Seasons.
There are seasons you can aim for to increase your chance of scoring better surf, but it's all really luck of the draw.
Also it depends where you want to surf in each state.
Ie' if you want to surf Bells or the reefs around the Surf Coast then you would aim for winter, but if you wanted to surf the beachies and other reefs which face south-west then you would aim for Autumn or Spring, when the westerly storm track is sitting further south and will give you a chance for more favourable winds.
South West WA can be plagued by onshores when fronts push through in Winter, but if you go further to the north you still get the strong swells but with good winds. Summer can be a pain up to the north in WA, but the south west can crank.
So from just those couple of examples you can see it all varies, but if I had a choice I would aim for these seasons..
WA Autumn, Winter,
SA Autumn, Spring
VIC Winter
NSW Autumn
QLD Autumn
TAS Any time of year due to the accessibility to all parts of the coast.
But this is just my opinion, anyone else want to put in their 2 cents??
Depends on the ENSO cycle but in a Nina year I'd say:
QLD : Summer into early Autumn.
For NSW: from Sydney north : Autumn into early Spring
from Sydney South: Winter
Yep agree Steve, forgot to add Summer to QLD :s
sweet as guys sounds good, maybe more people know something?
I'm on the Sunny Coast and would have to totally agree with Steve as far as the most consistant seasons for swell.
But if it's crowds you're worried about then Winter is the best time here, like most places there's more learners in the water over the summer months (not that it really gets that crowed up here anyway). But given that we miss nearly every south swell, late winter / early spring can be a bit hit and miss.
You commented on the run of "small" swell we've been having lately. While it might not have been massive, it was really good quality and with all day offshores I've been scoring 2 or 3 surfs a day. The beachies have been pumping out some great little bazzas. Looking at most of the recent photos on the Swellnet home page I would say we have been getting more (at least a foot or 2 more) of the east swell here compared to the Goldy. But now the south easters have come in and spoiled the party, well at least it was fun while it lasted.. :)
But now the south easters have come in and spoiled the party, well at least it was fun while it lasted.. :)
By: "pete_79"
Tomorrow Pete!!!
So a question a lot of surfers are always wondering, I'm sure, is best seasons to surf, thus when to save up days off work and plan "family trips" etc.
As far as I am aware, winter is the best, being a narrow minded east coast and vicco surfer from what I've seen the bigger swells and better winds tend to come then, especially during the earlier parts of winter. Is this a correct assumption? What about for QLD? Are these school holidays a good time for all the Sydney groms to head up to the gold coast and crowd the @$#* out of D'Bah? Or is the recent run of small swell there and on the sunny coast a good indication of things to come?
Basically, whats the best season for surf in wherever you live, what are some of the differences between the seasons etc - good info to have for everybody and useful up on this forum.