There's some confusion about measuring waves. Scientists measure wave height like circuit geeks measure signal amplitude - peak minus no wave level. Reporters, surfers, and normal people look and a wave and think of the height as being from the top to the bottom -- makes sense but that can turn a '29-metre' wave into a '58-metre' wave.
It would have been good of them to clarify what they meant.
"Reporters, surfers, and normal people look and a wave and think of the height as being from the top to the bottom -- makes sense but that can turn a '29-metre' wave into a '58-metre' wave."
Missleading at it's best!
I brought nback a 38' sailboat from the Istmus of Catalina to San Pedro in a whole gale that had been blowing for 3 days and the trough to peak of the waves was 50-70' which in a storm isn't that unusual in the Catalina channel.
It was a pretty exciting trip, the 25 miles was covered in an hour and 46 minutes, almost power boat speed.