Weekend warriors weren’t put off by the somewhat junky conditions mid-morning at No Mans and Long Reef on Sunday 29 August. Sets were into the shoulder high range and there were lots of people having a go. I set up just south of the Dee Why lagoon entrance and grabbed a few shots of people catching the softish but occasionally fun waves on offer before the wind became too much. 
No Mans-Longy Sun 29 Aug 10 1000-1100 – Images by Don Norris
Hello Friends,
Ah, now that is interesting. I was hoping we might see a little energy come our way later today, but first light sees some nice looking corduroy effects at Dee Why and a glance at the MHL Sydney data shows a couple metres of 9 second period swell from the south. Wind is out of the WSW at around 15kts on gusts.
The Bureau says it will go more southerly as the day unfolds. Looks like the plan will be to get in early if you can.
Outlook is for this little pulse to weaken gradually over the next 24 hours as we slump back into a stretch of more marginal conditions.
A good mate of mine is out from California atm, so we’re going to make a quick surfari north to see what we can find… if we find anything, you’ll hear about it!
Go well with your day.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Tuesday until midnight: Wind: South to southwesterly 10 to 20 knots tending southeast to southwesterly up to 10 knots during the afternoon.Sea: Up to 2 metres decreasing to below 1 metre during the afternoon.Swell: Southeasterly about 1 metre tending southerly 1.5 metres during the evening.
Wednesday: Wind: North to northeasterly 5 to 15 knots tending northerly 15 to 20 knots around dawn then increasing to 20 to 25 knots around midday. Winds 20 to 30 knots later in the evening.Sea: Below 1 metre increasing to 1.5 to 2 metres during the morning then increasing to 3 metres by early evening.Swell: Southerly about 1.5 metres.
Thursday: Wind: Northerly 15 to 25 knots tending northwesterly up to 30 knots during the morning then tending west to northwesterly 20 to 25 knots during the evening.
Late arvo snap for you…
Hello Friends,
Another chilly start to the day’s proceedings in Sydney. But the wind is offshore and we have a couple metres of south swell pushing in. It’s 9 seconds apart on average, so the sets should be into the head high range on the bigger ones at exposed spots. Judging from the buoy data down south, the swell is probably near it’s peak as I write this and is then likely to weaken very gradually across the day.
The wind forecast says it should be southerly but decreasing. However, before 0800 it was W to WNW across the Sydney region’s beaches. Early risers had to put up with the cold to get those offshores. Later arrivals may not be so fortunate as that wind should settle into a southerly by lunch.
Outlook is for a gradual decline overnight to small but not flat for Monday.
Go well!
Offshore and brisk to kick off this morning.
TIDES L @ 0720, H @1325
Forecast for Sunday
Fine apart from the chance of a shower or two near the coast, more
likely in the evening. Partly cloudy. Light west to southwest winds
tending southerly in the afternoon, fresh a times along the coast.Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: Southerly 15 to 20 knots, reaching 20 to 25 knots offshore at first, decreasing to 10 to 15 knots in the evening.Sea: 1 to 2 metres.Swell: Southerly 1 to 1.5 metres.
Monday: Wind: Southerly 5 to 10 knots tending east to northeasterly during the afternoon.Sea: Below 1 metre.Swell: Southeasterly 1 metre.
Tuesday: Wind: North to northwesterly 5 to 10 knots tending west to southwesterly up to 15 knots during the morning then tending south to southwesterly up to 25 knots during the afternoon.
Hello Friends,
When I checked it on dusk last night, I was worried that we might be waking up to more of the same this morning – ie grey, sideshore and messy. But we have a glorious sunny Sunday morning and comparatively tame winds for the brisk early. Fair number of bods on it of course. Patience is definitely required as the swell is pretty straight south at a couple metres with a 9 second power setting and therefore only the optimally aligned sets are pushing the bar up into the shoulder high range.
Wind was lightly out of the west as things got started this morning, but the forecast is calling for it to swing around to the s-sw later. With luck, that should mean reasonable surf conditions through to lunch time at south swell spots.
Latest run of the wave forecast models doesn’t look too cheerful for our region. There should be small waves around for a couple more days, but the trend is predicted to be downward toward flatness around midweek. Here’s hoping they prove to be unduly pessimistic.
For now, it looks like a day to be a weekend warrior. Enjoy!
TIDES: H @0850, L @1420
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: South to southwesterly 15 to 20 knots reaching 25 knots at times.Sea: 1.5 to 2 metres.Swell: Southerly about 1.5 to 2 metres.
Monday: Wind: South to southwesterly 15 to 20 knots tending west to southwesterly 10 to 15 knots during the morning.Sea: Up to 1.5 metres.Swell: Southeasterly 1 to 1.5 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: Westerly 10 to 15 knots.
Hello Friends,
The cold wind this morning had me pulling out the steamer for the first time this year. But when I started wading out, I immediately wished I’d gone for the springy. The water is still very warm. I reckon it’s not far off the peak temps we get in summer. The MHL data says its 23 out at the buoy.
Dee Why point was pretty crowded, but I went out anyway, calculating that I should at least be able to get one wave. Happy to say I did a bit better than one, even though I was hanging in the photographer zone. Lots of multi-person takeoffs happening, but I’ve been in much worse crowds.
Biggest sets were into the head high plus range, but for the most part the two metre south swell was mostly giving us chest high stuff. No complaints though Huey! Appreciate your work as always.
Wind will probably chew it up this afternoon, but so far nothing’s persuaded me that we won’t have a steady supply of wave energy through to Sunday evening.
Perched on the rocks at Dee Why point for an hour or so getting shots of the crew jagging the shoulder to head high plus sets. Beautiful light and great shooting conditions, so if you were in the water then, you might want to have a look through the gallery to see if I got ya. Again, if you see an interesting pic, just double click on it and you should be taken to the gallery proper where, if you like, you can buy one!
Dee Why point 12 May 2010 – Images by Don Norris
Racing off to pick a friend up from the airport, so just a pic and some raw details for now… swell showing from south at two metres at 9 sec apart. looks waist to chest on sets.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: South to southwesterly 5 to 10 knots tending north to northeast 10 to 15 knots during the afternoonSea: to about 1 metre.Swell: Southerly about 2 metres, abating to 1.5 metres
Thursday: Wind: Variable winds up to 10 knots tending east to southeasterly 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon.Sea: to about 1 metre. Swell: South to southeast 1.5 to 2 metres.
Friday: Wind: South to southeasterly 5 to 10 knots tending east to southeasterly during the evening.
Hello Friends,
Not much wind around under cloudy grey skies in Sydney. According to the MHL data, the swell is still out of the south. It’s averaging a couple metres out at sea and the average period is around the 9 second mark. Given those numbers, it’s a surprise to me that Dee Why looks as small as it does. There’s not enough happening to light up the point, and it looks like a longish wait for waist to waist plus sets in the beachy. From the other data on the MHL site, it also seems that Sydney is the biggest surf zone on the east coast.
Looking ahead, it would appear that we’re in for at least a week of small to nearly flat conditions. The swell-making systems just aren’t making it into position for the east coast. Pretty typical for this time of year of course, so it’s not really that surprising. Guess we’ll have to live off our memories of last week’s pulse
So, have you added your five fave Sydney surf spots to our latest poll yet? Intriguing to see Nth Curly and Nth Narrabeen battling out for first place…
Enjoy your day and go well with your plans
TIDES: L @1054, H @1640
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Monday until midnight: Wind: E/NE 5/10 knots, increasing to 15/20 knots during the afternoon. Sea: less than 1 metre, rising to 1.5 to 2 metres during the afternoon. Swell: SE 1 to 1.5 metres. Isolated afternoon/evening thunderstorms.
Tuesday: Wind: N/NW 5/10 knots, turning E/NE 10/15 knots during the afternoon, then S 5/10 knots at night. Sea: to about 1 metre. Swell: E/SE less than 1 metre.
Wednesday: Wind: S/SE 10/20 knots.
Hello Friends,
Looks as though Sydney should have southerly conditions this morning, at 0545 there was 10-15kt of south wind and the swell was an into the useful range 2 metres at 9 seconds apart from the south. Semi-protected south corners ought to have at least something rideable. Should clear up as the day goes along and the wind is set to swing through the easterly quarters to the NE this afternoon late.
Looks as though this is as big as it gets for then next week. The models are showing a very brief long period pulse around Tuesday, so you never know, it might get interesting for a few hours at least…
A morning shower or two, chiefly near the coast. Fine, partly cloudy
afternoon. Light to moderate southwest winds tending southeast, then
northeast in the evening.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: SW/SE 10/15 knots, tending E/NE 5/10 knots in the evening.Sea: about 1 metre. Swell: S/SE 1.5 metres.
Monday: Wind: NW to 10 knots, tending NE 10/15 knots in the afternoon.Sea: to 1 metre. Swell: S/SE 1 to 1.5 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: NW/NE 10 knots, freshening to 15/20 knots from NE during afternoon.
Straight outta SoCal
Got some fun little west swell waves at Pitas yesterday. As the tide dropped, the top of the kilometre long right point started to fire up with some zippery waist to chest high plus energy. I personally scored a number of 200+ metre rides and I saw quite a few that were up to twice as far. Not super crowded either. The weird thing is that although it’s now well into autumn, the temperatures are close to the height of summer. At some places it was up to 38 yesterday.
Here’s a snap I took from the water…
Pitas section about to standup and hone for a couple hundred metres.
Ya gotta wait for these sets...
The super peak still offering a few for the dedicated.
Hello Friends,
Waves around this morning and the wind wasn’t beating it up at Dee Why as of 0800. Wind is due to be a factor though. Sets in the beachy were head high plus and the point was showing maybe shoulder high. I’d expect some bomb sets to be in the mix because the buoy is currently swell + sea heights of 4 metres and there is some 10 sec period stuff in amongst the 9 sec waves.
Surf prospects for the next few days look okayish to me. Not great maybe, but it shouldn’t take a lot of internal dialogue to get you into the water if you’re even remotely stoked. Beyond that, things are really looking interesting. A substantial region of fetch is showing on the model projections for this weekend. It looks as though it will push down from the north and start washing the east coast with swell from late Saturday through Monday. If you have a fave east swell spot, might be a plan to book yourself some time to check it on Sunday and Monday. Usual caveats apply: these are computer model projections. They get it right most, but not all of the time.
High tide’s set to arrive around 0854 and low will come along at 1417.
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Wednesday until midnight: Wind: E/SE 10/15 knots reaching 15/20 knots at times. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: S/SE 2 to 3 metres decreasing.
Thursday: Wind: E/SE 10/15 knots reaching 15/20 knots at times. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: SE 1.5 to 2 metres.
Friday: Wind: SE/NE 10/20 knots.