height but lots of air out at browns bank at the 1990 apba race after the sand bar which was under water[high tide] it cause length wise 30ft swell that was 3' tall once in a while 4' tall on the back coarse everywhere else it was a 2 to 3 foot chop and not much air at all, I think Freeze Frame has a video of it[plymouth mass 1990] the over all leader was a 32ft vee D-50 and in B class lady L was there with the rest of the gang. we were all on the out side of the coarse and never saw the swells until the video. they got a lot of air couple boat lengths on the back side and zip where we were.

Exactly what I thought. Nice flat day on Lake Michigan. Those are 1-2's at best.

Lots of different measurements. If you measure the back of the wave, it's generally thought to be more accurate for surfing conditions because you'd be measuring the wave, not the swell as it grows in shallower water. Interestingly, this method is somewhat larger than 1/2 of the face height (Crest to Trough).

Most of the world seems to use 2/3rds the height. Different for inland waterways than the ocean as well. Generally speaking, if the wave face on the lake is 4', then there are 4 footers. I think the NWS takes the face height average of two thirds of the highest waves.

Being out in the ocean on three to fives can be significantly different than Champlain, or the Great Lakes. The period is much shorter (usually) on inland lakes, and while your boat in in the trough, the crest of the next wave can be headed for the top of your bow. If they're close enough together, larger boats can effectively ride the top for a ways if consistent enough.

We've had some very windy days on Champlain now since mid-August, so I got to see a lot of how NOAA measures them. 2-3s are pretty irritating and painful for my little 22'. 3-4's mean I shouldn't have gone out, pay attention. One day I was doing the cross lake journey, it started out as 2-3's, built up to 4-5's. That meant I could be SOL. Thankfully, they were close enough that I didn't have to ride them down. But they were large enough that I couldn't go into the straight following sea, the bow would have stuffed on many of the larger ones.

My guess from the picture was 1-2. But pictures rarely show the proper perspective


Then you can see whacked out waves like these :eek:

Teahupoo

That's what I was thinking. Actually, I'd call them "foot-and-a-halfers"!

Looks like 1-2, but pics can be very deceiving!

1985 13ft whaler, 28evinrude, 7ft waves. Every one a big breaking whitecap. No other boats outside of E.R. Inlet (Atlantic), except for a tug. Followed him back in the inlet at 5mph. Prayed the whole way in.

How big are these? Lake Winni in Sept "09"

another

My God - how a year changes things. Last year you were pounding waves in a nice Formula 382 - now you're passing time by picking fights on a fishing boat website. Queer......:evilb::evilb::evilb:

A better question is how big are those rocks you people have just under the water level? :drink:

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