Spring!!!

Yeah, we've spoilt the last few months. This spring season's gonna hurt even harder I reckon.

This is always the best time of year to head OS I reckon.

Still good in Indo/South Pac and shite here.

Come home with a solid deposit in the stoke bank.

Guess you lads are from the East coast cause down here in SA it's been pumping with at least 1 or 2 good days every week. Loving Spring!

Yeah, quite often it's either one or the other. SA/Vic pump and it's terrible on the East Coast, or the East Coast is off the hook and the waves are non-existant in the southern states. Make the most of it while it lasts!

Thanks Maddog, seeya there.
I'll tell 'em you sent me.

No worries freeride76 - SA is pretty small and all the surf spots are real close together. Your first point of call has to be the Mid Coast followed by the South Coast. Don't bother looking any further - nothing to find.

Oh and freeride76 - you should have been here yesterday, last week and the week before...it was pumping

Yeah I heard the Hump was cranking with sparkling shoulder high lefts reeling down the line all the way to under the jetty! Magic..

Geez a bloke can't even say he's been getting a few nice waves at home these days without the crowd police and the ex-pat cynic having a go. Alright it's been crap here just like the East coast.....happy now?

Too many sharks there for me.

Just yanking your chain.

Yeah, that was tongue and cheek as well Maddog.

I'm back over in a few weeks and cannot wait to head out into the dry, harsh landscape that is the SA surfing experience.

And our run of swell has dried up, so the last few weeks over there have looked amazing from our point of view!

anything on the horizon for the goldy in the next couple of weeks?

dannggggg hha

there should finally be something rideable by next weekend!

Are you talking about a low possibly forming off the north east coast DonW?

Doesn't look like it will be either strong or long lasting on the charts I'm checking, but it does look better than nothing.

What do you think at this stage.

Steve?

Not much.

Weak little surface trough thingy.....moves away quick.

To far south for us.

Bit of tiny background tradewind swell if we're lucky...

Looks a little better on the latest runs.

Depends where it forms. But, yeah, best of a bad bunch, although yesterday saw some pretty fun waves at S facing beaches here.

that ecl is looking pretty dynamic now. Models keep intensifying it more and keep it in the Tasman longer. Should be some nice 3fter's by Tuesday.

oh yeah, GO THE WARRIORS!!

The sand banks should be pretty full from the recent lack of swell. Swell should be quite peaky too which should help things.

the crowdy head wave buoy looks pretty impressive

Moving beyond this swell, as Don likes to do ;) It looks like we may see another broader Tasman Low forming during the weekend as a surface trough sliding up the southern NSW coast on Saturday feeds off a pool of cold air in the upper atmosphere.

Will keep a close eye on how this one pans out for those heading away for the long weekend.

Back to back swells in Spring.
Fella could get used to that.
Sure was a paddle battle this morning though.

Craig, your extended report refers to a southerly groundswell to hit tomorrow morning (Thursday am) but I'll be damned if I can see it, unless it is coming from that low that is so far south of us it is off my charts, literally.

Is that the source of tomorrow's expected south ground swell?

As for the charts generally, I'm inclined to be a little concerned. I was expecting wind outside, but it's quiet as a mouse out there right now.

Just wondering if things have moved around a lot with each run? Also, according to the charts the wind will have a lot of west in it from daybreak tomorrow, but your forecast suggests a midday change of direction to w/nw from n/nw.

Up the central coast this week and next and I have to say the banks up here look pretty stuffed at the moment. Some of the fattest waves I have ever seen.

Hi batfink.

The southerly swell was generated by a deep and powerful polar low to the south of Tasmania, close to the Antarctic Shelf over the last couple of days.

Here's the MSLP map of the low (Australia to the right), and also the ASCAT satellite wind observations during the main swell production of the low.

If you have a look at out SNSW charts, you can see the strong 18 second period pushing north and filling in overnight tonight..
http://www.swellnet.com.au/weather/snsw/charts

Even the keenest of weather watchers would of missed this swell if they hadn't had their eyes on the Southern Ocean charts.

Now this swell is coming up from the south, and it was expected to peak in the South Arm Tasmania this morning. I had forecast 3-4ft, and reports came in at 3-5ft, so it did a little better than expected.

The South Arm is a good proxy for south swells across Sydney coming from polar latitudes, and if you look at the Eden and Bateman's Bay observations you can see the leading edge of the swell has already arrived..

The leading edge of this swell should reach Sydney during the middle of the night, with the peak occurring around dawn. So at this stage everything is on track for an inconsistent 3-4ft south swell as south facing beaches.

Now I have also noticed the lack of strong winds across the Sydney region, but the largest of the NE swell is expected to be generated tomorrow morning, just before the front moves offshore, with a fetch of NE gales being produced east of our coast and all the way up to Seal Rocks.

I have forecast 3-4ft waves at north-east facing beaches, and Manly is the main beach I'm talking about, but Maroubra should also see this size during the morning, with smaller 3ft peaks across other east facing locations.

Now regarding local winds tomorrow, all the charts I'm looking at show a moderate and possibly fresh N'ly tomorrow morning, that may even go N/NE around 7-8am before swinging N/NW around 10am then W/NW at about 12-1pm.

So I'm confident in tomorrow's forecast, and if you can work around these figures you should be able to score ;)

And the leading edge has just been picked up by the Sydney buoy..
www.mhl.nsw.gov.au/htbin/wave_data_plot.com?Location=Sydney

the mornings have been horrible up here... Fat and wobbly, the high tide screwed everything. Hopefully next weeks low is a little gruntier!

Cheers Don, I'm a little disappointed that Batfink hasn't got back to me after all the effort I put in, haha ;)

Cheers Don, here's the results :o

When the offshore wind opens the window of opportunity

NE swell was way more prominent, and looks like winds off the coast were in the 35-45kt range so it wasn't windswelly at all, strong lines of straight NE swell, on an east facing beach :)

Looked awesome Craig.
I hunted up down and sideways on the promise of a late wind shift ...alas it never came and the combination of SE/ESE swell from a retreating Tasman low and NE windswell never came together.

Thankfully today was a very different story.

Amazed again, that in school hols it was so easy to find uncrowded quality surf.

In fact totally unattended.

@freeride. I heard through the vine there were some really nice waves this morning at certain spots. Nicely groomed sandbars etc...wtf?

Cheers Craig.

I'm up the central coast at the moment, and rarely bother with Maroubra these days.

Surfed south facing beach on Thursday for about 2 hours. Had checked it earlier as well.

East nor east swell was definitely there but it was wonky and peaky, nothing like the photos you put up. Any lines weren't very long, more peaky, and not from an interaction with a south swell.

No south swell at all, not one wave, this was mid morning, and as mentioned on a south facing beach.

I didn't have to wait for the change in the wind, it was offshore with the nor/nor wester.

Pleased to say that as I'm on holidays I'm not checking the internet that much, except for the swell forecast and wind direction.

Banks up here are rooted for the nor east direction. No beach here handled it well IMHO.

On the other hand this morning (Saturday) south swell found some good banks before high tide. Had a very enjoyable surf. Looking forward to more to come. One beach away from the main beach and was sharing it with a couple of blokes. The popular beach was like Bondi on a bad day.

I had been checking out the beach this morning and clearly a 3'+ swell coming in to the south facing beach.

Get back home and put the board in the car, driving down there hear the radio report a 1-2 ft swell.

Check out the beach I am hitting and it's 3'+.

You can't complain too much about surf forecasting sites making it all too easy when the radio reports aren't even able to get it right.

nice dip forecast for a few runs around fiji with that intense high sliding underneath.

also, that cold pool in the tasman sits quite high and stays there for a few days. I cant really see this low sliding down towards the lower north island at this point.

I reckon we will see another low form up near ne nsw monday.