Victorian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 21st June)

Best Days: Today on the beaches, early Friday keen surfers to the east, Sunday, 

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Fading surf tomorrow with gusty N/NE winds
• Small, inconsistent mid-period W/SW swell Fri with strong N tending weaker N/NW winds
• Easing surf Sat with strong N/NW winds
• Fun, inconsistent W/SW groundswell Sat with strong N/NW winds, easing Mon with strong N/NW tending W/NW winds
• Possible good swell for Wed/Thu

Recap

The low forming right off the Tasmanian coast on Monday exhibited a slightly stronger than expected fetch of core, storm-force winds and this helped boost the swell to the 5-6ft range on the Surf Coast early yesterday, though a little lumpy and raw.

The swell settled and improved through the day while easing, with smaller but super fun 2ft to occasionally 3ft waves on the Surf Coast today, 3ft+ to the east. The swell will ease further through the day as winds shift N/NE across all locations after lunch.

Good beachy options today

This week and weekend (Jun 22 - 25)

Make the most of today's easing swell as we've got a slow few days ahead thanks to the current frontal and stormy activity pushing up and into Western Australia, too far north of our swell window.

Tomorrow will be smaller across all locations and a gusty N/NE wind will favour exposed breaks but don't expect much over 1-2ft.

On Friday, a small, inconsistent W/SW swell is due to boost wave heights slightly, generated by the early stages of a frontal system that's now pushing across Western Australia.

The Surf Coast may see infrequent 1-2ft waves on the magnets, 2-3ft to the east but with gusty N tending N/NW winds. There'll be a window for the keen to the east but lower your expectations.

Saturday will see the small, inconsistent swell fading as winds strengthen from the N tending N/NW.

On Sunday, another inconsistent W/SW swell is due, but with more strength and size than Friday's though generated in the same area. A fetch of strong to gale-force W/SW winds around a polar low forming to the south-west of Western Australia today should produce good, inconsistent sets to 2-3ft on the Surf Coast magnets Sunday, 4-5ft to the east as strong N/NW winds persist thanks to a broad, mid-latitude low pushing slowly in and across South Australia.

The swell will ease into Monday as winds shift strong N/NW to W/NW as the low moves across us, bottoming out Tuesday ahead of some better swell developments mid-late week.

The models diverge a little following the mid-latitude activity but EC has a great Southern Ocean frontal progression firing up to the south-west of us through early next week, delivering a moderate to large SW groundswell for Wednesday/Thursday, with a possibly secondary follow up next weekend. GFS is a bit weaker so we'll have a closer look at the developments on Friday.