South Australian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday March 15th)

Best Days: Today, tomorrow down South, Friday morning down South, Saturday down South, Tuesday morning South Coast

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Building W/SW and SW groundswells Wed, holding Thu AM
• Local offshore winds Wed AM ahead of weak sea breezes
• Freshening W/NW winds tomorrow
• Easing surf Fri with light local offshore winds ahead of sea breezes
• Fun background SW swell Sat with gusty but easing N/NW tending W/NW winds, then SW later
• Building mid-period SW swell Sun, peaking Mon with gusty S/SE-S winds Sun, strong E/SE tending SE Mon
• Easing swell Tue with N/NE tending SE winds

Recap

Good surf down South yesterday morning with easing S'ly swell from 2ft to nearly 3ft across Middleton before sea breezes kicked in, tiny on the Mid Coast.

Today we've got a building W/SW and SW groundswell in the water with clean conditions across both regions, now 2ft+ off Middleton and 1ft on the Mid Coast. Cape du Couedic is is showing a small J-curve signal so we can expect a decent swell front to arrive soon. Sea breezes are only due to be weak this afternoon and with building sets to 2ft on the Mid and 4ft down South, there should be options all over.

Cape du Couedic on the build and little lines showing on the Mid

This week and next (Mar 16 - 24)

This afternoon's mix of W/SW and SW groundswell are due to hold tomorrow across both regions, though the Mid Coast will likely be more in the 1-2ft range, with 4ft sets across Middleton.

Winds will favour the South Coast as a mid-latitude front pushes through, bringing moderate W/NW winds that will strengthen through the day. Protected spots will fair best.

This front won't bring any new swell with it, with the Mid Coast expected to ease from 1ft+ on Friday as winds go back offshore in the morning, clean down South with a W/NW-NW offshore and easing sets from 3ft off Middleton.

Saturday morning will be clean again as a weak low pushes east, bringing gusty but easing N/NW tending W/NW winds that look to hold into the mid-afternoon ahead of a SW change.

Background levels of reinforcing mid-period swell should maintain 2ft to occasionally 3ft sets across Middleton.

From Sunday through most of next week, good pulses of mid-period SW swell are expected thanks to a flurry of frontal activity developing around the Heard Island region, pushing east and under the country through the Friday, the weekend and early next week.

The initial activity over the coming days will be elongated and not overly significant, with fetches generally below gale-force apart for the core of the system.

This should produce a building mid-period SW swell through Sunday, peaking Monday.

Middleton should build to 3ft+ later Sunday with better 4ft surf on Monday. The Mid Coast unfortunately looks mostly tiny, building to 1ft later Sunday and peaking 1ft+ on Monday.

A change behind Saturday's trough will bring poor, gusty S/SE-S winds on Sunday, shifting strong E/SE into Monday as another inland trough starts deepening to our west.

It looks like we may see a window of N/NE winds on Tuesday before reverting back to the S/SE-SE through the middle to end of the week. With this in mind Tuesday is worth targeting with easing swell from 3-4ft across Middleton.

Longer term a good SW groundswell is due into Thursday/Friday, generated to the south-west of Western Australia so not ideal for the Mid which will be the cleanest. More on this Friday.