South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Wednesday 27th June)

Best Days: Thurs: small peaky trade swell in SE Qld and Far Northern NSW, with some fun leftover SE swell in Northern NSW. Both swells easing through Friday. Mainly light winds. 

Recap: Easing SE swell on Tuesday was arrested across Northern NSW today with another pulse of energy, with wave heights holding 3-4ft both days at south friendly beaches. The SE swell was small across SE Qld on Tuesday but we’ve seen an increase in peaky trade swell today, though local conditions haven’t been too great.

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This week (June 28 - 29)

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Note: Today’s Forecaster Notes will be brief, as Craig is away on annual leave

The trades across the Southern Coral Sea reached a maximum today so we’re looking at a peak in size on Thursday, before wave heights slowly ease into Friday. The Sunshine Coast will see the most size with peaky 2-3ft+ sets, and it’ll be smaller from the Gold and Tweed Coasts (2-3ft) as you track south of Byron. Expect size to ease a little into Friday. Don't expect a lot of quality.

Today’s SE swell across Northern NSW performed a little better than forecast across Southern NSW, which lends some credibility to their being some reasonable size on offer early Thursday. However, there’s no escaping the broader trend which will be downwards over the coming days towards a low point on Sunday. Early sets should hold in and around the 3ft mark at south facing beaches though it'll be inconsistent, and willease throughout the day.

Local winds look reasonably good over the next few days under the influence of a weak trough, but there’s always the risk for onshore winds with these patterns. But in general most coasts should see light variable winds and relatively clean conditions. 

This weekend (June 30 - July 1)

The trades will hang in just on the southern periphery of our mid-range eastern swell window over the coming days (east of New Caledonia) which should keep SE Qld and Far Northern NSW just rideable with 1-2ft waves over the weekend. 

Otherwise, we’ll see easing SE swells across Northern NSW with very small surf across the coast. Light offshore winds are expected Saturday ahead of a developing southerly flow on Sunday as a ridge pushes up the coast.

The only other swell source for this weekend is a front exiting eastern Bass Strait during on Saturday. Although its alignment will likely remain quite westerly, these patterns usually generate small flukey south swells for reliable south swell magnets south of Byron.

The timing of this particular swell is such that it’ll only influence a handful of beaches up to and around the Coffs region before the sun goes down, probably not until after early/mid afternoon onwards either. I’ll firm up the specifics on Friday but there’s a chance for a few stray 2ft+ sets across the Lower Mid North Coast  if we’re lucky.

Next week (July 2 onwards)

The synoptic charts are largely devoid of interesting activity early next week, however we’ll see a continuation of westerly gales exiting eastern Bass Strait from Sunday thru' Monday which should ensure a small supply of flukey south swell for reliable swell magnets south of Byron on Monday and maybe Tuesday. Most beaches won’t see any energy from this source though.

Otherwise, there’s not a lot that’s exciting me in the long term at this stage. A ridge will occupy the coast providing fresh S/SE winds to many regions, and contributing some small windswell, but nothing worth working around.

See you Friday!