How wind-generated waves are formed and how they grow, first linearly and then exponentially. The process involves both positive and negative feedback.
Most surfers spend a great deal of their lives waiting, watching and trying to predict when and where good surfing waves will appear. Behind every wave is a long and complicated journey, from the spawning of the first waves in a storm, to the propagation of those waves across the ocean, to their arrival on the coast and their final transformation into something surfers can ride (Figure 1). The size and quality of those waves depends on the conditions under which they were generated in the first place. If you are a surfer, or even if you just like sitting and watching the waves, I am sure you will have wondered how they came into being, perhaps thousands of kilometres from where you are sitting.
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