Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 9th of May)

Best Days: Gero Saturday morning, north of Bunbury from Sunday (excluding Perth Monday), Margs Tuesday morning and Thursday onwards

Recap

A large and stormy W'ly swell developed across the state yesterday but there were no decent options for a wave with strong onshore winds. Today the swell has started to drop but winds are still onshore, creating poor conditions.

This weekend (May 10 - 11)

Today's easing swell will continue to drop into tomorrow morning but winds should improve and swing offshore up around Gero, variable around Perth, while Margs will continue to see poor W/NW winds.

Into the afternoon the first of two pulses of large SW groundswell should arrive. This swell probably won't arrive until after dark further north, but the secondary larger pulse due on Sunday is the one worth talking about.

These swells have been generated by a couple of vigorous polar fronts piggybacking each other in the Heard Island region, with the second system acting on the back of the original storm, needing less work to kick up a large open ocean sea state. This system is currently pushing towards us while weakening, with the swell due to peak Sunday to 10-12ft in the South West with larger waves at offshore bommies, 3-4ft in Perth and 6-8ft up at Gero midday onwards.

Winds will remain onshore down in the South West from the NW, while Perth should see an early NE breeze and Gero morning E/SE winds.

Monday onwards (May 12 onwards)

The swell should dip temporarily into Monday morning but a new large W/SW groundswell is due to fill in through the afternoon as flurry of tertiary frontal activity pushes up into us over the weekend under the influence of stalling node of the Long Wave Trough just south-west of us. This will continue to provide large waves from Monday through Thursday but the main issue is the local winds.

The Margaret River region isn't expected to see any relief until Tuesday morning when winds should tend more variable, but come Wednesday a weak W'ly is due back again. Thursday looks to see a proper offshore from the E/SE creating much needed clean conditions.

Further north conditions should be favourable all week (besides Monday in Perth when fresh W/NW winds are expected.

Longer term there's nothing too major on the cards for next week besides small to medium amounts of SW groundswell. Check back here on Monday for the latest update though and in the meantime, have a great weekend!