S of F, as for other locations I can't comment but for the sierra generated orimary wave, yes your assumptions hold true. As a starving college student who wanted to fly wave as much as possible, I could not affort high tows into the wave so on numerous occasions I would "thermal" the "upwind" rising side of rotor to work my wave into wave. After succeeding a few times I got pretty good at working rotor into wave in the minden nv system.

It always made for an incredably rough ride. The rising portion of the rotor was very small and there were many times what I gained in the few moments of lift, was cancelled out by associated sink. I can remember one time working for more than an hour barely gaining on each gust untill I finaly worked high enough to contact laminar flow. But a poor boy will always find a way. I hope this helps.
Dan