Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Tuesday 15th September)

Best Days: Wednesday, Thursday morning, Friday morning, Sunday, late Monday, Tuesday onwards

This week and next week (Sep 16 - 25)

A good fun SW groundswell built later Saturday and offered great waves Sunday before easing back a touch into yesterday morning. Later in the day though the fore-runners of the new large S/SW groundswell were seen across the region and this is peaking early this morning to 8ft to occasionally 10ft across exposed breaks.

This swell will be a pulsey and short-lived one, with it due to drop steadily through this afternoon and further through tomorrow from 6ft to possibly 8ft at dawn, bottoming out Thursday.

Into Friday morning a moderate sized kick in S/SW swell is due but only to an infrequent 5-6ft across exposed breaks, easing through the day and further Saturday, with a very very inconsistent long-range SW groundswell due into Sunday.

This swell, flagged last week was generated in our far swell window below South Africa and as a result the wait between set waves will be really long, in the 10-15 minute range. The strength of the storm was quite substantial and we should see sets in the 6ft to possibly 8ft range when the swell moves through (peaking through the middle of the day/afternoon).

Of much greater importance is another large and powerful S/SW groundswell for later Monday/Tuesday next week, as has been the pattern the last three weeks.

This will be generated by a very strong polar frontal progression firing up towards Western Australia later this week and into the weekend, producing a fetch of severe-gale to storm-force winds while moving north-east towards South West WA.

A large, long-period S/SW groundswell will result, showing late in the day Monday and peaking Tuesday to a large 10ft to occasionally 12ft across exposed breaks.

The swell is then due to tail off gradually all week, with a smaller reinforcing S/SW pulse for Thursday/Friday, but we'll have another look at this on Thursday.

Looking at the winds over the coming period, and weak trades today should freshen again from tomorrow before weakening from Sunday and into the middle of next week. Early each morning we should see variable breezes, lasting longer on the days with the weaker trades.

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