Has anyone tried this before? is it possible? I just purchased HoudiniFX so I'm very interested to see how far I can go with this.

I think the more noise an audio signal has the more noise could be generated for the white water and this would likely be a trigger from the upper frequency region. Amplitude would likely be used to grow a wave.

In this simulation I'd like to use a real ocean wave audio recording.. I think the audio source position would either have to move in z or x with the water to trigger a wave below it or have a condition that would only apply the noise audio spectrum at the last wave.
The wave can be programmed to move in a desired direction also based on amplitude to get the speed but will end once it finishes breaking up on the shore until it's triggered again by a minimum sound level.



I've seen other VFX tools use Amplitude and frequencies to trigger animations so I'm hopeful Houdini would allow it to happen more realistically and in sync with actual ocean recordings.