South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Monday 25th April)

Best Days: SE Qld points will continue to offer the best options through Tues and Wed but winds will ease right back from Thursday onwards, opening up the beaches as the swell eases. Should be plenty of fun beachies right through this weekend and into next week too.

Recap: Saturday offered small residual east swells with strengthening SW tending S’ly winds as a strong ridge built along the coast. An accompanying short range S'ly swell built slowly through Sunday ahead of a more rapid increase in size overnight; surf size peaked this morning with easy 6ft+ sets at exposed spots (though horribly wind affected). Interestingly, despite there being a lot of size on offer at the Superbank (4-5ft sets) the swell still had a lot of south in its direction; too much so for any notable size at the inner Noosa points. Winds have been strong to gale force S/SE across most locations, a little lighter in the south.

The Superbank had sizeable options across the Greenmount stretch this morning

This week (April 26th - 29th)

We’ve got a whole week of trade swell ahead.

The synoptic chart is quite simple - a slow moving high in the Tasman Sea will gradually rotate the strong ridge across its northern flank into a more east-west alignment. This will consequently swing the swell direction more so around to the east, but surf size will also fall concurrently as wind speeds slowly ease.

That being said, we will see plenty of size right across the week thanks to the stationary nature of the fetch and its broad coverage across the Northern Tasman Sea. In fact as I noted on Friday, I doubt it’ll drop below 3ft at most exposed spots north of Yamba before late Sunday or possibly even Monday. Even then there’s good surf potential into the long term as well.

So the main factor to consider this week is the wind. It’ll remain gusty across SE Qld and Far Northern NSW through Tuesday, though we should see an easing trend across the Mid North Coast. A more pronounced easing will occur into Wednesday in southern regions (possibly light and variable, but likely leftover lumpy from the current blow) however Wednesday will probably still exhibit moderate to fresh SE winds north of Byron. We may see a brief period of SW winds early morning, though thgis won't change the equation for the open beaches - they'll remain too raw and messy.

Thursday and Friday should see a more marked easing of wind speeds, though it must be said that the ridge looks like it’ll remain anchored across the Coral Sea in some way shape or form - so a synoptic offshore here is unlikely (we’ll probably just see a slightly longer period of terrestrially-induced morning offshores).

As for size - exposed beaches will remain too big and wind affected on Tuesday so the points will continue to be your best option. And as the swell direction turns more to the east we should see good options across the inner points too. Expect stormy 4-6ft open beaches in SE Qld on Tuesday and smaller waves on the points; smaller surf is also expected as you track south from Ballina (thanks to the swell source being located further north, and mainly aimed towards SE Qld).

Surf size should fall by around half to one foot every day, down to 3ft+ across open SE Qld beaches by Thursday morning (again, a little smaller on the points). In fact, we should see a minor increase later Thursday and into Friday from a mild strengthening the trades mid-week, south of New Caledonia. So 3-4ft sets are likely through Friday across SE Qld (a little smaller south of Ballina).

But in summary - there'll be waves every day. And with water temps still around 24 degrees (on the Gold Coast) there's no better place to be right now.

Next weekend (April 30th - May 1st)

Friday’s small rise in east swell will slowly abate throughout the weekend but it’s looking like we’ll see plenty of waves both days. 

Saturday may still deliver a few 3-4ft sets at open beaches north of Ballina in the early morning, but a slow easing trend is expected into the afternoon, with 2-3ft surf expected early Sunday (maybe a little smaller into the afternoon).

Wave heights will probably be a little smaller south of Ballina but by no means is it likely to be in the ‘small wave’ category - super fun peaky beach breaks, spread right across most coasts.

Winds are also looking good across most areas; light and variable on Saturday with probably a northerly tendency creeping into the fold on Sunday (especially in the south). 

So at this stage - book in a surf on Saturday, as it'll certainly have the biggest surf and best conditions. Just about any open beach should tick the box.

Next week (May 2nd onwards)

A secondary east fetch developing NE of New Zealand around Thursday and Friday will provide some small, long range energy into the start of the following week (Monday). In fact the models have this region becoming very active over the weekend across the Tongan region; which should kick up a little more energy for the middle of that week (Wed/Thurs or thereabouts). 

Otherwise, we're not expecting any major southerly swells for some time, thanks to the east flank of a Long Wave Trough that’s expected to deflect South Ocean storm to the south-east, across our swell window. So, all future activity of any significance will originate from the east for the foreseeable future.