Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 17th May)

Best Days: South West tomorrow morning, Perth and Mandurah Tuesday morning, all coasts Wednesday and Thursday mornings

Recap

Very windy and poor conditions across most locations yesterday with a building swell, decent in protected locations later in the day. Today the swell is cleaning up and on the ease, though not perfect. Margs was a bumpy 6ft across exposed spots, cleaner in more protected locations, 2-3ft in Mandurah and 2ft in Perth.

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This weekend and next week (May 18 – 24)

Our current mix of easing SW groundswell and mid-period S/SW energy should continue to drop into tomorrow with much cleaner conditions. A morning E/NE breeze is due in the South West, E'ly to the north ahead of weak sea breezes. Margs swell magnets exposed to the south swell should still see 3-5ft sets, 1-2ft in Mandurah and tiny in Perth.

Sunday is still a lay day with the swell easing off further and with moderate to fresh N/NE tending stronger N/NW winds with a weakening trough approaching from the east.

No new significant swell is due in the wake of this trough but winds will linger onshore from the S/SW Monday, W in the South West Tuesday morning with light E/NE offshores to the north. Perth and Mandurah will likely offer 1-2ft of mid-period W/SW swell and are worth a look.

Of greater importance is a strong and slow moving polar fetch of gale to severe-gale W/SW winds projecting up from the Heard Island region towards us through the weekend and early next week.

The slow moving nature of the storm and the way it sling shots slightly up towards us should produce a good large, long-period SW groundswell for Wednesday, with it due to build through Tuesday afternoon. A peak in size to 10ft+ is due across the South West, 3ft in Mandurah and 2-3ft in Perth along with light morning winds, likely E/SE.

The swell will ease into the end of the week, possibly slowed by a couple of secondary storms and with what looks to be favourable winds.

We'll have another look at this on Monday though, have a great weekend!