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

Best Days: South Coast tomorrow and Friday mornings, along with Saturday morning, Mid Coast later Monday and Tuesday morning for the keen, South Coast Tuesday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Moderate sized, inconsistent S/SW groundswell kicking later today, peaking tomorrow AM, easing
• Variable winds ahead of S/SE sea breezes tomorrow and Fri
• Late pulse of incionsistent mod sized, S/SW groundswell Fri, peaking Sat AM but easing steadily, tiny Sun
• Variable tending SE winds Sat, N/NW tending SE Sun
• Small W'ly swell arriving Mon PM with E/NE tending variable winds in the gulf, NE tending SE down South
• Swell peaking down South Tue AM, easing on the Mid with moderate N/NE tending variable winds

Recap

The Mid Coast continued to offer novelty 1-1.5ft waves through yesterday, back to 1ft this morning while the South Coast has offered lump surf to 2-3ft across Middleton with more size on the exposed magnets.

Later today we should see some new S/SW groundswell arriving, but tomorrow is a much beter chance to surf it.

This week and weekend (Apr 9 - 12)

Late this afternoon’s pulse of S/SW groundswell is due more so in tomorrow morning across the South Coast, with it generated by a strong polar low that fired up to our south-southwest earlier in the week.

It’ll be inconsistent but good 3-4ft sets are due across Middleton through the morning easing into the afternoon and then smaller and to 2ft to possibly 3ft Friday morning. The Mid Coast will become tiny to flat thanks to the southerly swell direction.

Conditions over the coming days look similar to the last with slightly lumpy but clean faces tomorrow under a variable breeze before sea breezes kick in, variable again Friday morning but possibly lingering out of the S’th.

Now into Saturday morning, another pulse of smaller, less consistent S’ly groundswell is due, with the polar storm linked to this swell forming later in our swell window and moving faster east.

With this slow 3ft to possibly 4ft sets are due Saturday morning, easing steadily through the day and then dropping from 1-2ft on Sunday.

Variable winds should create good conditions on Saturday morning ahead of weak S/SE sea breezes, N/NW Sunday morning before sea breezes pop up again.

The surf will bottom out into Monday morning with a shift in winds to the NE during the morning as a weakening mid-latitude low slowly moves in from the west.

This low will generate some small mid-period W/SW energy for later in the day but more so Tuesday morning, though likely not getting above 2-3ft across Middleton, with the Mid likely to see building surf later Monday to 1ft to possibly 2ft, easing from a similar size Tuesday.

With variable winds in the gulf Monday afternoon and evening, it might be worth keeping an eye out for, while Tuesday morning looks bumpy with moderate N/NE winds, tending variable again into the afternoon.

Looking longer term and there’s a flurry of frontal activity inbound through next week but the strength and structure seems to fall apart, leading to moderate levels of mid-period energy.

We’ll have a closer look at this on Friday.