Hey Craig, will the swell tomorrow morning on the Surfcoast be any stronger than this morning or won't it build until late morning / afternoon? Would you recommend clean but hardly breaking tomorrow morning or bigger but on shore on the Surfcoast Friday morning?

Hi Damien
To become an experienced surfer, you need to make mistakes. Choosing the wrong day or time to surf is part of it.
You will be better for the experience.
No different to getting flogged when your skills aren’t up to the swell or conditions.
You are always a bit more aware of what and when to do next time.
I think Craig has given us enough information to work with.
Have a great day LG

SAM staying positive for the foreseeable but at least heading in the right direction.

Fair point Branda. I could have worded my question better. I don't expect Craig to tell me which spot or time to surf. I think we can all get enough information from Craigs forecast to work out when and where to surf most of the year, but I do think Craig could give a bit more insight into what the most dominant swell will be on the Surfcoast when we have these extended runs of SE wind swell mixed into weak SW swells and communicate that clearly and not cryptically. My observations on the ground are that the SE influence seems to be stronger than what the forecast suggests on the Surfcoast and much less so on the Eastcoast. So what I really wanted to know was when will this new SW swell start to dominate and become the primary swell component for the Surfcoast.
Please take my next point as constructive criticism and it would be good to get some feedback from other swell net users on this. I think the key information most of us want from the extended forecast is what the swell size, direction and wave period will be for each day (am & pm) along with what the wind direction and strength will be in the morning and the timing of an onshore change. Craigs written forecast often does not match the model generated graphic forecast on swell net and this is why I read it. It is usually much more accurate. However Craig often throws in quite a lot of technical information about the source of these swells but at the expense of clearly communicating this information. Would other users appreciate less tech talk and a more clear, day by day breakdown of conditions in these reports? Also given the number of Victorian Swellnet subscribers, is there a case for separate East Coast and Surfcoast extended forecast notes? I work in a highly technical field and my natural inclination was to put lots of technical detail into reports or papers I write, but helpful editors have often pointed out that this reduces the clarity of what the reader actually needs to know. Cheers

Damien - "constructive feedback" would be a better term - no need to criticise.
I know the waves have been bad of late, but no need to take it out on Craig. Usually we turn on each other, not Craig.
Love your Forecaster Notes Craig - they're the main reason I subscribe.
Keep up the good work.

Yeah nah Craigos’ foreys are spot on.

I believe your issue is with Huey, not Craigos.

I agree with Damien. It's basically about the way the forecast is formatted. We can love swellnet and be grateful for craig's work and passion, but still have a view about how to make things better.

You'll agree that if you're reading a report for work, or a medical report on your blood tests, or just about anything, it helps if the key information is articulated clearly in a systematic, sequential order. ABC, 123.

With all due respect Damien, rubbish call. Craig's forey's are not only spot on 99% of the time (I ignore the models which often seem off beyond swell period & direction), he provides just the right amount of detail whilst still allowing some mystique and local scoping of conditions to occur. Your silver platter request would actually be shit as even more crew would flood the lineups at the specific times you're asking Craig to tell you to go surf. Not to forget we also have an abundance of surf cams to check also.

Play on Craigos. Just give Huey a little nudge will ya

With regard to when the W-SW swell fills in, in the absence of a set time one could look on the Pt Nepean buoy for primary and secondary swells to see the SE swell and the new W-SW one, and particularly for a long period beginning of the swell to register - then it's time to get in the car.

Like all foreys, I think Craig’s forey is adaptable and malleable and reveals what it needs to, when it needs to.

As a Grom we used to use our terry towelling board covers to analyse surf conditions..
If they were wet and soggy it was raining and onshore.
If they were light and fluffy and blowing to the surf it was off shore.
If they were mouldy we hadn't been surfing for ages, no swell.
If they were salty and crusty we were surfing a lot, heaps of swell.
Geeze we even used to use them as sleeping bags.

Everyone obviously loves the reports but they could have greater clarity. Sometimes I have to read it a couple of times to ascertain what the days forecast is. Sometimes I don't fully know because there is either a detail omission, or the descriptor is linked to another days status and it is unclear.

Tables, bold text, headings, division into days of week and linear conclusions could help.

Just read thru this.
Sometimes think SN admin must read what the Vicco's have to say/ask, roll their eyes and wonder about us Mexicans.
(Probably the same reaction to some of my own posts on the forums to be honest.)
Yo Damien, there was a time when we all had no fkn clue what the fk was going on apart from winds and tides, then years of uploading confusing BoM swell charts on a fax machine that gave few answers anyway, Cost more doing that back then than a monthly swellnet sub. Swell was always a crapshoot until you laid eyes on it or had a mate to ring, until old mate John Sparra Pyburne got his phone service going. Sometimes it was flat, sometimes 8ft. Part of the fun and education back then. Part of being a local somewhere was catching up with the boys at a dawn lookout. Not anymore, we check the cams. I miss those days and fortunately live somewhere the (old now) boys still do it, out of habit and I can still get that, although I'm usually too lazy and just check the cams.
We've also got spots that handle, some even love the SE swell direction/bit of east peak action. Seek and find bro.
You are very lucky that you get a heads up these days. If it's confusing to you, or not specific enough it's down to you. Re read it and leave Craig, and Ben when he's on deck, out of it.
Like the boys above said, getting skunked will teach you a lot.
Never had an issue with Craig's forey. (Now that's a sentence I could've worded better).
Don't change Craig, don't change.

Or you could just learn how to do things yourself and not rely on others.

Thanks for the feedback and keeping the discussion mostly respectful. Just for context I’ve been surfing since 1982 and picked up a copy of Richard Loveridge’s Victorian surf guide when I got my P’s in 1987. I used it as my bible for years and managed to surf most of the spots in that book over the years and explore plenty of spots in between. The pages of that book are filled with notes and it’s still in the glovebox of my car. Like most Victorian surfers my age I’ve put in the time and have a pretty good idea of where will be worthwhile to surf for any given swell, tide and wind combo. I just want the report to be better written to make that information clear. If people love the romance of not knowing, then why are you subscribing to Swellnet? I never meant this as a personal attack on Craig, but Swellnet probably has a minimum of 2000 Victorian subscribers, which equates to roughly $1200 for every forecast note and nothing ever improves and evolves without review, reflection and feedback. If anything, at least this discussion has highlighted the diversity of views among subscribers. Most of the pushback about this idea seems to stem from the fear that this will increase crowds at your favourite spot, but I’d argue that it’d probably be the opposite and if anything would probably help novice surfers choose more suitable surf locations than they currently do. Urban sprawl and improved road infrastructure have more to do with increasing crowds than better forecasting notes. That's me done and I hope you all get some waves.
Cheers

correct MWM