Not looking too big this morning at Dee Why.

Hello Friends,

Swell faded pretty abruptly yesterday and this morning sees small to very small conditions. It’s looking like waist high with the odd bigger one at Dee Why beach. The little windswell is coming out of the NE and the breeze was light early, so there just may be spots with better exposure that are a bit bigger.

Tide notwithstanding, the plan is to go asap because a S-SE change is coming through soon and once that happens, I’d say the surf options will diminish pretty severely across the middle part of the day. The change may bring some improvement to size at beaches copping the brunt of the wind, so there could be some messy onshore wind waves for the late.

Although surf quality is only so-so, the water’s warming up nicely and for that reason alone it’s worth just going for a paddle.

Have yourself a great day!

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Friday until midnight: Wind: NW 10/15 knots inshore and 15/20 knots offshore, ahead of a S/SE change 20/25 knots early to mid morning, easing to SE 15/20 knots later.Sea: 1 to 2 metres, rising to 2 to 3 metres for a period during the day. Swell: E/SE 1 to 1.5 metres. Possible thunderstorms.
Saturday: Wind: Variable 5/10 knots at first, becoming E/SE 15/20 knots in the afternoon. Sea: less than 1 metre, rising to 1 to 2 metres in the afternoon. Swell: SE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Sunday: Wind: N/NE 15/25 knots.

No one visible in the water at 0800.

Hello Friends,

I was up in plenty of time to write my report for you, but the computer gods decided we need a poke apparently. Anyway, we’re back now, so I can now tell you that it’s very small and weak. Swell’s out of the NE at about a metre with an average period of just 7 seconds. The longer period component that was still hanging around yesterday morning has now vanished, so I wouldn’t be expecting any bomb sets.

Outlook is for the wind to build up from the NE as the day goes along and to eventually get up toward the 30kt mark. If that happens then we just might see some okay windwaves near dusk at those semi-exposed NE favourable locations like Curly and Northy.

Have yourself a top old Friday!

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Strong Wind Warning.
Friday until midnight: Wind: NW/NE 10/15 knots, increasing to N/NE 20/30 knots during the afternoon/evening. Sea: 1 to 2 metres, rising to 2 to 3 metres later. Swell: NE 1 to 1.5 metres. Possible afternoon thunderstorms.
Saturday: Wind: Early S change 15/20 knots, becoming SE/NE 15/20 knots in the afternoon.Sea: 1 to 2 metres. Swell: NE 1 to 2 metres. Possible thunderstorms.
Sunday: Wind: NW/NE 15/25 knots. Late S change 20/30 knots.

Just before 0700 and Dee Why still as it was.

Hello Friends,

Just as the early-rising Rob reports, the waves are just as they were yesterday morning. I saw the Goat yesterday evening and he hasn’t changed his view about our prospects for this weekend and the week ahead. In a word, his call is for weak.

This morning’s microness at Dee Why is exactly what you’d expect to see given the data coming from the MHL buoy. It’s showing a very slight improvement over yesterday however, so I’m hoping that will mean a little windswell wave this afternoon after the NE’r blows for awhile. Right now it’s a touch over a metre out at sea with an average period of 7 seconds. The Bureau is still saying that it expects the wind to be up into the 20-30kt range late this afternoon. That should bump things up a little and with luck there could be the odd thing in the chest high range at the most exposed spots.

Have yourself a top old day!

31 Jan 2009: ABC 702 surf report by Don

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ARVO UPDATE:

Midday little cruiser near the lugga.

Had to run an errand or two so, as usual, took a camera with me (Pansonic’s solidly built TZ-2) and grabbed a snap at Longy. Very tiny conditions but the water sure looked like a nice place to be on such a hot day. Only a few people scattered along a smattering of peaks from Longy to just past the pole. Nothing any bigger than the shot I’ve posted with this update. Wind is still out of the NW in Sydney, but it looks as though the change is heading this way because it’s now out of the SW down at about Moruya. Stay cool!

Hello Friends,

0730: catching the odd tiny wave

After a dull grey weekend, Sydney wakes up to sunny skies and a steady NW breeze of around 8 knots. Down at the seashore the little SE windswell of yesterday has moved around to the NE and become both smaller and closer together. A few bods in the water at Dee Why catching the odd little waist high peak (mostly they’re smaller than that), but they don’t appear to have much on them. Hardly surprising really as the average period is bumbling along at 7 seconds and it’s only around a metre out at sea.

The WNW wind is set to build to 20-25 kts ahead of a late afternoon south change of similar strength. Once that happens we should see the swell come around to the south and start build up overnight. The Bureau says the S-SE wind should ease through the day on Tuesday, but the swell should stick around and be generally from the south for the following few days. The long period stuff showing in the models late last week is no longer there. Oh well.

Yesterday evening I had a look at the models to see where in the world it might be good today (because it was looking marginal for Australia) and came up with a few links for those interested in a bit of a web surf. If you’ve found a great surfing-related link, why not pass it along via the form below.

Have yourself a top old day!

cforms contact form by delicious:days

0720: two paddleboarders seeking but not finding at Dee Why

Hello Friends,

Well, what can I say? Huey’s wandered off to some other corner of the planet and left our swell machine sputtering to a stop. The Sydney MHL buoy is showing about a metre of 7 sec NE windchop. And from the look of the other buoy data along the east coast, it’s pretty much the same everywhere else.

So, the obvious question for east coasters, is when will it change?

Wind is set to be out of the NW at 8-13 kts this morning, but it should swing to the NE and get up to 20-25 kts. We had a similar pattern yesterday and it didn’t seem to result in anything surfable in the way of windswell waves. I’m not overly hopeful that it will be different today either.

Tomorrow the call is for a strongish S-SE change of 20-30 kts, but from what the models show, it doesn’t seem too likely that we’ll get much of anything in the way of waves as a consequence. There could be a small uptick around Wednesday simply because the S-SE wind should still be going along at around the same speed as Tuesday. So, little junky onshore waves – if we’re lucky.

And beyond that… well, those models continue to show all the swell energy being deflected away from the east coast toward the west coast of NZ. It looks like a pretty stable pattern, so my guess is we’re in for a wait for any improvement…

Go well with your day and keep on smilin’!

Stopped by south Narrabeen for a look and discovered there are little junky things coming in. Very weak and messy, but you can sort of catch the bigger ones. See the pics below…

1330: if you take the right toy, you can have fun even in this junk at Sth Narrabeen.

1330: little junky ones on offer along the Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch.

0640: no sign of any surfers at Dee Why...

Hello Friends,

Surf situation could be better. In fact, it could be a lot better. Since this time yesterday the windswell has gone from SSE to NE. That would be fine… if we had any size or power. But we don’t. It’s only about a metre at 7 seconds out at sea, so you’re going to be doing well to find anything much above knee to waist high. The best bet will pretty obviously be those beaches with good exposure to the NE. And take the mal or fish because they’re not only going to be small, they’ll alo be pretty weak.

From the look of the forecast models, we’re not terribly likely to see any improvement to conditions this weekend. A weak and tiny south windswell is showing on the forecast for Tuesday. Whether or not it will actually be surfable is another matter. I reckon that if those numbers are correct (5-6 sec periods) then we’re in for flatness into next weekend.

It looks as though this dire situation will play out along the entire NSW coast. Those of you living in western Vic, far western SA and the west coast of Tas all have a considerably better outlook for waves – as long as you don’t mind the wind!

Go well with your day!

They had to keep my surf report rather brief this morning, but here it is…
702 ABC radio surf report by Don for the weekend of 11-12 Oct 08

I reckon it could be a top weekend for waves in the south of France. Light offshores, fun size and solid west swell… this surfcam could be worth a look early on Sunday our time…