Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Friday 8th November)

Best Days: Most days should see fun S'ly swell throughout the forecast period. Looking biggest Sunday, though early Monday should have the best conditions. 

Recap: Thursday was tiny with just a minor NE swell across the open beaches. Today has continued the tiny theme at most beaches, but a small pulse of southerly swell has pushed across the coast, offering 1-1.5ft sets at Sydney’s south swell magnets, and occasionally 2ft across the exposed Hunter beaches (see Newcastle surfcam image below). Conditions are clean with gusty offshore winds. 

Small lines at Wanda/Greenhills this arvo

Nice small waves in Newcastle

This weekend (Nov 9 - 10)

No major changes to the weekend outlook.

A series of fronts will rocket into the Tasman Sea overnight, building a series of overlapping short range S’ly swells into Saturday ahead of a peak late Sunday. In fact, the timing of the main pulse from this sequence has been pulled forward since Wednesday’s forecast, from Monday to Sunday afternoon.

The fetches trailing each front will be considerably off-axis (aligned SW-NE) but they’ll generate some decent size, around 3ft+ on Saturday and then pushing into the 3-5ft range on Sunday. South swell magnets and other reliable coastal regions such as the Hunter should see bigger waves, reaching a peak on Sunday in the 5-6ft range.

As per usual, expect much smaller surf at beaches not open to the south.

Conditions look pretty good for the most part - the mornings should see early W/SW thru’ SW winds but each afternoon will trend moderate S’ly, maybe S/SE. So aim for an early surf for the best conditions. 

Next week (Nov 11 onwards)

As mentioned above, the storm sequence has been sped up over the last few days, so the peak we were expecting Monday will occur on Sunday.

As such, the start of the new week will be on the downwards trend from this event. South facing beaches should still manage 3-4ft sets early on (easing to 2-3ft during the day) and the Hunter should see larger waves at times. It’ll be much smaller elsewhere though. 

Conditions look excellent with light W/NW winds and afternoon sea breezes. 

Tuesday looks pretty small with residual S’ly swell maybe offering a few 2ft sets at south facing beaches early on (smaller later) plus a smaller NE swell from overnight N’ly winds. We’ll see clean conditions with pre-frontal NW winds across most regions. 

A late S’ly change will probably clear to the east across many coasts on Wednesday morning, leaving us with generally favourable conditions, and we’ll see an initial building S’ly swell from W/SW gales exiting eastern Bass Strait later Tuesday. This should perk up south facing beaches into the 2-3ft range (bigger across the Hunter, smaller elsewhere) but as per the last Forecaster Notes, I’m much more interested in an associated series of much stronger fronts and lows south of Tasmania, which should generate better quality southerly groundswell for Thursday and Friday. 

Both Thursday and Friday are looking good on the surface with light morning winds, but afternoon N’lies will present a few problems. However at this stage we should see solid S’ly swell in the 3-4ft+ range across south facing beaches, larger near 5-6ft across the Hunter.

Let’s take a closer look on Monday. 

Have a great weekend!