South Australian Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Wednesday April 24th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Small surf across trhe Mid for the next few days, clean in the mornings
• Solid, still somewhat wind-affected surf down south on Thurs
• Large, clean surf at Victor on Fri with light variable winds
• Tiny weekend on the Mid but great down south with light winds and easing swells
• Another large swell for Victor on Tues but winds look iffy
• Plenty of activity into the longer term too

Recap

Early offshore winds provided clean conditions at Victor Harbor on Tuesday with small clean leftovers from Monday. A late onshore change has brought strong southerly winds to the South Coast today with strong building swells on offer. Tuesday was near flat on the Mid early on, but we’ve seen a small slow swell deliver occasional 2ft sets across the coast today under moderate SE tending S’ly winds.

(Please note: FC Notes will be variable in delivery this week as Craig is on paternity leave)

This week (April 25 - 26)

No change to the outlook for the next few days. 

Today’s surf should hang in at a similar size tomorrow down south (4-5ft Middleton), however onshore winds will continue to create issues with surface conditions. They will however moderate so conditions should start to improve. 

No major change is expected on the Mid Coast in the size department, with slow 2ft sets across the reefs on the more favourable parts of the tide. Conditions should be nice and clean through the morning with light offshore winds ahead of moderate afternoon S/SE breezes. 

Friday’s still looking a treat at Victor, thanks to a brand new swell originating from another polar low developing south of the continent over the last day or so. 

This will rebuild size back up into the 5-6ft+ range along the South Coast (bigger bombs at the swell magnet reefs) and conditions are looking great with light variable winds in general. 

Unfortunately for the Mid, this swell is developing right on the eastern periphery of its swell window so Kangaroo Island will shadow a lot of the energy. As such we’ll see small weak swells offering slow 1-2ft sets on the more favourable parts of the tide. It will however be nice and clean with light offshore winds. 

This weekend (Apr 27 - 28)

Very nice conditions are expected on all coasts this weekend with light variable winds and sea breezes both days.

However, with no new swell on the cards it’s looking like a slow weekend for the Mid with minor residual energy on offer Saturday, becoming even smaller Sunday. 

On the other hand, easing swells from Friday will provide great waves across the South Coast on Saturday, easing from 4-5ft to 3-4ft at Middleton on Saturday, and levelling out at 2-3ft+ on Sunday. It'll be well worth scheduling in some time for a paddle either day, though Saturday will probably offer the best waves. 

Next week (Apr 29 onwards)

A strong polar low and front will develop well SW of the continent on Thursday and Friday, and power through our SW thru' S/SW swell window over the weekend (see below), generating a powerful new groundswell that will arrive early Tuesday morning, and build to 5-6ft along the South Coast. 

However, local conditions are looking a little average under the influence of moderate southerly winds associated with a large developing high pressure system to the west. As such it may not be worth getting too excited about. 

Unfortunately this system looks like it will again do the bulk of its swell generation to the east of the MId Coast’s swell window, so the resulting swell direction will probably have too much south - and thus only small energy is expected through the gulf from this event. 

Looking further ahead and the Southern Ocean storm track looks like it'll remain vigorous for some time, so the surf outlook is very favourable for the first half of May. 

See you Friday!