Let's talk about wave heights...

8-10 East Coast, 3-4 West Coast- 1' Hawaii

 

Boom, there we have it!

Most surf reports under call things, if they are judging based on what they see on a CAM, which is what a lot of forecasters do, then they will be off by a foot or three sometimes. It's really hard to get an idea of depth from a computer screen, the angle of the camera has a lot to do with it too, just like in still pictures, it's all about the angle. I find there is no better way to judge the wave size then being in the water and looking at them close up.

Any other method typically will be off to a degree. I mean, how many times have you looked at it from the beach and said, that's not that big.... only to paddle out and realize real fast that it's bigger than it looked from the sand. Now think about a camera posted up on a light pole or something 200 yards off the water, it's always bigger IN the water. At least it is in my experience.

 

exactly....

And in Europe, that would be about 2.5 Meters.

 

And in New Zeland they would call it about Sheep Tit high.