Sydney Hunter Illawarra Surf Forecast by James Casey (issued Monday 5th April)

Best Days: Friday morning, offshore winds and peak of the E/NE swell. Early on the weekend with a S swell and offshore breeze early. Tuesday next week with light NW winds and an easing S swell. 

Outlook:

• E/NE swell from low in Coral Sea and S groundswell combining next few days 
• Low directing onshore E/SE flow over the region until Friday
• As the low begins moving further out to sea winds will go offshore with a nice window Friday morning ahead of a strong S change
• Moderate S swell for the weekend  of the week 

Recap

Well it was a beautiful Easter long weekend with small 1-2ft waves for most of it with a little S pulse providing 3ft+ options for S swell magnets on Saturday afternoon. Conditions were nice each morning with light winds. As the day went on it slowed down a bit with the tide filling in towards the high, causing it to break less followed by a seabreeze developing out of the NE.

Today a S change moved through mid morning after light SW winds early. Waves are still in that 1-2ft range but could be a small increase in size this arvo.

The new week

A long range S swell generated to the south and west of Tassie over the weekend will begin filtering in later today and into tomorrow. It will be slow and inconsistent but there’ll be a bit more energy than what we’ve seen for most of the long weekend. 

The Hunter will see an inconsistent 2-3ft this afternoon building towards the 3-4ft mark tomorrow. Elsewhere this arvo I’d only really expect to see it at S swell magnets around the 2ft mark before it building to 2-3ft tomorrow.

There will also be the addition of an E/NE swell begin to build from tomorrow evening, as a tropical low forming in the Coral Sea begins to drift south, squeezing a high in the Tasman. 

It’s all been downgraded a bit from last week but the plus is winds are looking more favourable than what they were last week. The swell size will be smaller, looking to be more like 2-3ft on Wednesday and building to a 4ft peak on Thursday late into Friday.

Despite the downgrade of winds conditions aren’t looking great, with the low directing an E/SE flow over the region, keeping things lumpy at best until Friday morning. 

Winds will go offshore on Friday early as the low begins to shift further out to sea cleaning conditions up. 

Don’t wait around too long though as winds will shift S and strengthen later in the day as a trough associated with a cold front further S moves through in the afternoon. 

The weekend and next week

Saturday morning will be a moment of calm as a region of high pressure settles things down momentarily with light offshore winds early. Waves will be up around the 3-5ft mark with a pulse of S energy from the cold front that moved through further south on Friday.  

Winds will swing back around to the SE by the afternoon making things bumpy. 

Sunday morning will see fresh SW winds early and strengthening out of the S as the day goes on. The S swell will hang around before pulsing again on Monday up around the 4-6ft mark. With S winds continuing you will need to stick to southern corners until Tuesday.

A region of high pressure will settle things on Tuesday with light winds becoming NE later in the day. With the S swell on a downward trend there’ll be some decent options at S facing beaches, picking up the easing S swell and being groomed offshore by the N winds. 

It looks pretty quiet for the remainder of next week but let’s look into it further on Wednesday.