On the first scenes on the island, Chuck climbs a mountain a has a 360º view of the island.
You can notice that all the waves are concentric to the island. While this is physically not possible, it can be done (i guess) if you film the background with a fish eye lens and you paste on top of it the close up of Chuck with a blue background.
I noticed this too, of course the waves would refract around the island from the direction of the swell.
-(obviously the VFX supervisor is not a surfer!)
The actual shot is a complex mix of 3D & live footage, comping a simple fisheye lens into the
tracking shot of Hanks would have been difficult.
The unnatural behaviour of the waves is of course a plot device, otherwise Tom could have paddled out
to one side & not got dumped!
Actually, ALL of those waves are computer generated. The director and SFX are well aware that this is physically impossible. They go into a rather lengthy discussion of this on the DVD.
Another interesting tidbit of which you may not be aware - When the camera comes around behind Tom Hanks, the pile of rocks near which he is standing was actually quite a bit taller. Also, there are, in real life, a string of small islands beyond it. All of these were digitally erased and replaced with CG waves and sky. The purpose is to show that he is trapped in a desolate place.
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