This may be a simplified explanation, but the truth is that the formation of sets is pretty random and hard to predict. Once the waves get locked in with each other, they travel as a new train that will have some sections of constructive interference (the large waves of the wave set) and some sections of destructive interference (the lulls between sets).
However, if the crests and troughs of the two waves overlap, the whole thing gets cancelled out due to subtraction and the result is a flat spot in the wave. This is called constructive interference because the crests and troughs have added together. If the troughs coincide the new trough is deeper. If the wave crests coincide, the new crest is bigger. Now, the ocean is pretty big and there’s a lot of different wave trains coming from all sorts of directions that have different wavelengths (distance between wave crests) and as they collide into each other they sort of merge together forming a new wave train. Well, when waves are formed by wind, they tend to gather together in posses called wave trains that start moving together. Sometimes it’s 5 minutes, sometimes it’s 25. Not only does the number and height of waves in each set vary, so does the length of time between sets. What are wave sets?Ī wave set is a group of three to ten large waves that seemingly appears out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly. So the idea that every 7 th wave is a big wave isn’t true, but like many old sayings, there is definitely an element of truth to it and that element is called a wave set. I used to test the ‘every seventh wave the biggest wave’ theory by counting waves while lying on my lilo and just as I was beginning to realize I’d been duped again in another Santa Claus-like scam, a bunch of big waves would appear out of nowhere and completely swamp me. They would tell me about collapsing sand bars and the undertow that would suck me under and a whole bunch of other things that were totally incorrect, but the thing that intrigued me the most was that apparently “every seventh wave was a big wave’. As a kid growing up in the Great White North (Canada), I learned everything about the ocean from my parents during our annual vacation to Cape Cod on the east coast of the US.
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