South Australian Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Wednesday 10th May)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Fun waves at Victor on Thursday with offshore winds and easing surf
• Possible late Friday session on the Mid
• Nice weekend of waves across both coasts
• Plenty of surf for the following week

Recap

Small clean waves on the Mid Coast for the last few days, smaller than forecast but smooth with offshore winds. Thursday remained bumpy at Victor but with a new swell building to 3-4ft, and today has generated great waves with light offshore winds and plenty of swell (see Chiton, below).

This week (May 9 - 12)

Easing swells will continue through the rest of the week, with Thursday the pick of the forecast period.

Winds will freshen from the north as a weak front approaches from the west. This will favour the Victor region with size easing from 2ft+ at Middleton, bigger and better at expose coasts.

It’ll be very small on the Mid, and conditions won’t be great once the wind picks up.

Friday’s shallow change will be in before dawn but no major strength is expected. However, we’ll be at the bottom of the swell cycle by this time so it won’t be worth too much attention down south with small residual energy on offer.

The Mid Coast will also remain tiny on Friday morning, however the afternoon may see a new pulse of small long period W/SW swell provide some waves for the late session across the reefs. This energy will be generated by a strong front currently pushing just south of Margaret River, however the timing of this energy is more likely to favour an overnight increase.

So, keep an eye on the CdC buoy and the cams after lunch for a possible session to finish the day. It’ll be clean with good winds. 

This weekend (May 13 - 14)

We’ve still got a great weekend of waves on the cards thanks to regionally light to moderate NE winds which will favour both the Mid and South Coasts.

The strong front/low combo pushing through the Bight has been downgraded a smidge - mainly with regards to its alignment within the Mid’s swell window - so I’m going to peg back size expectations here to 2-3ft on Saturday, and hope that we see a few bigger waves at the swell magnets on the afternoon tidal push. Conditions should be great all day.

Down south, there’ll be a bigger size variation than normal which will create small surf at protected spots but large waves overpowering exposed spots. As somewhat of a midway point, surf size should manage somewhere around the 3-4ft mark at Middleton. There's a chance we may see a period of easterly winds but the early session should be north-east, favourable for most spots.

Expect a steady easing across both coasts into Sunday with fun options right across the board as the wind straightens up from the NE.

Next week (May 15 onwards)

Lots of activity for the long term with a steady conveyor belt of polar lows and fronts expected to generate a whole stack of groundswell for the following week or two. 

Monday will probably be undersized (being between swell events) but from Tuesday onwards we should start to pick up plenty of waves for the Victor region and small lines across the Mid Coast.

Let’s take a closer pass on Friday.