On Tuesday Johanne Defay won the Fiji Women's Pro in perfect 4-6ft Cloudbreak and now all attention is focussed on the mens event. However, their waiting period is looking less than ideal as a somewhat rare synoptic setup develops off the Australian East Coast.

The waiting period begins this Sunday the 5th of June and runs through to Friday the 17th, and though there'll be some mid-range waves for the first few days, it appears there'll be a lot of downtime before anything significant moves into Fiji's swell window.

On Saturday - the day before the waiting period - a moderate-sized mid-period S/SW swell is due to fill in, generated by a relatively weak but favourably aligned frontal system pushing up past New Zealand through the western Tasman Sea.

Good 4-5ft+ sets are due, but the swell will ease into Day 1 of the waiting period with waves in the 3-4ft+ range under moderate to fresh E/SE trades.

Some new long-period energy is showing on the charts for Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, but Sunday's increase was generated by a storm in the southern Indian Ocean and isn't expected to offer any real size at all (it'll be very inconsistent in any case). Monday's increase is a bit better, produced by a zonal (west-east) tracking polar front passing under New Zealand today, with infrequent 3ft+ sets due along with weaker E/SE trades.

From here the forecast get dire as a large and persistent blocking pattern is setup across Fiji's prime swell window beginning this weekend and continuing through most of next week.

This synoptic setup is quite rare and hasn't really been seen since 2007. Cloudbreak relies on swells from frontal systems pushing through the Southern Ocean, under Tasmania and either into or across the Tasman Sea.

Currently we're seeing a large blocking high moving into the Tasman Sea, shutting down Fiji's prime swell window from this Sunday onwards. This high will be quite stubborn and also feed moisture into a deepening trough along the Australian East Coast kicking up a large and prolonged east-northeast swell for most of the eastern seaboard.

North-east gales will extend from Fiji all the way down to Tasmania and even into the Southern Ocean, persisting until at least mid-next week before the high finally moves off to the east and across New Zealand.

The upside, or more accurately the downside, is that no decent swell will be generated for Fiji through this period with the possibility of some funky W/SW swell later next week from a return westerly flow on the backside of the developments in the Tasman Sea.

Meanwhile, the Australian East Coast is set to pump at selected spots once the winds swing offshore (read Swellnet's forecast here). Will the temptation of good waves be too strong for CT surfers stuck in a Fijian holding pattern and they make the jump over to the East Coast? Or will we see a slew of trophy photos on Instagram when Parko and co. return from their daily fishing adventures? 

Once the blocking high moves away, which is due to happen late next week, we're likely to see some stronger fronts move through Fiji's swell window, hopefully producing decent waves for late in the waiting period. Will they be big enough for Kelly Slater to realise the potential of his Banana boards? We'll keep you updated.