If you have to drive a boat in rough water, be sure you have enough horse power to keep the nose up.

Buy a champion

Don't listen to people telling you what brand of boat is in their driveway, and go out and learn yourself. You're going to take a few over the bow when you're first learning but it'll get easier. Don't get in a huge hurry is the best written advice anybody could give you.

I use nose up and motor trimmed all the way down and go slow..

Don't be afraid to wait it out.

Get on top of them and go.... Half trim, 40-45mph works best for me in real rough stuff.

The hard one is going across the lake with the waves coming at you perpendicular.

don't get impatient and try to go around a cabin cruiser... You may spear their wake... I may or may not have recent experience!

Worst comes to worst when it's really bad 5 footers + Idle across and drink Heineken's. I've done this a few times before...

that works for 2-3 footers, but not 4-5 footers IMHO.

YEsssssss. Could not agree more, unless you have a larger deep V craft. I got caught on Eagle Mountain just the other day. Winds came up and my shallow Stratos, was really yawing and pitching in the 'rollers'. I tried everything from cutting speed, heading into the wind/waves, speeding up, etc. Glad to get out of there.
It is not fun to get caught when the waves really get to white capping!
r/
Fred

Good advice but, best I read so far: Don't go out in rough water conditions!

Seems like trimming just under half trim and running around 35 mph is the best for my 19 ft boat with a 200hp when things get real nasty.

Avoid going straight into or straight with waves. Go diagonally at, or with them if you can. You can actually have a pretty smooth ride and cover some ground quickly if you get to run in the troughs (parallel to the direction the waves are going).

The trick with keeping the nose up is not letting the nose "hop" so much. You have to have some down trim to keep it from jumping. The rest is throttle control which is nearly impossible to explain in text. You just have to experiment or take a ride with someone that knows what they're doing.

Certain boats are easier than others, but driver input is the most important factor.

Trim down and SLOW down. Take your time. Nothing is more important than you making it back to the ramp safely.

I am no rough water expert but one thing that I like to do is watch the waves crest. I like to be to the right or left of the crest of the wave when going into or down wind of them. If you watch waves they will come in sets. I usually zig and zag into or diagonally watching the oncoming sets trying not to hit the top crest of the waves. You bust one of those and your kidneys will hurt for a while.