the biggest surf I'd ever seen was definitely puerto escondido... I'll give it 30ft... and I definitely wasn't going out
I don't know the biggest...maybe 15ft. But, I know the heaviest wave I ever surfed was at Sunsets. I left a nice chunk of meat there too.
Everything goes back to how you measure the wave. If I'm 6 foot tall and the wave I dropped in on was 12 foot on the face is that double over head? That's how I would measure but maybe I'm wrong and some on here would look at it and say it was shoulder high. Zach that is an great picture!
I've gotten overhead (probably not much overhead, but overhead; 6-8 maybe). I think it's widely understood that when people refer to head high they mean about 6' regardless if you stand 5'6" or 6' 4".
Actually 5 ft = head high It's always been. Regardless of how tall you are. 1 – 2 ankle to knee high 1 – 3 ankle to waist high 2 – 3 knee to waist high 2 – 3+ knee to chest high 2 – 4 knee to shoulder high 3 – 4 ft. waist to chest high 3 – 4 ft. waist to shoulder high 3 – 5 ft. waist to head high 4 – 5 ft. shoulder to head high 4 – 6 ft. shoulder high to 1 foot overhead 4 – 7 ft. shoulder high to 2 feet overhead 5 – 7 ft. head high to 2 feet overhead 5 – 8 ft. head high to 3 feet overhead 6 – 8 ft. head high+ to 3 feet overhead 6 – 10 ft. head high+ to double overhead 8 – 10 ft. 3 feet overhead to double overhead 8 – 12 ft. 3 feet overhead to double overhead+ 10 – 15 ft. 2 to 3 times overhead 12 – 15 ft. triple overhead 15 – 18 ft. triple overhead+ 15 – 20 ft. 3 to 4 times overhead 18 – 20 ft. 4 times overhead 20 – 25 ft. 4 to 5 times overhead 25 – 30 ft. 5 to 6 times overhead 30 – 35 ft. 6 to 7 times overhead 30 – 40 ft. 6 to 8 times overhead 35 – 40 ft. 7 to 8 times overhead 35 – 50 ft. 7 to 10 times overhead http://www.sizes.com/sports/waveheights_for_surfing.htm
i think i remember this day.. probably the biggest waves i've ever seen in my life. i saw 3 guys try to paddle out a few jettys north (you know where i'm talking about if you know the spot) and couldn't make it. one guy did, and i saw him grab a well overhead wide open shoulder and then come in. was this on a wednesday?
Wave size depends on where you live. A lot of guys in california try and act like its Hawaii out here, so when there are really 18 foot faces on the reef spots, the guys are like, ohhh its like 6-8 feet.... Im like, uhhh thats the size of a three story building. I judge the waves size by the overall face on the take off... Some people measure the size inside the tube etc... depends on where you live. Some guys 2-3 feet is really 1 ft. Some guys 2-3 ft are really like 6-8. Depends on where you live... I just think its too sketchy to generalize sizes to close. I like knowing the actualy ft by ft difference so I can judge where to surf. In Hawaii, they are like yeah its 4 feet, and you get there and its DOH.
This was September of 08 monmouth county. Def. not the biggest or gnarliest I've dropped in on but there aren't always photogs on the beach. Nahmean? The next shot in the sequence is my avatar
I have a hard time judging the size of this wave but this size, maybe a foot bigger is the biggest I ever surfed, because when I was surfing this day I didn't feel that "oh, crap my boards gonna leave my feet " with that gut-lifting feeling as much as I did one other day. But pretty close to this size. Too bad it was a close-out.
