Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 20th December)

Best Days: All coasts tomorrow morning, Margs Friday and Saturday mornings, swell magnets for keen surfers Sunday morning

Recap

Better conditions across Perth and Mandurah yesterday morning with morning S/SE breezes and 2ft+ waves across the former, 2-3ft around the later. Margs was around 6ft+ but conditions were still poor as the swell halved in size through the day.

This morning we've got straight offshore winds across all locations but tiny surf around Perth and Mandurah, and leftover 2-3ft sets in the South West.

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This week and weekend (Dec 21 - 24)

Later today we should see some new long-period SW groundswell arriving across the coast, peaking tomorrow morning. This swell should provide fun surf, with it being generated by a strong low that initially formed south-east of South Africa before weakening and dipping east-southeast along the polar shelf across the Heard Island region.

We should see good 4-5ft+ sets across the South West swell magnets tomorrow morning and 1-1.5ft waves to the north, easing slightly through the day and back from 4ft and 1ft respectively Friday morning.

The surf will continue to ease through the weekend, dropping from 3ft+ across the South West Saturday morning, smaller and from 2ft+ Sunday. Perth will become near flat.

Conditions tomorrow look good with a SE offshore across the South West and E'ly to the north, giving into afternoon sea breezes, while Friday looks similar, though with fresher breezes, tending S/SE through the afternoon across the South West and SW around Perth and Mandurah.

A SE breeze is expected again Saturday morning, while Sunday should see straighter E/SE offshores favouring the swell magnets.

The longer term outlook is looking a little better now, with a distant and strong frontal progression developing south-east of South Africa expected to push east with the swell it's creating.

We should see a mix of inconsistent long-period W/SW groundswell and more consistent mid-period W/SW swell mid-next week, though winds look to be an issue and onshore from the S/SW. We'll have to look at this a bit closer Friday.