I've commented on how I learned to judge wave size, but I can't find that piece, so if you find it somewhere, and it's different than this spin - oh well - I tried.
Way back in the late fifties, when I was learning to surf, I surfed only at La Jolla Shores.
I lived right across the street from the Shores, I could not drive yet, and I was afraid to leave my 'hood - plus the Shores wasn't that bad of a place anywayz.
We used to surf before school, and then ride our bikes to La Jolla Jr-Sr High.
Pretty soon, the "other" guys found out we were surfing before school, and would ask me: "how big was the Shores today?"
If the wave faces were about 6 feet or so, I'd say: "about 6 feet or so."
Immediately, I'd be at the wrong end of a right jab to the arm!
This is how I learned to judge wave size:
The biggest waves in my universe - at this time - according to the "others" - were at WindanSea at about 10 feet MAX!
You Shores Guys were such pussies!
Because WindanSea could not get as big as the big waves in Hawaii, especially the North Shore.
The WindanSea - Tiny Brain, Al Nelson, Jim Fisher, Pat Curren, etc. - guys were among the first to ride the bombs at Sunset Beach and Wiamea Bay.
So - when they returned to La Jolla, the newly calibrated wave heights had to be:
Were they riding the face of the waves, the backs of the waves - who cared - ?
Sunset could not get as big as Wiamea Bay's 20 - 30 feet.
Therefore - The biggest waves in La Jolla (WindanSea - North Bird) could only be about 10 - 12 feet.
Therefore II - The Shores could never get much bigger than about 8 feet! It didn't matter if the "White House Rights" were triple overhead - those waves were 6 - 8 feet!
BA - Thanksgiving Day - 2001 - Wave Height = 4 feet - Photo by Rebecca - don't need no wetsuit - Bray -
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Later, BA
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