What do you do when you have unfriendly waves?

Sometimes I find myself in a situation where the "unfriendly waves" makes me stuck in between, can't move forward or backward and it totally destroys me if I was stuck in middle of unfriends shooters.

 

You have to take into account the ship you have.
for example. The Enforcer had incredible agility and can backup nearly as fast as it can go forward. So, the waves wont have as much effect on the ship cause it can power through them.
other ships like the shooter and defender are slow to begin with and are even slower in reverse. so if you catch yourself running into a wall and the you have the "unfriendly waves" against you your stuck against the wall. with time you will learn to avoid this type of trap simply by getting use to where all the walls are.

When your in the open sea and your having trouble with the waves it is just something you sacrifice by having a slow ship. turbos help with this a bit. and typically I always find myself riding with the waves (even if that puts me in a worse spot) Rather than trying to back up against a wave in order to avoid a mortar only to sit there like an idiot and invite more cannons. I have found its always better to keep moving around and sacrifice other things in order to accomplish that.
Don't know if this helps at all, but like with anything experience is the best teacher so get out there and soon you will be riding those waves like a dolphin!