South Australian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday December 24th)

Best Days: Wednesday and Thursday mornings for desperate surfers

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Poor weekend with mod-fresh S/SE winds tomorrow, stronger from the S/SE Sun with a building S/SE windswell
• Moderate sized S/SW groundswell building Sun PM, easing Mon with gusty SE tending strong S/SE winds
• Easing S/SW and S/SE windswell Tue with fresh SE tending S/SE winds
• Fading S/SE windswell Wed with variable winds
• Small, mid-period S/SW swell Thu with N/NE tending SE winds

Recap

Wednesday's pulse of swell dropped back to a tiny though fun 1-1.5ft on the Mid Coast yesterday with conditions remaining clean most of the day. Today is' back to a tiny 1ft but still surfable on the right equipment.

The South Coast was bumpy and average yesterday morning with plenty of size still in the mix, cleaner and improving today with a light offshore wind and peaky mix of swells easing from the 3ft range. Make the most of this morning's clean conditions as we'll see poor conditions developing from this afternoon (the change has just hit), persisting until Wednesday next week.

This weekend and next week (Dec 25 – 31)

Unfortunately the coming weekend is looking poor for surf with our current swell due to bottom out tomorrow along with moderate to fresh S/SE winds in the wake of a trough that's just moved through (bringing a S'ly change). The Mid will be clean but tiny to flat.

Winds will strengthen into Sunday from the S/SE as a strong high pushes in against a surface trough deepening along the East Coast. This will kick up some weak S/SE windswell but we've got an upgrade in the S/SW swell energy due into the afternoon and Monday.

This will now be a moderate sized S/SW groundswell, with the frontal progression that's currently developing south-west of Tasmania being stronger than forecast Wednesday. The frontal progression is now forecast to generate a healthy, prolonged fetch of W/SW gales, with a moderate sized S/SW groundswell due to push up and into us on Sunday, kicking strongly through the afternoon.

We should see sets building to 3-4ft before dark down South but with that poor, strong S/SE breeze, easing from 3ft+ on Monday but with strong SE winds, shifting S/SE through the day.

The Mid Coast won't see any of this swell with it being too south and blocked by Kangaroo Island.

Winds will unfortunately remain poor and fresh from the SE on Tuesday morning, shifting S/SE through the day along with a mix of easing S/SE windswell and S/SW swell.

Wednesday morning looks to offer a window of variable winds and cleaner conditions down South as a small trough moves in and across us but swell wise it'll be at a low point and back to 2ft+ out of the S/SE and easing windswell.

Our small pulse of S/SW swell for later in the day and Thursday has been downgraded unfortunately with the polar low linked to it being weaker than forecast on Wednesday. It looks like all the energy has gone to the frontal progression ahead of it. Instead an inconsistent 2ft wave may be seen across Middleton Thursday morning with a N/NE offshore, but keep your expectations low.

Longer term we're on track for some new W/SW swell following next weekend but more on this Monday. Have a great Christmas!