Why do sea waves seem to be standing still when you look from the window of an airplane? Looking from the window of a passenger plane even at moderate altitude such that one can still recognize individual waves and even something like white foam, and small boats close to the cost line, it already looks like the water is not moving. 
To make more clear what i mean, here is an examplein this video at around 10:40. In HD eye resolution it is much more intriguing, but the video shows the idea, that even when the plane is quite low, waves close at the beach appear to be "frozen". 
Why is that? and does that effect have a name?
 A: I imagine this effect has to do with the fact that velocity is relative. When you're on the shore, you gauge the velocity of the waves with respect to the shore. When you're in a plane, you're likely gauging the velocity with respect to the other wave crests, which are moving at the same velocity and so there is no apparent movement.
A: Think of it this way: You are way up in the sky and the distance you see as a centimeter could be meters long since you see objects getting smaller as you go farther away. Assuming that an ordinary water wave travels with a velocity of 3 or 4 m/s at a maximum, it is not hard to imagine that you are seeing them as if they are standing on the ocean. 
Furthermore you get to observe the phenomena for a really short amount of time, which means that the displacement of waves is really small compared to the distance from the plane to the ocean, hence the standing looking waves. I would also add that if you were on a helicopter above the ocean observing waves for a long time, you would definitely see them spreading out since that is actually what happens. 
A: In the video you give at 10:40, where the breaking foam looks set, the explanation is that the foam takes ~5 seconds to cover 10 meters, whereas the plane has traveled a kilometer in those 5 seconds and the foam is no longer  observable from the window. 

The distance and angular resolution from the plane will also play a role in this.
