Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Thursday 7th May)

Best Days: Coming days as the swell eases, exposed breaks early from Sunday

This week and weekend (May 8 - 10)

Yesterday's large S/SW groundswell was still large this morning but it's on a slow downwards trend which is expected to continue through tomorrow and into Saturday. Exposed breaks should still offer 6ft+ sets tomorrow morning, further down from 4-5ft Saturday morning.

Stronger E/SE trades are due tomorrow with periods of variable winds during the morning, favouring the protected reefs across the region.

Into Sunday a very inconsistent S/SW groundswell is expected to fill in, generated south-southwest of WA on the edge of our far southern swell window.

This will favour exposed breaks but the trades will be an issue. These exposed spots should come in at 3ft to occasionally 4ft from midday into the afternoon with smaller waves on the protected reefs, easing from a similar size Monday morning.

Next week onwards (May 11 onwards)

Unfortunately there's nothing major on the cards for next week besides very inconsistent and small levels of background SW groundswell.

This small swell along with moderate to fresh E/SE trades (stronger late week) isn't a good combo.

The best pulse of swell is due Thursday, generated in our far south-western swell window to the south of Madagascar.

This should produce a very infrequent 4-5ft+ wave across exposed breaks before easing through Friday.

Longer term there's some better swell activity due into Sunday week, with a strong but distant polar low due to fire up south-east of South Africa, generating an inconsistent but good SW groundswell for Sunday and Monday.

Exposed breaks should kick to a very inconsistent 6ft+ Sunday afternoon before easing slowly from a similar size early Monday. We'll have a closer look at this on Tuesday though.

16 day Bali Forecast Graph
16 day East Java Forecast Graph
16 day Sumbawa Forecast Graph