Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 15th May)

Best Days: Protected spots tomorrow for desperate surfers, Friday morning, Saturday morning magnets in the South West

Recap

Great waves across the South West yesterday morning with clean 4-5ft reef waves, small and to 1-2ft in Perth and Mandurah. The swell has eased back into this morning though winds were light again and conditions clean with fun 3-4ft waves in the South West, 1-1.5ft further north.

Today’s Forecaster Notes are brought to you by Rip Curl

This week and weekend (May 16 – 19)

Into the end of the week we've got a mix of new long-period SW groundswell and mid-period S/SW swell due to fill in, with the later being downgraded since Monday.

The groundswell has been generated and should arrive late today and peak tomorrow morning to 6ft+ across the South West magnets, 2ft in Mandurah and 1-2ft in Perth.

A surface trough moving in from the west tomorrow will project a weak fetch of strong S/SW winds towards us, producing an additional mid-period S/SW swell that is expected to build into the afternoon though not above the size of the groundswell and easing through Friday from the 6ft range in the South West, 2ft in Mandurah and 1-2ft in Perth.

Winds are looking better now and not onshore in the South West, but strong from the S/SE tomorrow, leaving protected spots with the best waves while Perth and Mandurah may be onshore at dawn before winds shift S/SE through the morning.

Friday is the pick with E/SE-SE offshore winds and the easing swell, while Saturday will be best across the South West magnets with a morning E/NE breeze and easing 3-5ft sets from the S/SW.

The surf will bottom out into Sunday and Monday, with no considerable increase in size until Tuesday and more so Wednesday. A strong though weakening node of the Long Wave Trough moving in next week will bring increased frontal activity up and into us, resulting in onshore and building swells that at this stage only look to become large, not extra-large.

8-10ft surf is currently expected at the peak of the swells next Wednesday through Friday but with onshore winds form the western quadrant, even impacting Perth and Mandurah. We'll look closer at this Friday.