Eastern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Guy Dixon (issued Wednesday 11th May)

Best Days: Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.

Recap:

East/northeasterly trade swell faded from the 2-3ft range on Tuesday, with good quality as breezes swung from west/northwesterly to west/southwesterly. Today, a lot of the energy has dissipated, with only 1ft or so breaking at the most exposed locations. Conditions remain clean under a westerly breeze.

This week (Thursday 12th - Friday 13th):

The long wave trough is steadily becoming more active over the region and frontal activity is becoming frequent as a result. Unfortunately, the storm track of each front is not ideal for the eastern shores of Tasmania, due to their zonal nature.

The main swell generating fetches of each front look to move locally with westerly alignment. As a result, swell generation looks limited, with the exception of southwesterly trailing fetches off the back of the initial system which moved through last night.

The fetches following last night's system are still on track to provide options in the 3-4ft range to exposed south facing beaches this afternoon, with weaker, more distant southerly fetches slowing the easing trend throughout Thursday, easing from the 2-3ft range.

By the end of the week, the surf should become small, without much decent energy expected from the following fronts.

Conditions are likely to remain clean for the remainder of the week with west/northwesterly breezes persisting

This weekend (Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th):    

A small, but intense low looks to move eastward across the swell window late on Friday, and despite the poor storm track, core winds of up to 55kts should provide sets in the 1-2ft range at exposed south swell magnets on Saturday, becoming small on Sunday.

Clean conditions are set to continue under a persistent northwesterly airflow.

Next week (Monday 16th onward):

Regular fronts look to remain zonal in nature, putting a lid on swell potential. The east coast will have to rely on hints of background energy, with any surfable size remaining negligible.