zlacker

In the article they say there are 50feet waves. But it's hard to appreciate that on the video. Is there a way to better look at these picture to get a better sense of the scale ?

>>wiz21c+(OP)
Wave height/sea state is notoriously difficult to present on video in a way that renders justice. I think it's due to lack of gimbal and probably focal length vs. field of view, and lack of depth perception.

>>wiz21c+(OP)
If you look closely there is a banana visible in the ocean for a couple of seconds.

>>wiz21c+(OP)
I agree; it almost looks like some random heavy sea footage from an exterior camera in that "Deadliest catch" show.

>>wiz21c+(OP)
You don't really see much in real life either. I've been in 10m waves, and didn't see much. The waves breaking over the entire boat is something I remember very clearly, but not from seeing. It just looked chaotic.

>>wiz21c+(OP)
Well, the Draupner Wave brushed the under side of an oil rig, if that helps. That was a rogue wave and they get a lot higher.

There are also the opposite - rogue holes - the trough part of a wave. Imagine being in a boat and dropping 100ft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_wave

>>wiz21c+(OP)
I was thinking, this would rock in 3D/VR.

>>DrBazz+K7
Makes you wonder how many ships got lost before structural integrity improved to the point where a ship would survive that kind of impact.

>>AYBABT+o
Lack of horizon, lack of depth, lack of sense of motion, and lack of anything to measure scale against, all make video incapable of conveying true scale.

Though when you can get those elements together, the result is gut-clenching. What does it for me is Big Wave surfing at Nazare. Camera's on land, horizon is fixed, motion is clear, and the ant on the face itself gives perspective. I almost have the opposite problem, the image registers as synthetic or manipulated, even when it isn't:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pZTx0XBx4hk

>>wiz21c+(OP)
Highly recommend HBO's new mini series (documentary) about big wave surfing [0]. Lots of heavy wave action in it and they delve into the very unscientific manner in which surfers and surfing orgs "measure" these monsters.

[0] https://www.hbo.com/100-foot-wave

>>jacque+A8
There was an interesting article in Quanta a while back on this topic.

> Researchers have since determined that rogue waves probably claimed 22 supercarriers and more than 500 lives in the second half of the 20th century alone.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-grand-unified-theory-of-r...

>>AYBABT+o
Thats why there's always debate how big a surfers wave was, and then how do you measure from the front or the back?

>>AYBABT+o
Stick a wave-height vertical ruler in front of the camera at a calibrated distance, and read them off ;)

>>wiz21c+(OP)
You can estimate the wave size using the Beaufort scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale

>>christ+w8
Yeah, I would love this camera setup to be upgraded to a stereo pair.