pleeeese help!!

l am not an expert at forecasting waves. but, swell height and wave height are pretty much the same thing. The swell is a unbroken wave just rolling through the open ocean. A wave is the swell hitting shallow water and breaking.

The Surfboard Man
http://thesurfboardman.com/

Well, if you look at the buoy information and such, you will get the swell height, because it is a swell. But when the swell reaches the beach and turns into a breaking wave, you really estimate the height of the wave.

Swell is caused by storms or depressions out in the ocean. These weather effects cause swell like throwing a pebble in a pond would cause ripples.
Waves r caused by the action of the wind across the surface of the sea like blowing on a cup of coffee, & also as the previous person states, when a swell reaches shallow water & breaks into a wave.
That is the surfing/sailing answer - a physicist may answer differently!
PS a one metre swell can cause a 3 metre wave depending on the characteristics of the beach/reef.