South Arm Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Friday 17th March)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Small waves over the weekend
• New swell Mon but generally onshore
• Possible window of early offshore winds Tues with easing size and fun waves
• More swell late Thurs thru' Sun or Mon

Recap

Small clean waves with favourable winds.

This weekend (Mar 18 - 19)

Fresh W/NW winds will slowly swing to the W/SW throughout Saturday, delivering blustery conditions. Today's small swell will ease into Satiurday so there won't be a lot of action across the coast.

A small new swell is expected to fill into the region throughout Sunday though it's hard to see the surf being overly worthwhile under the accompanying W/SW breeze. 

Next week (Mar 20 onwards)

A steady conveyor-belt of fronts below the continent are generating a new round of groundswell that will build from Sunday through Monday and should lift surf size into the 3ft range by the afternoon. 

Unfortunately a related frontal passage will swing a brief window of W/NW winds around to the south, rendering conditions bumpy as the swell reaches a peak. So, keep your expectations low. 

Tuesday looks like a better bet, with an early window of northerly winds before yet another front races across the region, delivering afternoon onshores. The swell will be easing but we should see some 2-3ft sets across reliable beaches before the easing trend really starts to kick in. 

A mid-week low point in size will be accompanied by light winds (Wed/Thurs), with perhaps just enough energy for a quick paddle at the swell magnets - however the good news is that the long term outlook remains very active with another strong frontal conveyer belt lining up below the continent early next week that's expected to renew strong groundswells from later Thursday or Friday thru' Sunday. Surf size should rebuild back into the 3ft mark though there's also a reasonable chance that winds will restrengthen from the western quadrant too.

So, plenty of waves but iffy conditions at times. There will be windows though!

I'll have more specific details available on Monday.

Have a great weekend!