Sydney Hunter Illawarra Surf Forecast by James Casey (issued Friday 11th June)

Best Days: Sunday through to Wednesday

Outlook (tl;dr)

• E swell to fade to 2ft tomorrow before pulsing a little on Sunday morning up around 2ft+ 
• 2-3ft S swell for late Sunday peaking on Monday/Tuesday as the low moves away
• 2-3ft combo of E and S/SE swell for Wednesday as the low slowly tracks away and E trade swell north of NZ
• Thursday morning will see a new NE windswell from infeed of northerlies as low approaches from the west 
• Potential for more E swell later in the week but looking like worse winds

Recap

Yesterday was cold and all in all a bit bumpy in the morning with NE winds. It cleaned up in the afternoon with NW winds creating nice conditions for most places a little lumpy for any north facing beaches. Waves were up in that 2ft+ range out of the E. 

Today we saw the waves up a little around the 3ft mark with the E swell but with light W/NW winds. There were plenty of quality waves on offer. It got a little inconsistent this afternoon but all in all a good day of waves. 

Meanwhile along the South Coast we saw a decent surge of S/SE swell. The buoys peaked up around the 3m at Eden and 2.5m at Batemans Bay. It stopped somewhere between Batemans Bay and Port Kembla with only E swell picked up in the Illawarra.

The weekend and ahead

The S/SE swell for the Far South Coast will ease tomorrow as will the nice little E swell experienced in Sydney. There will still be an inconsistent 2ft of E swell on offer tomorrow and with W/NW winds funnelling around the northern flank of the low conditions will be nice and clean. The E swell will be more inconsistent because it is travelling from above NZ and isn’t aimed all that well for our coast. 

Sunday will see 2ft+ of the E swell thanks to a little intensification of winds north of NZ, before a new S swell starts to build in the afternoon and into the start of the new week. Winds will remain offshore, mainly out of the W, before easing and tending more light and variable out of the N for the afternoon in Sydney and the Hunter.

The S swell will be from winds on the western flank of the low that brought that super cold day for us on Thursday. Don’t expect too much from the swell though as winds don’t look that strong and it is aimed a little too S/SW initially but it’ll prevent it from being flat to start the week.

The new week

The S swell will build into Monday up around 2-3ft as it becomes a bit better aligned into Tuesday. Winds will be offshore on Monday although they’ll have a bit more W/SW in it then what we saw over the weekend. Tuesday will see W/SW winds early tending S by the afternoon.

The S swell will transition into a S/SE swell by Wednesday as strong S/SE winds below NZ are directed by the southwestern flank of the low. I’d expect waves to continue around that 2-3ft mark combined with the infeed of E/NE winds and E trade swell that isn’t as well aligned for our coast but still offering up something. 

With winds light and offshores early there’ll be nice conditions. Best to get out there early though as a NE winds will build and make it a bit bumpy in the arvo.

Later in the week it’s looking like there’ll be a strong infeed of northerly winds as a low pressure system moves over the southeast of the nation and brings a bit of weather with it. It’s a while out but there could be a NE windswell for Thursday and with winds looking to swing offshore there could be clean conditions. 

It’ll depend on the timing but as the low moves offshore winds will turn and bring cleaner conditions. 

There could also be an E swell filling in thanks to strong E winds out of the Cook Strait. These winds could be from the last of that low that brought us the cold weather yesterday. Models aren’t agreeing on it at the moment so let’s see what it’s looking like after the weekend on Monday.