South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Friday 14th November)

Best Days: No great days.

This weekend (Nov 13-14)

*today's forecast notes are very short as Craig is away, and I'm somewhat time poor*

Strong northerly winds will write off surf conditions just about everywhere on Saturday. The only glimmer of hope is the Lower Mid North Coast, which may see a shallow southerly change nudge the region around dawn, providing light winds ahead of a slightly stronger southerly change into the afternoon. 

Surf wise we’re looking at small leftovers out of the south and a more dominant peaky NE windswell that should produce (low quality) sets in the 2-3ft range at exposed beaches. If we’re really lucky, locations south of about Port Mac should see a window of opportunity open up throughout the day at those NE facing beaches that like a southerly breeze. 

The afternoon's stronger southerly airstream should reach the Far North Coast overnight before weakening quickly. Early W/NW winds Sunday (except the Sunny Coast and possibly Gold Coast, which may see fresh to strong NW winds) will be quickly replaced with a strengthening northerly breeze by late morning, so aim for an early session to pick up some peaky NE windswell in the 2ft to maybe 3ft range.

Models are suggesting lighter winds in the south (again) as a stronger southerly change advances along the southern NSW coast so we may see some OK beaches here on Sunday. Otherwise, there should be some small fun beachies around most regions for a few hours at dawn. Just keep your expectations very low in SE Qld due to the stronger northerly regime and reliance on NE windswell.

Next week (Nov 15 onwards)

Our south swell window will remain active for a few days into the new week, so the period between Monday and Wednesday looks like it’ll pulse with decent waves at south facing beaches in Northern NSW, reaching somewhere near 3ft on Monday and Tuesday, and possibly 3-4ft later Wednesday. Conditions look a little tricky with a shallow S/SE change expected to grace the region as a ridge builds across the coast but at this stage no major strength is expected in the local winds. 

In SE Qld, we're looking at local swell sources for the same period - initially some N'ly windwell, followed by a short range E/SE swell as the ridge builds across the coast early-mid week. However no great size or quality is forecast. 

Freshening NE winds are expected across most regions from Tuesday afternoon onwards, which should contribute some local NE windswell to the coast through the middle of the week ahead another strong frontal passage overnight Thursday and into Friday, renewing strong swell activity from the south.