A parametric shallow-water spectral wave modeling technique is developed and is tested against extensive field measurements of wave height, period and spectral shape. The wave model considers wave growth and finite water depth mechanisms such as spectral wave shoaling, wave-bottom interactions, wave-wave interactions and wave breaking. The key to this approach is that the resulting wave conditions are provided by transformation mechanisms rather than transforming spectral components during wave propagation. Thus long-term wave hindcasts can be performed economically without the loss in accuracy.