"Brian Nystrom" wrote in message
...


riverman wrote:

I always enjoyed the discrepancy between sizing ocean waves and sizing
river
waves. Ocean waves are assumed (fairly correctly) to be centered on the
local sea level, with a trough in front and a peak between the troughs.
In a
4-foot ocean wave, there is a 4 foot deep trough in front, and a 4 foot
high
peak on the wave, leaving an 8 foot wave face.

This is not the way they're forecast by NOAA. A 4' sea is 4' from trough
to
peak. Either that, or their forecasts are wildly inflated.

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

--riverman