From diehard surf dudes to the cocktail-sipping elite of Saint-Tropez at one time we've all stared out at the mirror of the ocean and contemplated its waves, well they are a ubiquitous feature of our shorelines no two waves are ever the same, some curling over perfectly some surging chaotically up the beach to soak your trouser leg. But what are they exactly and where do they come from?

Well, you can learn a lot by simply watching the waves cocktails are optional, 'no cocktails are essential: seeing them lineup ready to break along the shore ocean waves look like organized heaps of water that have traveled from far out at sea to finally, wash up at our feet and when they break pushing up the beach, that certainly seems to be the case but watching the procession of waves little further out tells a different story. Sea birds and message bearing bottles float on the surface of the sea and as a wave passes, we see them rise and fall but they ultimately stay in roughly the same place, that's because it's not the water that's heading for the shore it's the energy within the water.

 As we all know, energy can't just be created out of nowhere, the energy must come from somewhere. You might think that most waves are caused by the Tides but you'd be wrong, sorry', you could say that tides themselves are actually massive waves caused by the moon and the earth spin but that's not what we think of as waves.

Some giant waves are caused by catastrophic underwater earthquakes or weird fluctuations in the atmosphere, but pretty much every wave you'll see in your lifetime was caused by the wind. Even on a still day the way is breaking out on the beach were born far away in a bluster. It all starts with still water, the wind blowing across the surface drag some of the water along with it creating a regular series of lumps that are known as Capillary ripples these are only small and the surface tension of the water itself is enough to flatten them back out again but if the wind keeps on blowing it's now got the lumps and bumps of the Capillary waves to push onto, carrying them along transferring more energy from the air into the water once they get a bit bigger there now called Gravity waves, since now the wave is all about fighting gravity trying to pull the water back to equilibrium rather than the water tension. Out at sea the wind keeps blowing and the waves keep growing until the whole of the surrounding area is known as a Wave sea, which basically looks like a chaotic mess of choppy waves moving in all directions, more wind usually thanks to stormy conditions helps Sea wave reach impressive Heights they can stretch up to 10 (ten) meters from trough to peak in a fully developed sea, once they've got enough energy from the wind waves spread out from the wave scene and begin their long journey across the open ocean as Swells. The size of waves in a Swell depending on how fast the wind was blowing how long it was blowing for and the area over which it was blowing that's known as The fetch and this is where it gets really cool because from what I've described you know I've got waves of all shapes and sizes all traveling across the oceans with different heights and spacings and speeds and it's all thanks to the wonders of physics, that they tend to get bunched up in something called Wave trains, separated by relatively calm water. Within these trains, the positive interaction of different waves can pile the water even higher until they reach astounding Heights. These Rogue waves, as they're known, can seem to come out of nowhere and some have been reported to tower over three stories tall, appearing to sailors like an unexpected wall of water in an apparently calm sea. Neatly organized into their trains waves travel thousands of miles uninterrupted across seas and oceans before they reach their dramatic ends on our beaches and shorelines.

But how and why do they build up and break?

Well remember, it's not the water itself traveling all those miles from the middle of the ocean to the beach, it's the energy within a traveling wave of energy the water it passes actually follows a Circular orbit, first a little backward, then up then a little bit forwards then back down again, this movement tugs on the patch of water in front making it in a circular path and that allows the wave of energy to move forward.

The water beneath the surface is also affected by this movement it's encouraged to go in its own small circles diminishing in size as you go down increasingly deep, and this helps explain how a wave grows as it reaches the shore as it approaches shallower water the circular orbit of the lower waters start to come into contact with the seafloor and friction with that hard ground slows it down. Meanwhile, the water above is less affected by the friction so it keeps going and it's original speed and to get out of the way of the slower water beneath it the only direction that can go is up, this makes the waves grow in height but they're left unsupported as the lower parts drag along the seabed so eventually a wave moving forward will find itself with nothing underneath it at all it collapses into a dramatic breaker. And the type of breaker you get depends on how steep the beach is beneath the waves, shallowly dipping shorelines encourage spilling breakers that collapse in a chaotic sway of the foam. While steeper beaches produce plunging breakers where the water curls over, in those perfect tubes sought out by the surfing pros.

So, waves are really just energy. Energy making water travel in circles and energy being passed from one bit of water to the next and the energy that's carried them so far doesn't just vanish, wave action is responsible for the erosion of cliffs and beaches around the world and it can even be harnessed to turn the relentless up-and-down motion into electricity.

So, the next time you sit contemplating the surf, spare a thought for the long journey that the waves have taken and the fearsome storms that have given them life.

And if waves really float your boat so, share it with your friends, and if there is a Pacific subject that you'd like us to cover.


 let us know in the comments below: