Somone please clarify this unanswerable question once and for all!!!

I am sick of getting the phone call from some of the boys that sounds like "Kearnsy, its 6ft -get down here"!!
I get down there to find its 3ft, with a head high one coming thru every half an hour.

So whats the most accurate way to measure how big the surf is???????

I have always measured a wave straight after it breaks in terms of white wash- running towards the beach. This method has turned out to be the most accurate over the years as it can be hard to judge a wave that is sucking , jacking and doubling in size as it explodes on a nice shallow reef!!

Please explAin- WTF????

I totally agree with greeny, to measure it any other way is a toss, It always makes me laugh when its 2x headhigh and some clown is calling 6 foot.

Never heard of anyone measuring white wash before.

I measure the same way as Greeny, but only the average height If only the occassional head high set is comin through you can't call it head high. Have to add in how it's breaking too as this does make a lot of difference.

I find it's normally smaller than most people are calling it anyway.

And I've never heard of people measuing by white wash.

Forget the Hawaiian scale Kearnsy, It's well documented why they over stated thier wave height, and now it's just the norm.

The official way of measuring wave height that the beuro of meteorology use is from the lowest point in the trough between waves to the crest of the wave. Now that's for waves that aren't sucking up and breaking so i just use from the crest of the wave to the trough behind it which stays about the same level as the rest of the ocean where as infront is where all the water is sucked up from.

Dooverlacker speaks the truth.

Measure the height of the wave from the back.

Paddle over a set, then turn around to look at the back of it. If the back of the wave looks about head height, then it's a 6 foot wave.

However, when it's less than about 4 foot, the height of the back gets pretty hard to judge because it's so small. At this point, it is usually easier to refer to wave size by the height of the face with regards to body parts. "double head high, head high, shoulder high, waist high, knee high, boogie boarder high, etc..."

If you listen to the surf report on the phone the report says for example "beach break stretch from trigg to scarborough waist to chest high with the occasional head high set"
You cant tell me that hearing this way of reporting wave hieght is confusing?