South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Friday 29th May)

Best Days: Sat: small easing SE swell across south facing beaches in Northern NSW. Tues: windy south swell in Northern NSW but some workable options. Wed/Thurs/Fri: good S/SE swell with generally light winds. 

Recap: S/SE swell has persisted for the second half of the week with excellent options across south facing beaches in Northern NSW, especially in southern regions. Light offshore winds have maintained clean conditions. However, SE Qld has seen very small surf due to the distant source and unfavourable swell direction.

This weekend (May 30 - Jun 1)

No changes for the weekend outlook. We’re looking at mainly light variable winds, trending NW if anything, however today’s S/SE swell will slowly ease in size so you’ll have to make the most of Saturday morning for the most size. 

As per today, the biggest waves will be across the southern regions (i.e. Mid North Coast), with smaller surf in the Far North and tiny conditions throughout SE Qld. Aim for a surf on Saturday because Sunday is expected to be very small in all regions thanks to a lack of new swell sources. 

Next week (June 2 - 6)

We’ve got a series of vigorous fronts lining up for next week, and they’re expected to deliver a strong series of south swells across the East Coast.

The first system is expected to drop inside our immediate swell window during Monday morning, however we probably won’t see a size increase across the Mid North Coast until the afternoon - and even then it’ll be very late, only favouring south facing beaches, of which these locations will be under the influence of a gusty SW tending S/SW breeze. The Far North Coast and SE Qld may not see much activity until very late in the day, or overnight.

This south swell is expected to reach a peak on Tuesday with similarly gusty SW tending S/SW winds (possibly some pockets of W/SW winds early), and south facing beaches in Northern NSW will see the most size with sets in the 5-6ft range. However, these locations will be wind affected so your best options will be at sheltered locations (3ft+) whilst southern corners will remain very small.

Unfortunately, SE Qld won’t pick up much size from this source on Tuesday due to the unfavourable swell direction. Local winds will be lighter and more favourable here but only the handful of exposed south swell magnets will offer anything significant in the size department, with very small 1.5ft+ surf expected across the majority of Gold and Sunshine Coast beaches.

A low will form in the Tasman Sea in conjunction with this frontal passage, and although it’s expected to remain slow moving towards New Zealand, we won’t see any direct swell from it. Instead, a series of additional polar fronts being steered up through the south-eastern Tasman Sea into this pattern will maintain S/SE energy through the second half of the week. 

South facing beaches in Northern NSW should maintain 4-6ft surf from Wednesday thru' until about Friday with smaller surf at protected locations, and due to the more eastern swell source, we should see better options across SE Qld, possibly 2ft to nearly 3ft at many open Gold and Sunny Coast beachies, with bigger waves at south facing beaches. 

Additionally, local winds will be much more favourable during this time thanks to a high pressure system ridging in from the west. This suggests that the period from Wednesday thru' Friday will be much better than the late Monday/Tuesday swells, as surf quality will better and the swell direction should favour a greater percentage of locations. More on this in Monday’s update.

‘Till then have a great weekend.