Land shots
This is the easiest and less dramatic angle for shooting; make sure you have a long enough lens to fill the frame. Choose and angle high enough to break through the wave's spray, but not too high, you don't want to "flatten " too much the wave height.
Most locations require at least a 600mm. I 've used for years a Nikon 800 mm. f/5.6 and a Nikon TC14B converter, making it a 1120 mm. telephoto lens, and an F4 body.

Manual exposure is a must. For single shooting manual follow focusing will be OK; A smooth and heavy tripod is also mandatory for windy locations and slow shutter speed pannings.

*As of May 2005 all camera gear has been switched to Canon.
The right lens for this type of action is definetely what I've got: Canon EF 600 mm. f/4 IS USM which can be coupled with a Canon Extender EF 1.4X (=840 mm. f/5.6mm.)
Bye bye Nikon! :)

See here some shots taken with this super telephoto at the 2006 Crescent City Classic in New Orleans