Heaps of swell pushing in this morning – and lots of people to greet it too. Dee Why is seeing a steady supply of bomb sets thanks to the 3m+ 11 second SSE swell. Wave faces on the bigger catchable ones are into the 10 foot range. Surface conditions are a bit messy but the main drama is those bomb sets. The large crowd is doing a fair amount of duck diving to hold position as they wait for something that’s not shutting down. The beachy is mostly shutdowns, but unless I’m hallucinating, there seem to be a few peaks trying to take shape as the swell starts cutting some gutters.
Swell looks set to peak about midday and then to fade back to smaller, but not flat, conditions tomorrow morning. After that it looks like more typical summery smallness.
Go well with your day!
Tide high at noon.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: NW/SW 8/13 knots, turning NE 13/18 knots during the afternoon. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S 1.5 to 2 metres
Thursday: Wind: Variable 5/10 knots, becoming NE 15/20 knots in the afternoon, and 15/20 knots in the evening.Sea: below about 1 metre, rising to about 2 metres.Swell: SE about 1 metre.
Friday: Wind: N/NE 15/25 knots reaching 20/30 knots offshore later.
Swell has arrived. A bit raw-boned and messy, but it’s the biggest we’ve seen in weeks. Heaps of folks on it at Dee Why from 0600.
Swell looks to be pretty much S-SE with wave faces in the 8-foot range on the biggest ones. I’d guess the period is around the 9-10 sec mark (the MHL site hasn’t updated since yesterday evening).
Weather is perfect and we’ve got an incoming tide with light SW winds to begin.
And good news on the forecast front. The models which were showing a very brief spike, now reckon the swell could last at around this intensity (maybe even getting jucier) through tomorrow midday. And tomorrow could see more west to the wind direction as well… woohoo!
Tides: H @1130, L @1800
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Tuesday until midnight: Wind: SW 13/18 knots, reaching 20/25 knots offshore at first. Easing to 10/15 knots by about noon. Becoming SE/NE 8/13 knots in the afternoon, then N/NW in the evening.Sea: 1.5 to 2.5 metres, abating to about 1 metre in the afternoon/evening. Swell: S 1.5 to 2 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: NW/SW 10/15 knots, turning E/SE 13/18 knots during the afternoon. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S 1.5 to 2 metres.
Thursday: Wind: NW/NE 5/15 knots, increasing to NE 15/25 knots.
We have waves. Shoulder high to a foot or two overhead. Glassy, but high tide a biggun at 0730. No wind now, turning more N-NW later in morning, then NE 15-20 kts. Power setting on swell exactly as predicted by models, ie 12-16sec @ 1.5m to 3m from the SSE.
As the day goes along, we can expect the surf to pick up as the swell pushes up into the 2-3.5m range. It should be solid all day, and then overnight it may drop back a bit but not go anything like flat for Tuesday before maybe coming up a bit on Wednesday. With luck, it’ll still be going on Thursday.
My hope is to get out and about with a camera today, so there should be a few more pictures later.
Longer wait for waves inside, but clearly some size.
Fair number of bods in at 0630 and rather setty.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Strong Wind Warning.
Monday until midnight: Wind: SE 5/10 knots, turning N/NW 10/15 knots during the morning, then N/NE 15/20 knots during the afternoon ahead of a 25/33 knot S change during the evening.Sea: 1 to 2 metres, rising to 2.5 to 3.5 metres during the evening. Swell: increasing to S 2 to 3 metres. Afternoon/evening thunderstorms.
Tuesday: Wind: S 20/25 knots, reaching 25/30 knots at first. Easing to E/SE 10/15 knots at night.Sea: 2 to 3 metres, abating to 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S 2 to 3 metres.
Wednesday: Wind: E/NE 5/10 knots, increasing to 10/20 knots.
Synoptic Situation
A high lies over the northern Tasman Sea and extends a ridge along the NSW coast while a cold front is approaching Tasmania. The front and its associated southerly change will move up the South Coast this afternoon, reaching Ulladulla by early evening, and be moving along the Hunter coast by midnight. The change will progress along the Mid North Coast overnight, and is expected near Cape Byron by Tuesday afternoon. A low will deepen to the east of Tasmania later today, with a pulse of gale force southwesterly winds affecting the far south tip of the NSW coast tonight. As this low moves eastward on Tuesday, another high pressure system will move into the southern Tasman Sea, with southerly winds gradually easing. On Wednesday the high will move further eastward, and the wind will swing around to the north to northeast and increase again, generally remaining northeasterly until the weekend.
Pocketed at the point on a beautiful morning in Sydney.
Hello Friends,
If you can possibly manage it, I’d be hunting waves at your favourite south swell spots. Swell has bumped up overnight, both in size and in period. At Dee Why that means consistent waves along with sets comfortably into the head high range. Tide’s high around midday, and we’ll have light mainly offshore breezes this morning. I’ll try to get a few more pics for sharing later…
Go well!
Tides: 1140 H, 1813 L
Synoptic Situation
A deep low over the southwestern is moving slowly southeast. During Friday a high pressure system will develop over the western Tasman Sea.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots reaching 15/20 knots offshore in the morning. Local inshore afternoon seabreezes. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S/SE about 2 metres.
Friday: Wind: W 10/15 knots, tending E/NE 10/15 knots in the afternoon and N/NW 15/20 knots in the evening.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: SE 1.5 to 2 metres.
Saturday: Wind: N/NW freshening to 15/25 knots. N/NW 10/20 knots.
My venue of choice was the point at Dee Why this morning, but there were a fair few other options on offer. Swell seemed to be holding through the morning and was still rolling along this afternoon.
I came back with a few watershots from the point (gallery to come soon) and then this afternoon, I swooped down to south Narrabeen to see how it was looking there. Mostly shutting down it has to be said, but there were a few folks out giving it a go anyway.
Catchya again tomorrow!
Plugging into another set this morning at Dee Why point.
Ducking under another one at Dee Why point
Still lines coming in at south Narrabeen.
Green glass and whipped cream at south Narrabeen.
Exceedingly crunchy at late afternoon south Narrabeen
Happy to report that we’ve still got plenty of swell to play with in Sydney this morning. It’s definitely dropped since yesterday but there are still head high plus sets turning up. Looks like the cleanest conditions will be happening this morning. We’re set to have light WSW winds until the afternoon when the forecast calls for weak onshores to develop.
We should have another 24 hours left in this pulse and then we’re set for a period of smaller, but not flat conditions across the weekend.
Have yourself a top old day!
The pre-work, pre-school crew is all over the less consistent sets at the point.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: W/SW 10/15 knots, reaching 15/20 knots at times offshore. Inshore afternoon E/NE seabreezes 5/10 knots.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: E 1.5 to 2 metres.
Friday: Wind: SW 10/15 knots, turning SE during the afternoon, variable 5/10 knots at night.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres, abating to less than 1 metre.Swell: E 1 to 1.5 metres.
Saturday: Wind: W/NW 8/13 knots, turning NE during the afternoon.
Pretty crunchy looking sets at Dee Why around 0730.
Just on dusk, whilst my daughter was at singing lessons, I dodged over to Northy for a quick 20 mins behind the lens. Quality was not outstanding due to the sideshore and general choppiness, and there was quite a crew on it, but I did manage to get a few snaps. Herewith a sample of the more interesting ones. (Naturally there’ll be an entire session gallery posted on my personal site later for anyone who may have been out and who wonders if I got a picture of them… )
20 minutes maximum, but they're going for it anyway.
Getting everything squared away for a cover
Artful hack inflicted on hapless Northy inside section.
White-breasted sea eagle looking for some tucker from above Northy just before Huey dims the houselights on another day.
Was busy in the middle part of the day over in town. Got back to the beach around 1400. Checked the Bower to see if the wind was tearing it up. Chop wasn’t super bad, but it was too messy to tempt anyone out. Some sizable sets coming in too.
A few people were out along the Manly stretch, but it really looked like a lot of work to get out there and the bomb sets were pretty frequent. Wave faces were into the three metre range on the bigger ones.
Same story, if not a bit bigger again around at Curly. But no one in the water. Just too much of a struggle to get out and there weren’t any obviously consistent peaks.
Around at Dee Why the crowd was starting to gather on the point. A couple bods over in the beachy, but it looked rippy and hard work. The point doesn’t really like east swell, but there were some very makeable and slabby things coming in every now and again. The biggest sets were looking crazy though. I only saw a couple that didn’t shut down and for the most part folks were jumping on the little ones (wave faces in the 2-3 metre range).
Had a look at the Collaroy Narrabeen stretch too. Nobody in the water until you get all the way up to the north end. It kinda looked tow-able in the south, but you probably wouldn’t try paddling out. Northy was very well attended, but did not seem to be as consistent as Dee Why. A couple folks were playing tow-ins at Turimetta too.
The chop was present along all the south ends, but it wasn’t really bad.
Swell is currently in the 2-3 metre range with a whopping 12-13 sec period, so this is not a day for beginners!
Outlook for tomorrow is north to NW wind tomorrow morning and although the swell seems to have peaked up north, I’d be astounded if it was dramatically smaller on Weds.
Have yourself a good one!
If you didn't mind wearing the bomb sets, it was possible to jag the smaller ones too.
The queue lines up for a turn
The bigger set waves just a little nutty.
Pocket rocketing at Dee Why around 1400
Some sizable sets mashing into the point mid-arvo.
Usual peak chasing exercise for the crew, but some fun ones on offer.
Hi all,
Didja get waves? Hope so! You had to be selective and this morning on the lower tide was better at most places than this afternoon on high. That said, your correspondent managed to jag several very fun head high plus sets at Long bombies late this afternoon. Not the easiest place to take pictures, so only got a small number.
I did a bit of shooting this morning at Dee Why and Curly, so expect galleries from those sessions in due course.
Swell was still pretty solid as Huey squeezed the last little bit of light out’ve the day. Sets at Longy were consistently in the overhead range and it looked as though it was that size all the way down the beach to Dee Why. However on high tide Dee Why was not that interesting – the beachy was shutting down and the point was crowded, inconsistent and fat. Oh, and the breeze was onshore for awhile as well.
Outlook fer tomorrow… well, I reckon it’s going to be smaller but with luck it won’t be ridiculously little. From the look of the buoy data off to the south of us, the period will probably get shorter (ie weaker waves) and the average height will drop a bit. If we have waist to chest high with WSW wind, I’ll be happy.
Went for a splash at the Path this morning. Great fun it was too. Sets were in the overhead range and some of the rides were pretty long. Ran into a couple RealSurfers out in the water as well. How cool is that? I got a few water snaps too. Not in the same league as the mighty DYSH though! What a pic he got at DY today.
After surfin’ I did some mag work and then shot out again to see if I could get a few more pics. Went back to Curly and Dee Why because time was tight. Accumulated a pile of snaps of Curly, and a few of Dee Why. Curly was getting some sizeable sets and, while many of them shut down, there were some folks nailing long, driving walls too. You’d have to enjoy duck diving though.
Around at Dee Why, as has been the case for this swell, it wasn’t as big. The beachy was really shutting down when I was there at around 1600, but a crew were having fun on the sets at the point. Not breaking hard or anything, but the sets were big enough to give ya room for self-expression.
From the MHL data, it looks as though the swell peaked during daylight hours for Sydney. If we follow the pattern that showed up down the coast at Eden, then it looks as though we can expect the average period to drop from around the 11 second mark to something closer to 8 seconds. The average height of the swell at sea should, with any luck, stick around the 2 metre mark through to tomorrow morning. And, again if we’re lucky, there should still be the odd longer period set in the mix for Saturday morning.
But the trend lines are definitely downward and at a fairly rapid clip. So, I’m not too hopeful about the situation for tomorrow afternoon, let alone the rest of the weekend. Mind you, the Goat reckons it looks okay through the day for Saturday, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
Have yourself a great Friday evening!
Putting the 9'1\
Light offshores and some south swell = fun.
Winding up to whack that lip I'd say.
Quality sections freely available to the general public this afternoon.
Ace RS reporter lines one up at the Path.
Mals were a good option at the path this morning (but my fishy went okay too)
Huey's excellent work meets with approval at the Path this morning.
