Large, clean and easing swell
Victoria Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 26th April)
Best Days: Surf Coast Saturday, Surf Coast Sunday, Surf Coast Monday, exposed beaches Tuesday
Recap
Excellent conditions yesterday morning with a mix of new swells to 3-4ft on the Surf Coast swell magnets, building a little further late in the day as winds shifted more W'ly. To the east conditions were large and choppy.
Today we've got building surf from a severe low that's been projecting a fetch of severe-gale to storm-force W/SW winds towards us, with the storm now pushing across and south of Tasmania.
The Surf Coast was a bumpy 4-6ft early and should reach 8-10ft at swell magnets later this afternoon though with average conditions under a fresh to strong W/SW breeze, with very large 10-12ft sets on the Mornington Peninsula. You can follow the Cape Sorell wave buoy readings below.
Today’s Forecaster Notes are brought to you by Rip Curl
This weekend and next week (Apr 27 – May 3)
The swell expected off the severe low that's currently moving east will peak overnight, and ease steadily through tomorrow though from a more southerly S/SW direction.
The Surf Coast magnets should still see 8ft sets at dawn, mostly 6-8ft at most breaks with 10ft surf on the Mornington Peninsula. Winds will be great for protected spots with pumping surf across selected breaks under a moderate to fresh W/NW breeze, tending W'ly through the afternoon.
A strengthening front pushing in behind the low tomorrow, will produce an additional mid-period reinforcing SW swell for Sunday maintaining 4-5ft+ waves on the Surf Coast and 6-8ft surf on the Mornington Peninsula.
Winds will be best again for protected spots with a morning W/NW breeze, shifting W/SW into the afternoon.
From Monday we'll see the swell easing in size, with great conditions on the Surf Coast under a NW offshore and weak afternoon sea breezes. Size wise sets should still be around 3-4ft at magnets, with 5-6ft sets to the east, smaller Tuesday and dropping from 2ft and 3-4ft respectively under N tending N/NW winds.
From later Wednesday and more so Thursday we should see some new W/SW swell building on the coast, generated by a strong though weakening mid-latitude storm projecting from the Heard Island region towards WA and then through the Bight.
An initial fetch of W/SW gales will weaken and broaden, with the W/SW groundswell due to arrive overnight Wednesday and build Thursday to 3-4ft on the Surf Coast and 5-6ft+ on the Mornington Peninsula. A secondary front firing up behind the mid-latitude low should generate some additional W/SW swell for Thursday afternoon to a similar size, but this front is likely to bring a S/SE change for Thursday, followed by a possible broad low forming off the NSW coast.
With this we'll see strengthening SE winds as the W/SW swell eases Friday along with some building windswell. Depending on where this low develops we could see more variable breezes, but more on these tricky developments Monday. Have a great weekend!
Comments
Good luck to those heading to Bells or anywhere along the Surf Coast tomorrow with 3500 cyclists riding the Great Ocean and Otway Classic Ride.
Three distances with Torquay to Skenes Creek and back being the longest.
Haha yeh who the hell signed that off!
Wooh! Thanks for that update WS, changing plans as we speak. Early start coming up......
Not a problem WarriSymbol. Those riders take the inland route on quiet roads and didn't impact the comp at all. I had no problems passing those heading back into torquay. It's the same every year. Maybe do a little research before posting.
How do the riders get from The Esplanade in Torquay to the 'quiet roads'?
Over the very narrow Spring Creek bridge and up past the T intersection of Bells Blvd where many many cars were turning to visit the comp while the cyclists were trying to go straight through.
They don't go inland til they get to Bellbrae.
Also, getting out of the comp is one way. Towards Anglesea, back past Bellbrae and on to Juc. The only reason for that is the ride.
So to say no impact is a stretch but it did seem to be fairly well managed and as such was not much of a problem.
That’s annoying with the ride. That’ll clog up the GOR for what - half the day?
haha the two tribes will come head to head, waxheads vs lycra enthusiasts
Still solid!
Good size again this morning with the swell more southerly in direction, hectic sweep at winki as the tide drained out, need a new pair of arms for tomorrow.
Was a good size today. Nowhere near the quality of yesterday though. Was still pumping on dark last night. So clean.
How have the post comp crowds been?
I didn’t check Bells or Winki but surfed somewhere between Torquay and Lorne first thing and it was relatively quiet for a weekend morning with a solid swell. Then late morning the stretch between Winki and Juc was very quiet.
An hour after the comp finished there were around 20 out at Bells, a similar number at Winki and probably a dozen or a few more out at Boobs. At Torquay, Drainos looked good and was popular.