Eastern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday May 4th)

Best Days: Tomorrow morning southern corners, northern corners Friday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Small, inconsistent E/NE trade-swell easing tomorrow with strengthening SW tending S winds
• Quick spike in S/SE swell Fri with E/NE (possibly W) tending strong N winds
• Small N windswell for Fri PM
• Tiny fading surf Sat with gusty W/NW tending W/SW winds

Recap

A small, though fun mix of N/NE windswell and inconsistent E/NE trade swell today with improving conditions across the open beaches as a broad low pushes across the state.

This week and next (May 5 - 13)

Our current, inconsistent E/NE trade-swell will ease into tomorrow with lingering 2ft sets on the swell magnets, fading into the afternoon and further over the weekend as the swell source (persistent easterly winds north of New Zealand) continues to retreat away from our swell window.

Winds will strengthen from the SW tending S tomorrow as the low sitting across us strengthens, favouring southern corners, while come Thursday evening, stronger SE winds are due to develop off the south-east of the state, generating a short-lived and tricky pulse of mid-period S/SE swell for Friday before the low slips back to the west, cutting off the swell source.

The southern half of the state will see the most size, smaller to the north but at the half way mark we should see 3ft sets along with varying winds.

Dawn looks onshore from the E/NE, shifting around to the N/NW through the morning but becoming strong and tricky. Depending on where the centre of the low sits we may see W'ly winds early so keep an eye on the local wind stations. The afternoon N'ly will also likely kick up an acute N’ly windswell but northern corners will be the pick to make the most of the S/SE swell.

The low is expected to start moving east into the weekend with a fading mix of tiny swells with freshening offshore winds.

On the backside of the low winds look weak with no major size due out of the south, but we’ll confirm this on Friday. Longer term we could be seeing a small N/NE windswell event later next week, but until then it looks tiny. Check back Friday.