"riverman" wrote in message ...
"Brian Nystrom" wrote in message
...


riverman wrote:

No, you're right. NOAA uses the same standard as river runners: trough
to
peak. But surfers (specifically Hawaiin surfers) have their own formula,
and
since a lot of the surfer terminology follows the fad, surfers worldwide
tend to follow the Hawaiian model. Which leads to a lot of non-surfers
also
following the model, which leads to the confusion. Check out
http://surfing.about.com/library/weekly/aa042001.htm

Ah, that explains it, but that sure is a screwy way of measuring waves. As
for
East Coasters doubling the wave height...it's BS.



I can't generalize for ALL east coasters, but it was on the right coast
where I first encountered this. Some fishermen were on a raft trip, and
estimated what I called a 6 foot wave as being a '3 foot wave'. I figured
they just had poor spatial sense, but they explained that other fishermen
also rated the sea swells from midline to peak. I've watched this happen all
over, but never knew where it originated.

--riverman

This one got my attention. I called Environment Canada and the weather
folks. They finally replied.
Sea State Forecasts for wave height are trough to peak. It is the
whole range that hurts ships.
I was fairly sure that is how it was done but the posting had me think
again.
Now looking over my shoulder and up at a four foot wave that is about
to clean the water bottle and flashlight of my front deck as it
crashes over my head that thing seemed to be 8 feet , but it was only
four, Perhaps that is where the confusion is.
I will forward the email from Environment Canada if anyone wants it.