Welcome to Wallyworld

Read "The Perfect Storm" [Sebastian Junger] sometime. One of the best books ever. There's a lot of research and history gone into it (as well as a lot of phsyics). There are lots of stories in there of really gigantic fxxxxers of waves in the North and North East Atlantic, wave meters that have gone off the measure, and some very convincing stories of how high some waves must have been when there's a lot on a boat to give a perfect sighting measurement. (And a good explanation of how seas and waves get this way.) In fact, of course, some of the rest of the fleet on which the book focuses also caught the 'big one' that night that's presumed to have sent the "Andrea Gail" to her doom. The story of the Canadian (female) observer on the Japanese fishing boat during that storm is particularly horrific.

I like checking out the North Atlantic high seas met reports at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/tafb-atl.shtml Currently it's summer, with seas forecast from 10 - 12 feet, but a typical winter warning will read more like 'waves to 60', please remember that wave heights may be higher.'

Hey Lou - check out the craft we made at Fox Studios, Sydney for Superman Returns. I'd like to see that surfing a 100 foot wave!