Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday September 26th)

Best Days: Tomorrow, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday morning in the South West, Monday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Large reinforcing SW groundswell for this afternoon, easing tomorrow with E/SE offshore winds ahead of sea breezes
• Mod-large mid-period SW swell for Wed with fresh SE tending stronger S-S/SE winds
• Easing surf Thu with gusty SE tending S/SE winds
• Small Fri AM ahead of a new SW groundswell into the PM. E/NE tending W winds
• Slow drop in size Sat with gusty S/SE winds
• Moderate sized W/SW swell Sun PM, peaking Mon AM with S/SE tending S/SW winds Sun, SE tending SW Mon

Recap

Poor waves on Saturday with onshore winds in the South West and a drop in size from Friday, cleaner in Perth and Mandurah with sets to 1-2ft and 2ft respectively.

Our large pulse of new SW groundswell came in strongly yesterday and winds were light for a period in the morning across the South West with 10-12ft sets, clean and 3ft in Mandurah and 2ft+ sets across Perth.

This morning conditions are good again with a drop in size back to 6-8ft across the South West, 2ft+ in Mandurah and 1-2ft in Perth. Conditions are now deteriorating with developing sea breezes, and a reinforcing pulse of swell is maintaining wave heights and strong sets to 8ft in the South West.

Large sets with a slight onshore crumble this afternoon

This week and weekend (Sep 27 – Oct 2)

The coming week or so looks fun for surf across the South West with a better run of cleaner conditions and fun sized swells due across the state.

Firstly, our reinforcing SW swell for this afternoon which is maintaining 6-8ft sets in the South West with 2-3ft waves across Mandurah and 2ft sets in Perth has come in nicely.

This swell will ease from 6ft+, 2-3ft and 2ft respectively tomorrow across Margs, Mandurah and Perth along with clean conditions under a light E/SE offshore wind. Sea breezes look relatively weak across the South West, stronger in Perth and Mandurah.

Moving into Wednesday and a good new mid-period SW swell is due to arrive, generated by a low that's currently south-west of us, generating a fetch of strong to gale-force W/NW winds, followed by a smaller fetch of SW gales.

This swell doesn't look overly strong and should maintain surf in the 6ft range across the South West with 2ft waves in Mandurah and 1-2ft sets across Perth. Winds look to shift back SE on Wednesday morning ahead of gusty S/SE breezes into the afternoon, more SE on Thursday as the swell eases.

Friday looks to become a low point in energy ahead of a shift in winds to the E/NE as an inland low deepens and a high passes under us to the east.

Into the afternoon though a new pulse of SW groundswell should be seen, though from a flukey source of short-lived, severe-gale W/NW winds north of the Heard Island region.

While not ideally aimed and not overly strong, we should still see fun sets to 3-5ft across the South West Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, easing through Sunday morning.

A trough will bring a shift in winds back to the S/SE on Saturday (fresh and gusty) ahead of a possible trough on Sunday, bringing less favourable S/SW winds.

A new mid-period swell should bost wave heights back into Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, generated on the backside of the poorly aligned W/NW fetch, and at this stage it looks inconsistent but to 4-5ft+ with a bit of southerly bias to the winds.

Longer term there's nothing significant swell wise on the cards, but check back here Wednesday for a clearer idea on what's in store.