You might remember the meaning of the character 涛 with this easy mnemonic:
That may seem like a big wave, but you'll only feel a few droplets (氵) of water, maybe one or two, on your face. See this line (丨) here? The wave will only come up an inch (寸) past this line.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.