Hello Friends,

So, the last day of 2009 eh? Not much on the surf front anywhere in Oz apparently. About your best hope for a wave is on the far north coast of NSW this morning. But, according to The Beach Defender whom I spoke with this morning from the banks of the Maroochy river, conditions on the Sunshine coast are sloppy, very small and onshore. So, the point is I guess, wherever you find yourself, you ain’t missing much.

The weak little east windswell seems to prevail pretty much up and down the eastern seaboard this morning. In Sydney the MHL buoy is showing a metre of 8 second period stuff from the east.

A quick scan of the models suggest that we’re looking at continuing weak conditions for the week ahead. There seems to be some agreement among the interpretations that we might get a little south-ish pulse in Sydney on Sunday following a change late Saturday. Here’s hoping!

Oh, and have yourself a great and safe New Year’s Eve.

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: N/NE 10/15 knots, freshening to 15/20 knots in the afternoon.Sea: about 1 metre, rising to 1.5 to 2 metres in the afternoon/evening.Swell: E about 1 metre.
Friday: Wind: N/NW 5/10 knots, turning N/NE 10/15 knots during the day. Sea: about 1 metre. Swell: E/NE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Saturday: Wind: NW 10/15 knots, tending N/NW ahead of a S/SW change 20/30 knots late evening/overnight.

0700 and it's not quite back to flat at Dee Why.

Hello Friends,

How’s the week shaping up for ya? Weren’t planning on surfing every day I hope. It looks like this morning is about as good as it’ll get for at least the next 4-5 days. And it ain’t that amazing either.

Primary (wind)swell direction is easterly and from Eden to the Qld border it’s not much better than a metre at sea. Periods range from 6 to 8 seconds. Sydney’s at the high end of the scale, so surf conditions at our east facing stretches are probably about as good as anywhere in the state… if that makes you feel better!

Tides: L@0642, H@ 1311
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Monday until midnight: Wind: NE 10/15 knots. Sea: about 1 metre.Swell: E 1 to 1.5 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: N/NE 10/15 knots freshening to 15/20 knots.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: E about 1 metre.
Wednesday: Wind: N/NE winds 10/15 knots.

Hello Friends,

0645: drizzle from lower skies, but little peak showing up at Dee Why.

Not the brightest morning, in fact, it was drizzly to start. Wind was light out of the SSW and there is a small east windswell pushing up a few waist high sets at beaches with good east exposure. It’s going to be full pretty much all morning thanks to a high tide at around quarter after 9.

The Bureau forecast is still for SE winds to decrease during the day. Because it’s actually SW, the surface is pretty smooth at spots like Dee Why. If the SE’r kicks up later, it won’t do any favours for the weak swell. With luck though, it won’t get smaller as the day goes along.

Looking ahead, tomorrow should see a similar pattern develop, ie SE wind easing during the day with grey skies and occasional showers. As for surf, the models are not overly encouraging. It looks as though the likelihood for Sydney is more or less the same as today because while the average height may push up a bit, the period is expected to drop a small amount as well.

The start of the new week is similarly marginal looking. Again, with any luck, there will still be a few little lumps around for the dedicated on Monday and Tuesday. The Bureau says we could have showers off and on all week, and the forecasters think we’ll see NE winds on Monday and Tuesday.

The long range outlook is kind of interesting for the end of the week because several of the models are coming up with an interpretation that says we could have some fun size NE windswell. (By “fun size”, I mean sets with faces around the head high mark.) Naturally we’ll be keeping an eye on developments.

702 ABC radio surf report by Don for 15 – 20 Nov 2008

Hello Friends,

0715: picking up a bumpy little section at Dee Why.

It looks to me as though we’re roughly where we were at this time yesterday in terms of wave heights and swell direction. The important difference for early risers is that the wind is already up and running at around 10kts from the NNE. Put that together with a high tide at around 0730, and you’re talking marginal conditions for now. Swell direction is still out of the east. It’s about a metre on average and close to 8 seconds apart. The wind forecast is for it to go from 10-15 kts to up to 20-30 kts at close of play. Pretty obviously, it’s back to those north corners again if you’re after a little wave.

Looking ahead, it would still appear that we’ll have similar conditions through Friday afternoon, before a SE change arrives on Saturday and chops everything up and leaves us with pretty marginal conditions for the remainder of the weekend. It looks as though a reasonably intense low pressure system will come around the corner from Tassie and blob up into the Tasman sea early next week. Sadly for us, the models show pretty much all the juice pushing away toward NZ’s west coast.

Ah well… so it goes. Have yourself a top old day and go well!

Hello Friends,

0700: junky and inconsistent, but with the right equipment you can catch one.

Grey start to the day along the beaches of Sydney. The Bureau says it’ll gradually brighten up as the day goes along. The wind’s currently light and out of the WNW but it shouyld begin to freshen and by this afternoon be in the 13-18 kt range. 

The little windswell that was showing up at places like Queensy and Curl Curl yesterday afternoon, is out of the east at about a metre on average. The period is still on 8 seconds – as it has been for the last three days or so.

0600: WRL cam shot of Gardens suggesting a few small possibilities.

There were a couple folks out on SUPs at Dee Why when I grabbed a snap at around 0700. They were doing a fair amount of waiting between the sets, but the bigger ones looked okay. Nothing special, you’d have to admit, however, the water’s warmed up and it’s not completely flat. However, I wouldn’t be expecting much at Dee Why compared to other stretches with more reasonable orientation to the current swell direction. 

General outlook on the models remains fairly ho-hum. What we have now looks like going along in much the same vein through Friday. Beyond that the Sydney region’s prospects are not terribly exciting – basically it looks like small to nearly flat conditions. Hope to be proven wrong of course!

Not huge or anything, but a definite line showing...

Generally speaking, it looks as though your surf options are better up the coast than in the Sydney region. The WRL cam up at Snapper is showing an acceptable line coming around from the SE. Bet there’d be a few options around there this morning. Might have a look at the cams in a minute to see if I can spot anything interesting…

Have yourself a top old day!

Late arvo update:
Wind’s NNE at 10-15 kts as the sun goes down. Not quite as strong as the Bureau forecast (see below for the earlier call), but enough to make the surface pretty ordinary at Dee Why. Meanwhile, the swell is now straight south at around 1.5 metres on average. The MHL buoy is recording 16 second component under a much shorter period windswell. Consequence of this for Dee Why is long waits between sets that are struggling to get to shoulder high. The Batemans Bay buoy is still averaging around the 10 sec mark on the power setting, but my feeling is that the models are right and tomorrow will be back to very small, weak windswell. If we’re lucky it’ll be possible to sort of catch things at NE facing stretches. But waist high looks like being the call for the bomb sets. Not what we want with the highs set to be in the low 30s for Thursday. Hope you jagged yourself a couple…

1745, sun just about to set and still a few lines coming into Dee Why for the arvo crew.

midday update:
PB and I joined the throngs splashing about in the chest to head high sets at Freshie this morning. Not amazing, but there were some fun sections to be had and those long period sets have some push to ‘em. Here’s a snap to give you a feel for the size…

Pretty busy in the water, but a few fun ones, particularly if you had a fish or similar.

and below are my thoughts about the conditions this morning…

Mostly the catchable ones at Dee Why beach are around this size (0630)

Mostly it

Hello Friends,

Got started a bit earlier today – just in case. And, as those in the water from first light would report, there are a few small waves around. Swell moved around from the south last night and is now E by ESE. But it’s mainly small with only the very occasional set where Dee Why’s concerned. Reasonable number of bods in the water too. The average wave looked to be around the waist high range, but I did get a pic of a head high set (just the one wave though).

Out at sea, the swell is registering at about 1.5 metres on average with a few 2 metre peak moments in there. Average period is a windswelly 8 seconds, but there have been a few pulses peaking into the 15 seconds. I’d say there’s more in the tank though, because down at Batemans Bay the average period went up to a more useful 10 seconds around midnight. The 15 sec stuff showed up there a few hours before Sydney saw the forerunners, and as of the latest report from Batemans Bay, it’s still in the stats.

The Eden buoy hit the 10 sec mark around midnight and is currently reporting close to 12 sec on average, with peaks hitting the 15 sec mark.

The forecast models are still showing this pulse lasting for only about 12 hours. So, if you’re keen, you’d better get out there to wait with everyone else.

The wind call is for NW this morning, swinging NE this afternoon and pushing up to as much as 20-25 kts by late afternoon.

I plan to update again later after I’ve gathered more information…

Go well!

(Oh yeah, almost forgot, still looking for a functioning notebook capable of running XP for under a couple hundred bucks. If you have such surplus to requirements, please lemme know via the contact form.)