South Australian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday August 7th)

Best Days: This morning, tomorrow (later on the Mid Coast), Wednesday South Coast, Friday both coasts, Saturday down South, Sunday down South

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing S/SW groundswell Tue with light, local offshore winds, with variable sea breezes in the gulf, fresher E down South
• Small-mod sized, inconsistent W/SW swell for Tue PM, easing Wed
• Fresh N/NE tending N/NW winds Wed
• Building mid-period W/SW swell Thu with fresh W/SW-SW winds
• Easing W/SW swell Fri with variable winds and afternoon sea breezes
• Moderate sized mid-period SW swell building Sat, peaking Sun
• Light N winds Sat, tending variable E/NE-NE into the PM
• Light NE winds Sun
• Easing surf Mon with early variable tending fresh S winds

Recap

A lift in swell for Saturday down South but with less than ideal winds, workable for the keen. Yesterday was much better with clean, easing sets from 2-3ft. The Mid Coast was a clean, fun 1-2ft on Saturday, tiny and back to 1ft yesterday.

Today our strong S/SW groundswell is peaking with long-lined 4ft waves across the coast under light offshore winds, 1.5ft and better than expected on the Mid Coast.

The groundswell will ease through the day along with weak sea breezes that will be W/SW on the Mid Coast and E'ly down South.

Wet but solid and clean down South

Bigger sets than expected today on the Mid

This week and weekend (Aug 8 – 13)

The current S/SW groundswell will ease through today, smaller into tomorrow but still 2-3ft across Middleton and 1ft on the Mid Coast ahead of a new, inconsistent mid-period W/SW swell into the mid-late afternoon.

This was generated in our far swell window, produced by a fetch of strong to sub-gale-force W/SW winds through the southern Indian Ocean.

As a result it'll be inconsistent and on the small side, likely providing 1-1.5ft sets on the Mid Coast later tomorrow and Wednesday morning with slow 2ft+ sets across Middleton.

Winds should be favourable for both coasts again tomorrow morning and light E/NE on the Mid, N'ly down South, with variable sea breezes in the gulf and fresher E'ly winds down South.

Wednesday will see strengthening N/NE tending N/NW winds, creating deteriorating conditions across the Mid Coast and clean, fun waves down South, though best through the morning.

This strengthening northerly will be ahead of a weak mid-latitude front pushing in from the west, bringing a W/SW-SW change on Thursday and a weak increase in mid-period W/SW swell for the afternoon, easing Friday.

The Mid should build to 1-2ft later Thursday and ease from this size Friday morning with weak 2-3ft sets across Middleton both later Thursday and early Friday.

We'll hopefully see variable offshore winds kick back in across both regions Friday in the wake of the front, though lumpy on the Mid and cleanest down South.

Now, as touched on in Friday's update, we should see the Southern Ocean frontal activity start to fire up again into the end of the week and weekend, with a flurry of healthy polar fronts due to strengthen while pushing east from the Heard Island region, under the country.

This should produce building levels of mid-period SW swell through Saturday, peaking Sunday in the moderate size range, easing very slowly into early next week thanks to the drawn out nature of the progression.

At it's peak we're looking at surf in the 4ft+ range across Middleton with 1ft+ sets on the Mid Coast.

As the swell builds on Saturday, N'ly winds should create clean conditions with a shift to the E/NE-NE into the afternoon and then slightly less favourable but doable NE winds on Sunday. A trough may bring a S/SW change through Monday but we'll review this on Wednesday.