The huge waves surfers ride are a breathtaking sight. Vast tunnels, wide enough for a skilled surfer to path through, are among the most dramatic images in sport photography. Yet there is another scale of waves – the smallest ones. You do not need a surfboard or a bathing suit to reach them. You simply take off your shoes and step a few meters in to the sea, and there they are, tunnels and all.

These waves rise just one or two dozens of centimeters heigh, sometimes no higher than the palm of your hand. Their resemblance to their giant relatives suggests that the same physical laws shape them both. But without a surfer for scale, their true size it difficult to grasp. Only scattered droplets and solitary bubbles standing in for foam reveal how small they really are.