Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday January 6th)

Best Days: Keen surfers Friday, beaches Saturday morning, keen surfers Tuesday and Wednesday mornings

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing S/SW swell tomorrow, further Fri with fresh morning E/NE winds, easing early afternoon
• New inconsistent SW groundswell Sat with early offshore winds
• Strong S/SE-SE winds next week with mid-period S/SW swells

Recap

Yesterday's swell packed a bit more punch than expected with good, clean 5-6ft waves across the South West with strong, easing offshore winds, tiny to the north around Perth and Mandurah.

Today our large S/SW groundswell has come in bang on forecast with pumping 6-8ft surf in the South West with strong, though easing offshore winds again, 2ft+ in Mandurah though tiny in Perth owing to the southerly direction.

Someone exiting a nice, hollow one

This week and weekend (Jan 7 - 10)

Today's large S/SW groundswell will be fairly short-lived owing to it being generated late in our swell window and arriving from the south. So we can expect the swell to halve in size tomorrow, dropping back from the 4ft range across the South West magnets, tiny to the north.

Winds will be strong from the E/NE tomorrow morning, tending N/NE late morning and then easing, possibly variable N/NW in the South West, with sea breezes to the north.

Friday looks to play out similar with a touch less strength to the wind and small, leftover surf.

Therefore the bottom line is make the most of today!

Into Saturday, our inconsistent SW groundswell event is still on track, but you’ll have to surf early as dawn E'ly winds will give into a weak onshore change mid-morning as a surface trough moves in from the west.

The source of the swell was a secondary, more distant low that developed south-east of South Africa last Sunday, with inconsistent but good 5-6ft sets due across the South West, 2ft in Mandurah and 2ft on the sets across Perth. The swell is due to arrive later Friday but with those afternoon onshore breezes.

Sunday looks average as the swell eases with strong S/SW tending S winds as Saturday's swell eases.

Next week onwards (Jan 11 onwards)

Winds should swing back offshore from the SE Monday morning as a high moves in from the west, but a couple of cold fronts pushing up and then east of us will see winds hold strong from the S/SE-SE all of next week, limiting surfing options.

Swell wise the fronts will generate fun pulses of mid-period S/SW swell for mainly later Monday/Tuesday morning and Thursday. More on this in Friday's update though.