South Australian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday January 23rd)

Best Days: Wednesday morning South Coast, later Thursday and Friday morning for the keen on the Mid Coast, South Coast Friday morning and Saturday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Fading surf Tue with mod-fresh S/SE winds
• Inconsistent W/SW groundswell building Wed with variable offshore winds ahead of a S/SE sea breeze late AM ahead of a S/SW change into the PM
• Moderate sized mid-period SW swell building Thu PM, easing Fri
• Fresh S/SE winds on Thu, E/NE-NE tending S/SE winds on Fri
• Easing surf Sat with fresh N/NW winds
• Building W/SW swell Sun with gusty W/SW-SW winds
• Easing surf Mon with SE winds

Recap

A poor weekend of surf with flat conditions on the Mid Coast and onshore winds down South along with no real quality swell.

This morning winds are lighter across the South Coast with an easing S/SE windswell from 2-3ft but it's only for the keen with lots of residual bump and lump.

This week and weekend (Jan 24 - 29)

Tomorrow will remain a lay day with S/SE winds and a further drop in size from today across the South Coast, while into Wednesday we'll see an inconsistent W/SW groundswell building, generated in our far swell window late last week and into the start of the weekend.

A distant fetch of W/SW gales around the Heard Island region has generated this swell and there's a window of early light winds and clean conditions due Wednesday morning ahead of a trough and increasing S/SE tending S/SW winds from late morning.

The swell will be building and inconsistent but should be 2ft in the morning across Middleton with more size on the magnets. The Mid Coast isn't due to see any size from this source, and a peak in energy is due through the afternoon with 2-3ft sets across Middleton but with the onshore wind.

The groundswell will ease through Thursday, but we should see some new mid-period SW swell energy building into the afternoon, then easing slowly on Friday.

The source is a weak fetch of W/SW winds projecting north-east towards us should produce a 3ft wave across Middleton Thursday afternoon and Friday morning but with S/SE winds on the former, improving Friday morning and shifting E/NE-NE.

This is the pick of the week besides heading out Wednesday morning, with Saturday being also clean with a fresh N/NW offshore wind but smaller, easing 2ft sets. The Mid Coast should offer tiny 1-1.5ft waves for the keen later Thursday and Friday morning.

Another trough will bring a W/SW-SW change into Sunday kicking up some weak windswell the Mid Coast to 1-2ft, fading into Monday while cleaning up.

Longer term there's plenty more mid-period energy due into next week with what looks to be SE winds, but we'll have a closer look at this on Wednesday.