atmospherics and tides

[jetcode]

I was at the beach the other and noticed that as soon as the sun tucked behind a cloud the waves would start getting big, when sun came back out the waves would get smaller

makes it a bit tricky getting a well lit image of large waves (west coast CA waves)
anyone understand this dynamic?

[Jon Shiu]

Could just be a coincedence, the big waves come periodically in "sets".

Jon

[Scott Knowles]

What were the winds before, during and after the sun went behind the clouds?

[Dave Aharonian]

I'm pretty sure this is a coincidence. I've spent a fair bit of time on the water and this is a phenomena that I've never seen or observed.

[Dick Hilker]

Here on the East Coast, the waves also come in sets but their height and frequency are most often the result of weather and winds far offshore. Inasmuch as their configuration is changed as they move into shallower water, they do change in response to the tides which have a range of about 11 feet in the Boston area. When the tide's low, they tend to start breaking much farther offshore. In this area, shallow water tends to extend quite far offshore, but on the West coast I believe the drop-off is quite abrupt, so perhaps tidal changes aren't as much of a factor.

[Eric James]

This is a Catch-22 of landscape photography: the wind dies down after sunset, sometime after the light is gone. In your example Joe, I agree with the others - that was Murphy at work.

[jetcode]

I'm not yet convinced this was a coincidence

[Alan Davenport]

I'm not yet convinced this was a coincidence

That's almost a given with anything that we note as "coincidence." If it wasn't a remarkable conjunction of events, nobody would notice.