In this paper time series wave data are simulated using wave spectrum with random phases of the wave signal. The simulated wave signals are used to study the effect of the sampling rate on the ocean wave characteristics. Effect of sampling rate on wave data which include extreme wave such as freak waves are examined and various wave characteristics including abnormality index (AI), kurtosis of wave profile and maximum wave height are examined. Various wave heights are decreased as the sampling rate decreases. The zero-th moment of the wave spectrum does not affect much on the sampling rate but the second moment are greately affected on the sampling rate. The error due to the sampling rate is decreases as the wave period increases. The error in significant wave height based on the wave spectrum $H_s$ is smaller than that on the time domain method $H_{1/3}$. AI index and kurtosis of wave profile do not deviate much from the exact date as long as the sampling rate is greater than 1 Hz. Ocean wave measurement with the sampling frequency higher than 1 Hz will result the error less than 5% in estimating the height of extreme waves.