West Australian Surf Forecast by Guy Dixon (issued Wednesday 25th May)

Best Days: Sunday

Recap: 

It’s been a wild couple of days with a strong southwesterly groundswell providing sets in the 10ft range across the South West, accompanied by strong and persistent southwesterly winds. Perth and Mandurah have been offering sets up to 3ft, although also lacking quality.

This week (Thursday 26th - Friday 27th):

The surf will follow a generally easing trend in the coming days with only weak frontal activity moving to the south, failing to provide any fresh size. Thursday should see sets ease from the 6-8ft range, more so on Friday from the 4-6ft range.

Perth and Mandurah are likely to offer sets in the 2ft range on Thursday morning, before easing back to a weak 1-2ft by the end of the week.

Unfortunately, Thursday will continued to be plagued by southwesterly winds, only easing into the afternoon. Friday morning holds the next best chance of a clean wave along the metro beaches before tending northwesterly, less likely across the South West under an increasing northwesterly breeze.

This weekend (Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th):

A mid-latitude low is still on track to move across the Indian Ocean in a fairly zonal nature, with well structured, consolidated west/southwesterly trailing fetches of 45-55kts (currently) easing at it moves east.

Energy off a pre-frontal northwesterly fetch will beat the main groundswell to the mainland, providing options in the 5-6ft range on Saturday, with the long range forerunners due to fill in across the South West during the late evening. Quality will be hard to come by under a gusty southwesterly breeze persisting for most of the day.

The majority of the size is due to follow on Sunday, providing good sets to around 8ft across the South West, more so in the 3ft range for Perth. Conditions should finally become workable with a light southerly breeze easing and becoming variable across the South West, light southeasterly in Perth.

The west/southwesterly nature of the swell (due to the zonal storm track) should favour the metro beaches, providing more size than an equivalent system moving from the Southern Ocean.

An easing trend should ensure preceding the next long range groundswell which should begin to show on Tuesday morning (forerunners) building in the afternoon and into Wednesday with inconsistent sets in the 8ft range.

This swell will likely have been generated by a distant frontal progression positioned well west of Heard Island, pushing east with multiple reincarnations. More detail closer to the date.