Quiet end to the week, more action over the weekend
Sydney Hunter Illawarra Surf Forecast by James Casey (issued Wednesday 2nd June)
Best Days: Saturday and Sunday
Outlook (tl;dr)
- Low point in the week late Thursday into early Friday
- Building S windswell late Friday , peaking on Sat with improving conditions
- Small clean leftovers Sun
- Not much for start of next week
- Interesting setup for mid next week with potential for a run of E/NE swell
Recap
We had large but clean conditions yesterday with 6ft+ waves and light N/NW winds. The swell dropped throughout the day with 4-6ft waves on offer late. There was still plenty of water moving around so it was best left to the experienced.
Today we have light offshores and 3-4ft waves. There are plenty of options to be had with peaks along the open stretches. Expect waves to ease throughout the day, dropping to 2-3ft by the afternoon.
The end of this week
It’s looking like a relatively quiet end to the week with not much action in any of our swell windows thanks to a large high pressure system plonking itself right over the Tasman Sea. Conditions will be nice but there won’t be much in the way of swell.
Tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday morning are looking to be the low point in the swell for the entire week ahead with just small surf, 2ft and smaller.
Friday afternoon will see a new S swell develop thanks to a cold front whipping up some strong S winds in the Tasman. Waves will be low quality but 3-4ft of windswell will be on offer at south facing beaches by the late session on Friday arvo.
The weekend 
The S swell will peak on Saturday morning up around the 4-6ft but winds will still be fairly strong out of the W/SW to SW. I’d expect a bit of bump on it in the morning at the more exposed spots but beaches that are clean in SW winds will have some decent waves early.
It’s looking to be the best day of the forecast so set aside some time to get out there.
Sunday will see the winds turn more offshore, out of the W early and becoming light and variable in the afternoon. The swell will ease though with just the leftovers from Saturday. I’d expect waves in the 3ft range easing into the afternoon.
Next week
Ben’s optimism for a small E/NE fetch developing north of the North Island’s swell shadow is looking to turn out to be a bit too optimistic. We will see 1-2ft of E/NE swell from it but the bulk of the fetch is now looking to form behind NZ or be aimed too north and not have enough east in it.
What’s looking to bring the bulk of the small waves on offer is the dwindling S/SE swell to linger into the start of the week before a NE swell is generated thanks to the infeed of winds into a mid latitude low over land.
It’s still a while off but it is worth keeping an eye on. It could bring some decent NE swell and NW winds late next week. More on that on Friday.
Comments
Some fun sized NE swell with good winds will do me fine.
Still got great waves this arvo.. 3-5 ft .. at my local, got absolutely flogged by the sets ..still packed a punch on sallow banks .. but had a ball still..
It’s been an upside down week of swell...anticipated a little at the front end of it, nothing over the weekend peak, and some good ones Mon/Tue.
Ended up getting one day at the front, great waves on Sat & Sun and nothing Mon/Tue.
Also thought today would get crowded with the swell backing off and light winds but surfed solo for four hours in flawless 4ft beachies.
yeah, the tail really wagged nicely.
It's absolute dog balls puss here this morning. The banks are fcking shot south of the border. Not a good situation to have coming into winter!!!!
from what I've seen in my few years on the tweed, same bat time, same bat channel
banks got a pizzling.
not the worst outcome I've ever seen though.
pizzle
/ˈpɪz(ə)l/
nounARCHAIC
noun: pizzle; plural noun: pizzles
the penis of an animal, especially a bull.
That word should be brought back into common usage, as in:
"Get a fuckin pizzle up ya, ya drop in caaarnt."
Or maybe go old school -
"If thou does not refrain from interfering on my wave I shall beat thee with the pizzle of a donkey".
FALSTAFF
'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried
neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish! O
for breath to utter what is like thee!”
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1
Shouldn't all you blokes be in the QLD/NNSW notes?
They're lost ha!
we're pizzling all over the other regions.
Ha!
Pizzle reminds me of Puggle.
I dare say that a Puggle's pizzle would be piss poor.
‘Twas a puggle’s pizzle today
Reckon that tiny 18 second se swell will sneak round any corners tomorrow morning? Just a foot or 2 that’s all I’m after haha
Haven't had enough the past month? Haha. I tried to source that for NE Tas but couldn't find it. I'd discount it.
haha nope has anyone?
0.4m at 18s might get you something Geoff if you know where to look
That's if it exists, which I highly doubt.
The other websites have it in their modelling as a tertiary swell. Sometimes it appears under the radar, sometimes not but if Geoff’s hoping for a wave that’s his only hope
Buoys hardly registered a blink as I thought. Must have been from a distant fetch south-east of New Zealand somewhere.
As I’m noticing more and more, swellnet algorithms/software for period and direction often at odds with a couple of other sites.
A reef south of Wollongong very exposed to south swell (and breaks best on S swell) overhead this morning. No sign of it in Sydney though