Wave height comparison - Heceta Lighthouse, Oregon

Comparing the wave height from a January, 2006 storm to the height of the Hecetahead Lighthouse, just to get an estimate of the size.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• big
• waves
• swell
• oregon
• 2006
• heceta
• lighthouse

[naes101010]

Wow my finger is an inch wide......I can hide the moon behind my finger......The moon is an inch wide and everything makes perfect sense now

[woahinkfish]

YES! Someone finally got it. The moon IS an inch wide and the Apollo Missions were a hoax, designed to take public attention away from the politics of the moment. After all this time I am amazed that only one person has come up with the answer.

[woahinkfish]

I know this was not science and I do not need reminders that the method was flawed. I tried to swing the camera from the lighthouse to a point offshore at about the same distance. Who knows if I was even close - I don't!

I recently found an offshore bouy with wave height data and discovered that its maximum height for the day was 8.72 meters. That is a little over 28 feet. What we see from the shore when a wave breaks is a face of some greater height.

[AS859]

If I put my finger up to the screen, it looks like the wave is only the size of my nail!...Not disputing it may be as tall as you say, but it's extremely inaccurate to super impose an image like that as it is measured from a distance meaning that the scale is unpropotionate!

[woahinkfish]

OK, everyone, I know about focal lengths and relative size of objects in the foreground versus background. I was not asleep during Physics 101. This was a lighthearted attempt to gauge the height of the swell because I could not find anything in the water to use for comparison, AND because I had just purchased a new video editing program and it has this neat feature of superimposing an image over the video and controlling the degree of transparency. 8 minutes of the raw footage is on my site.

[sargea1]

so you're comparing the size of an object in the foreground with objects in the background... hmmm, I think I might see a teeny flaw in your logic there somewhere....

[woahinkfish]

You're right. That is why I point that flaw out at the end of the clip.

[numbereightyseven]

Your method would be spot on for anything that was the same distance away from you as the lighthouse, but for things closer (you swung the camera to the waves in front of you, which were closer than the lighthouse?), it doesn't work.

As an extreme example, imagine that you were to also move the camera to someone standing near you. That doesn't mean they could be 56 feet tall, say. I'm not trying to be perfectionist about this - just saying. Hope it helps for next time.

[jbonez002]

That's a huge swell no matter which way you look at it.!!!

[DangerD205]

To estimate wave height, you swim into the waves with a meter stick, and then you put the meter stick at the base of the wave. Then you put your hand at the TOP of the meter stick, then repeat. Remember, you must be wearing jeans to complete this task.

[huskiesrock06]

Those are some serious swells. Too bad some of the posters dont know what the word estimate means. I would guess the swells were about 20 feet

[Bmosh1133]

THAT IS SO MUCH SWELL. AND HELL YEA NOR CAL RECKS SHIT, YOU GUYS ARE EVEN CLOSER TO SWELL OROGINS N SHIT UP THERE!!! NORTHWEST RUGGED SWELL ALL DAY.

[DROPD5150]

PEOPLE!!......SKREW THE NON BELIEVERS!!!!......The NW has some of the biggest surfable waves in the world!!!PERIOD!!!!....Just not enough good exposure!!!!....and we LIKE IT THAT WAY!!!!Nelscott Reef can with ease hold 70+ faces!!!...and ive surfed the beachbreak there when it was 18+!!......it has no bearing on what size ''Mavs'' is that day...Mavs just gets more publicity!!..its not the biggest or best on the west coast!!!...

[clarkewi]

Those waves are far away and would appear much larger were they as close as the lighthouse was. Those waves are 50' on the face. You can tell by how long it takes the lip to hit the bottom of the wave. When its slow like in your video, then you know its huge.

[surrfer990]

thats a lighthouse ghost

[jaymebaer]

Keep the variables in mind and enjoy the comps...

Thanks for posting

[Molge123]

@casperkaren he had a rangefinder noob.

[shootzbra]

my ding-a-ling is bigger than the light-house.....yes