South Australian Forecast (issued Friday 12th September)

Best Days: Thursday morning on the Mid, Friday morning down South, all weekend down South

Recap

Both coasts offered great waves on Saturday with a medium sized and easing swell under local offshores through the morning and mid-late afternoon sea breezes. Sunday was clean again but smaller and better out at Waits and Parsons on the South Coast with tiny peelers on the Mid with morning offshores before sea breezes kicked in again.

A late kick in W/SW groundswell was seen on the Mid and this has come in at an infrequent 1-2ft today but with poor conditions, while the South Coast saw early light offshores before giving way to an onshore change around 9am.

This week (Sep 16 - 19)

The coming week isn't looking too flash with a mix of different swells and average winds as a couple of surface troughs/fronts push across the state.

Today's long-range and inconsistent W/SW groundswell is due to ease this afternoon and further into tomorrow, with poor onshore winds on the Mid and a possible period of early W'ly winds around Victor ahead of a shift to the W/SW through the morning. Therefore Middleton will be your best bet for an early surf.

A deepening frontal system pushing into the South East of the state and more towards Victoria on Wednesday should bring with it a new short-range S/SW swell mixed in with a very inconsistent long-range W/SW groundswell from the Southern Indian Ocean (peaking to 2ft on the Mid Wednesday).

Unfortunately onshore winds from the SW tending S/SW will create average conditions across both coasts, while Thursday looks better on the Mid at least with an easing 1-2ft of swell and SE tending S/SW winds. The South Coast will offer plenty of size with a peak in S/SW swell to 3-4ft+ across exposed spots but lingering onshore S/SE winds will create average conditions.

The S/SW swell will drop rapidly into Friday leaving small peaky 2ft waves across Middleton and 3ft sets at Waits under morning E/NE winds.

This weekend onwards (Sep 20 onwards)

The weekend looks great for exposed spots on the South Coast and ideal for beginners at Middleton and Goolwa under persistent and fresh N/NE-NE winds as an inconsistent but fun long-range SW groundswell fills in.

This groundswell is expected to be generated by an unfavourably tracking but strong frontal system dipping south-east towards Antarctica from a position south-west of WA.

An inconsistent 2-3ft of swell is due off it for Middleton-Goolwa from midday Saturday with better 3-4ft sets at Waits. The swell should then ease into Sunday from 2ft+ with 3ft+ bombs at Waits and Parsons.

Longer term there's nothing too major into the start of next week but winds will be favourable and offshore until a change moves through Wednesday. We may see a strong long-range W/SW groundswell for Wednesday/Thursday, but we'll look at this more on Wednesday.