Western Australia Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Wednesday April 24th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Great waves throughout Margs Wed/Thurs with a new groundswell, and favourable winds
• Another swell due late Sat/Sun, with solid/clean surf throughout Margs
• Metro coasts should see small surf on Fri and (especially) Sun from these swells
• Long range, long period groundswell shaping up for the following weekend too

Recap

Tuesday offered great surf throughout Margaret River with offshore winds and easing 6-8ft sets, today was down to 4-5ft early with lighter offshore winds creating smooth conditions. The metro beaches were small on Tuesday, 2ft in Perth and 2-3ft in Mandurah but size has eased back further today creating tiny conditions. Conditions have however been nice and clean with all-day easterly winds. 

(Please note: FC Notes will be variable in delivery this week as Craig is on paternity leave)

This week (April 25 - 26)

Great surf is expected throughout the Margaret River region on Thursday and Friday with a new long period groundswell expected to nose into the coast sometime early/mid morning, before peaking overnight or perhaps early Friday morning and easing throughout.

At its peak, set waves should manage 6ft+ across exposed Margs reefs, though it’ll be smaller early Thursday before the new energy arrives.

Conditions are looking excellent with moderate offshore winds through the morning tending variable afternoon ahead of a weak sea breeze. Friday should repeat the synoptic trend. 

Across metro coasts, we’ll see only small surf from this event, with tiny conditions early Thursday lifting to 1-2ft across Perth’s swell magnets (slightly bigger in Mandurah), which may not show properly until early Friday morning. However conditions will be clean in the mornings with light offshore winds ahead of afternoon sea breezes. 

This weekend (Apr 27 - 28)

Another large swell is expected this weekend, generated by a powerful but distant polar low below Madagascar earlier this week.

There’s no change to my size expectations - Saturday will start off with smaller leftovers from Friday’s easing trend, but the buoys should register new long period energy through the day and we’ll see a noticeable upwards trend into the afternoon ahead a peak in size on Sunday. Most breaks should manage 5-6ft sets but the deepwater reefs should push higher into the 6-8ft range. 

Saturday’s conditions look great with light variable winds and sea breezes; Sunday should still provide nice conditions under moderate SE winds though they will be a little brisk at times, and may veer more S/SE throughout the day.

Metro beaches should pick up small, infrequent 1-2ft sets from this swell, though Saturday will be quite undersized for the most part - Sunday is a better chance to snag some good waves from this swell, somewhere in the 2ft+ range across exposed Perth beaches, and 2-3ft+ in Mandurah. 

Next week (Apr 29 onwards)

We’ve got another major swell production machine expected to develop below South Africa this weekend (see below), and the resulting (very) long period swell is expected to reach WA coasts sometime around the following weekend. This looks like being a special event. More on that in Friday’s update.