South Australian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday March 8th)

Best Days: Tomorrow morning both coasts, Friday and Saturday mornings South Coast, Monday morning South Coast

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Moderate sized + reinforcing S'ly swell for later morning tomorrow, easing Fri and further Sat
• Light W/NW winds down South, S/SE on the Mid ahead of sea breezes (freshest down South)
• Light N/NE tending fresh S/SE winds Fri
• Small, slowly easing S/SW swell Sat with NE winds, tending S/SE late AM and then fresher S/SW later PM
• Mod-fresh S/SW winds Sun
• Small, mid-period S swell later Sun, peaking Mon AM with E/NE tending SE winds
• Small, inconsistent W/SW swell Thu/Fri

Recap

Windy but clean waves in protected spots yesterday with 3-4ft of swell, choppy and to 2ft on the Mid Coast before kicking more to 2-3ft through the afternoon with strengthening onshore winds.

Today we've got a bigger pulse of S/SW swell along with cross-onshore winds, coming in at 4-5ft+ with choppy 2ft waves on the Mid Coast.

This week and weekend (Mar 9 - 12)

The coming days should provide better surf across both regions with easing local winds and plenty of swell, especially for the South Coast.

Today's mid-period S/SW swell energy is due to peak this afternoon, but a reinforcing pulse of slightly more south swell is due to arrive later morning. This is being generated by a fetch of strong to gale-force S/SW-SW winds just west of Tasmania today, and should maintain 4-5ft surf across Middleton, with the Mid Coast coming in at 1-2ft.

Winds will be much better and light S/SE early on the Mid, W/NW down South, giving into weak sea breezes in the gulf, fresher S/SW down South.

The swell will start easing from Friday but should still come in 3ft to nearly 4ft at dawn down South, not getting much below 3ft through the afternoon while the Mid Coast will become tiny.

Winds look favourable for both coasts again, E/NE on the Mid and N/NE down South before S/SE sea breezes kick in.

Now, into the weekend and early next week, small levels of reinforcing mid-period S/SW swell are due thanks to the slow moving Southern Ocean gyre linked to the current wind and swell, continuing to generate weak fetches of SW winds, to the south-west of Tasmania from tomorrow through until Saturday evening.

Saturday looks to ease very slowly from an inconsistent 2ft to occasionally 3ft off Middleton, while Sunday and Monday morning should persist in the 2ft+ range. The Mid will be flat.

Local winds will be best Saturday morning with a light NE offshore, giving into sea breezes late morning, while a trough will shift winds more S/SW into the late afternoon/evening.

Sunday will be average with lingering, moderate to fresh S/SW winds, improving slightly Monday morning as winds tip back to the E/NE.

Longer term there's nothing too major for the South Coast but a distant, slow moving low in the southern Indian Ocean on Friday and the weekend should generate some small new W/SW swell later week. It'll be inconsistent and small, but swell from this system is due to arrive later Wednesday and provide inconsistent 1-1.5ft surf through Thursday and Friday. More on this next update.