

Surfers ride 100ft wave in Portugal - awicklander
http://snowbrains.com/100-foot-wave-surfed-portugal-yesterday/

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snowwrestler
I think it's really unlikely that wave is 100 feet. In fact it looks to me
like it will measure out to be lower than the previous record holder at that
same spot.

The trick here is that the viewing and photo spot is on a bluff well above the
ocean, so any photo of a wave will include a large portion of the trough in
front of it. This makes the face look a lot taller than it actually is,
because there are no distinguishing marks on the surface of the water to tell
the face from the trough.

In addition there is the question of face height vs. wave height. Wave height
is measured above mean sea level--they are measured from the back, not the
front. Waves are preceded by troughs, so a 5 foot wave might actually have a 7
to 8 foot face. In this case it's pretty clear that "100ft" is referring to
the face.

