Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 12th January)

Best Days: Tuesday morning, Friday morning, Saturday morning swell magnets

Recap

Good winds for exposed breaks over the weekend with an easing swell and straight offshores, blustery at times during the mornings before backing off for a fun window before sea breezes kicked in.

Today a new pulse of SW groundswell has filled in with good winds across the South West providing great waves, while Perth and Mandurah were still tiny, and Gero kicked to 2-3ft.

A stronger and slightly larger W/SW groundswell is due through this afternoon but sea breezes have since kicked in.

This week (Jan 13 - 16)

This afternoon's kick in W/SW groundswell will be very inconsistent, generated by a strong polar low south-west of South Africa and Madagascar last week.

Still it should peak tomorrow morning and offer good but infrequent 4-6ft sets across the South West, 1-2ft waves in Perth and 3-4ft surf up at Gero before easing slightly through the day and further into Wednesday.

Winds tomorrow will be best around Perth and offshore from the E/NE, while Margs should see morning E/SE winds while Gero looks average with gusty S'ly breezes. Get in through the morning though as winds will swing fresh to strong onshore into the afternoon.

Wednesday looks dicey with fresh to strong SE winds in the South West, more variable breezes up around Perth and lingering onshore SW winds around Gero.

Our next increase in swell is due through the day Thursday, but to no major size across all coasts. The source of the swell is a relatively weak polar low east of Heard Island, with only a small kick in size to 3-4ft+ during the day expected around Margs, 1-1.5ft in Perth into the afternoon and 3ft up at Gero late.

SE winds are due to kick in across most locations Thursday morning, but likely more S/SE for the most part around Margs and Gero. Friday looks cleaner on the backside of the swell with E/SE winds.

This weekend onwards (Jan 17 onwards)

Into the weekend there's nothing too major on the cards, with a similar pulse of SW groundswell to Thursday's due on Sunday. Beyond this though we we'll finally see some larger swell across the state as a strong node of the Long Wave Trough pushes in from the west, directing a series of vigorous cold fronts up towards us from the weekend into next week.

This should generate some larger SW groundswell for next week with poor winds initially that should improve on the backside of the swell event. More on this Wednesday though.