South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Friday 5th April)

Best Days: Sat/Sun/Mon: light morning winds in SE Qld/Far Northern NSW and a mix of swells, mainly E'ly, biggest Sunday, easing Monday. Good options across the Mid North Coast until lunchtime Sunday when N'ly winds will become a problem. 

Recap: We've seen a nice run of E’ly swell over the last few days with solid 4ft sets on Thursday easing to 3-4ft this morning across most open coasts, down a smidge throughout the day. Winds have been S/SE but lighter S/SW in the mornings. 

Plenty of fun peaks pre-Quik Pro at D'Bah this morning

This weekend (April 6 - 7)

Today’s Forecaster Notes are brought to you by Rip Curl

There's been no major change to the weekend forecast.

Light variable winds and sea breezes are expected across all coasts on Saturday. We’ll see easing E’ly swells from today but it’ll be ideal for exposed beaches with sets around the 3ft mark early, down to 2-3ft throughout the day. Expect smaller surf along the points, and perhaps a smidge less size across SE Qld in general (Far Northern NSW will rake in the upper end of the size spectrum).

Sunday looks great for SE Qld and Far Northern NSW with a continuation of light variable winds and sea breezes, and we’ll see good surf for a brief period early morning along the Mid North Coast before winds swing to the north and then freshen from the north-east throughout the day, thanks to a broadening high pressure system in the Tasman Sea. 

Sunday’s surf will receive a decent boost in size, with a long period E’ly groundswell pushing through from Saturday evening onwards (the late session Saturday may see early forerunners if we’re lucky). 

This swell will have been generated by a deep subtropical low positioned well SE of Samoa mid-week, and peak swell periods associated with the leading edge - overnight Saturday - should increase to around 15 seconds, bumping up set waves to 3-5ft at exposed beaches in Far Northern NSW for the Sunday morning session, and perhaps the exposed northern ends of the Gold and Sunshine Coasts if we’re lucky.

However, the enormous travel distance will result in very long breaks between waves. Surf size will be smaller running down the points too. 

As such, most of the surfing you’ll do on Sunday will be similar peaky E’ly swells as per Saturday (2-3ft open beaches, slightly smaller in SE Qld), with the inclusion of (sometimes) single-set waves of a foot or two higher, every now and then. 

Afternoon NE sea breezes are likely across all coasts on Sunday but they’ll mainly be problematic south from about Yamba. 

Late afternoon may also see a small pulse of new E/SE swell across Northern NSW, from a fetch developing today, west of Cook Strait (separating New Zealand’s North and South Islands), however the models have slightly downgraded this since Wednesday so it’ll come in smaller than the aforementioned E'ly swell. 

Next week (April 8 onwards)

The models have weakened the progged E’ly dips in the Tasman Sea for next week, which has therefore downgraded E’ly swell size for the longer term period (bummer!).

We'll still see small energy all week from this quadrant but it’s nothing worth getting too excited about; wave heights should manage a slow, inconsistent 2-3ft across Far Northern NSW beaches most days from Tuesday onwards - Monday will see larger sets early morning as Sunday's swell eases - with regionally smaller wave heights across the Mid North Coast.

SE Qld probably won't pick up as much size as Far Northern NSW either next week (again, expect smaller surf across the points).

As such, with intermittent swells, the forecast for next week looks a little average. We'll see freshening pre-frontal northerly winds Monday and Tuesday, strongest across the Mid North Coast and lighter as you head north, with periods of early NW winds favouring the open beaches, mainly Far Northern NSW and SE Qld

A deep low will track south of Tasmania around Tuesday but it’ll be poorly aligned for our region, so the resulting mid-week southerly swell will be small, glancing exposed south swell magnets with infrequent 2ft+ sets at best throughout Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.

However, an associated gusty S’ly wind change will advance along the coast from Wednesday morning, generating 4ft of local windswell for south swell magnets (south of Byron) by Wednesday afternoon, easing slowly during Thursday. These beaches will be pretty bumpy under the breezey conditions though, and it'll be smaller elsewhere - especially in SE Qld. 

There’s nothing major showing on the long term outlook yet either, just a bunch of peripheral activity on the fringes of our swell windows.

Have a great weekend, see you Monday!