what are the main factors contributing to the formation of waves( not Tsunamis)
Wind or pressure systems or other factors?

Hi chef2005,

Thank you for an interesting question.


EnchantedLearning.com ALL ABOUT OCEANS AND SEAS
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/ocean/Waves.shtml

What Causes Waves?

"The winds cause waves on the surface of the ocean (and on lakes). The
wind transfers some of its energy to the water, through friction
between the air molecules and the water molecules. Stronger winds
(like storm surges) cause larger waves. You can make your own
miniature waves by blowing across the surface of a pan of water.
 
Waves of water do not move horizontally, they only move up and down (a
wave does not represent a flow of water). You can see a demonstration
of this by watching a floating buoy bob up and down with a wave; it
does not, however, move horizontally with the wave."

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Homeschooling Science Fun - Ocean Waves - Let?s Study Waves 
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/homeschooling_science_fun/74467

"Waves are formed in three ways: gravity, wind and earthquakes.
Gravity is responsible for the high and low tides. High tide is when
the water is the deepest and low tide is when the water is most
shallow. The rise and fall of the water level causes waves to form.

The second cause of waves is wind. The wind can be light and only
cause small waves. These waves can be as tiny as ripples in the water.
Young children can practice making waves by blowing on a bowl full of
water.

Wind can also cause very large waves that make being in the water very
dangerous. Even large ships don?t want to be caught in a storm with
huge waves.

The type of wave wind causes depends on how hard the wind is blowing,
how long the wind blows and how much ocean the wind blows over.

Lastly, waves can be caused by earthquakes. Earthquakes are the result
of two of the earth?s plates rubbing together. Just as we stumble or
fall during an earthquake, water also reacts to the power force. The
earthquake pushes the water away from the epicenter of the quake and
can cause some pretty large waves."

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The Anatomy of a Wave  (see diagram)
http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/Educate/Neptune/quest/wavetide/anatomy.htm

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Best regards,
tlspiegel

Assuming you mean the kind of waves that people surf on, and that make
you seasick, the answer is wind.  But there are much longer wavelength
waves caused by other things.  The tide is actually a wave which
propogates around ocean basins, and it is caused by the gravitational
attraction of the moon and sun.

Check out http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/waves.htm for a pretty
good discussion of the basic physics of ocean waves (including
tsunamis).