lovestoned,
it appears the climber wave effect is just 2 wave shapes moving vertically at the same time in opposing horizontal directions.
watch this gif loop closely
I drew 2 scrappy wave shapes in illustrator to illustrate:
tl.to("#wave", 3, {x:-1600, y:-1200, repeat:100, yoyo:true, ease:Linear.easeNone})
.to("#wave2", 3, {x:1600, y:-1200, repeat:100, yoyo:true, ease:Linear.easeNone}, 0)
I think if you take the time to draw better, more consistent waves you can get the same results as climber