1400: wind dropping, swell south at two metres with an average period of 12 seconds. I might go have another look in that case…

Hello Friends,

A number of folk in the water at Dee Why before 0700 this morning to chase the waist to chest high SSE swell. According to the MHL buoy it’s around the two metre mark at about 8 seconds apart. For close to a week the swell prediction has been calling for this uptick, but it had also been showing a longer period. So I had a look at the MHL buoy from down at Eden and sure enough, a long period pulse arrived around midday. It’s still showing and it’s around the 14 second mark. And when I jumped back to check the MHL Sydney buoy, whadya know, it just hit in the last hour or so. All of which suggests to me that there is at least the chance of the odd rogue set turning up in the mix today.

There wasn’t much in the way of wind to start, but it should go south during the morning and swing more onshore later. The Bureau says there’s a 40% chance of rain too.

BTW, I have a couple pairs of tix to give away to the surf movies at the Diggers on Friday and at Palmy RSL on Saturday evening. Use the feedback link top right of our main page to let me know if you’re interested. I’ll need your name, your guest’s name and a contact mobile to confirm back.

Have a good one!

Tide is high at 1245 or so and the next low will be along t 1900.

Weather Situation

A strong high pressure system will move to the east of Tasmania today maintaining a ridge northwards along the New South Wales coast. The high is forecast to move over New Zealand by Friday. The next cold front is expected to approach from the southwest, .and is expected to bring the next southerly change to southern and central parts of the coast during Saturday.

Forecast for Wednesday until midnight

Winds: South to southeasterly 10 to 15 knots tending east to southeasterly around midday. Seas: Below 1 metre. Swell: Southerly about 2 metres.

Forecast for Thursday

Winds: East to northeasterly 5 to 15 knots becoming northeasterly 15 to 20 knots by early evening. Seas: Below 1 metre increasing to 1.5 metres later in the evening. Swell: Southerly about 1.5 metres.

Forecast for Friday

Winds: North to northeasterly 15 to 20 knots increasing to 20 to 25 knots during the evening. Seas: 1.5 to 2 metres. Swell: Southerly 1 metre tending easterly during the evening.

Hello Friends,
Running a bit late this morning, apologies. S-SSW winds are staying clear of Dee Why this morning and the gradually fading south to SSE swell is hanging in there at around the two metre mark with an average period of about 8 seconds. There seems to be some longer period stuff in the mix though because the waist high conditions are punctuated from time to time with something more like shoulder high.

Wind is set to go more SE as the day goes along, but it’s also supposed to back off as well. We have a late morning low tide, so I reckon the best time to go will be before lunch if you can.

The outlook is for the swell to drop overnight but with luck to still be in the surfable range for tomorrow. But after that things currently look distinctly ordinary through the middle of next week. The WAMs show us bumping along in a state of flatness from about Saturday to Weds – at least. If you’re on the east coast and want waves next week, the nearest sizable ones look like being in Western Vic!

Ah well, enjoy what we have and hope for Huey’s beneficence later next week…

TIDES: L @1040, H @1720
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Thursday until midnight: Wind: South to southeasterly 15 to 20 knots decreasing to 10 to 15 knots during the evening.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: Southeasterly 1 to 1.5 metres.
Friday: Wind: South to southwesterly 10 to 15 knots tending south to southeasterly during the afternoon.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres.Swell: Southeasterly about 1 metre.
Saturday: Wind: East to northeasterly 10 to 15 knots tending north to northeasterly 15 to 20 knots during the afternoon.

Hello Friends,

Steady drizzle this morning but the swell has stayed around the 2 metre range since midday yesterday, but the direction has moved to a more favourable SE setting and the period has increased to about the 8 second mark. It’s a combination that delivers chest high and the odd bigger one to Dee Why, so naturally enough there were a reasonable number of takers on a Sunday morning.

The Bureau says the weather should lighten up later. At the same time the current light offshore conditions may get more around to onshore across the middle of the day, but the Bureau says it’s not going to go too hard.

Latest outlook is for the swell prospects to bump along at around the current levels through the coming week. There seems to be a prospect for a small pulse around Wednesday and, if we can believe the long range estimates, there could be some solid swell out of the SE around about Thr late to Friday early.

Go well with your Sunday!

TIDES: L @1015, H @1640
Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: South to southwesterly 10 to 15 knots tending south to southeasterly late morning/early afternoon then decreasing to east to southeasterly 5 to 10 knots during the late afternoon/early evening.Sea: 1 to 2 metres. Swell: South to southeasterly 1 to 1.5 metres, abating to below 1 metre.
Monday: Wind: Light and variable winds tending northeasterly up to 10 knots during the afternoon.Sea: below about 1 metre.Swell: South to southeasterly 1 to 1.5 metres.
Tuesday: Wind: Northeast to northwesterly 10 to 15 knots.
Forecast for Sunday
Coastal showers during the morning otherwise fine. Partly cloudy.
Light southwest to southeasterly winds.

Precis: Mostly fine.

City: Max: 21 Parramatta: Max: 21
Terrey Hills: Max: 19 Penrith: Max: 21
Liverpool Max: 21 Richmond: Max: 20

Hello Friends,

0715: not stunning quality, but there are one or two waves about.

It’s smaller and less consistent this morning at Dee Why. Not much wind to speak of though, and there seem to be a few chest high sets still in the mix. But yesterday’s quality is, well, yesterday.

The size of the swell at sea and the direction are still pretty much what they were yesterday, ie about 2 metres from the SE. The big difference is in that all important period setting. The latest MHL combined plot is showing that average period started falling at Batemans Bay around lunchtime yesterday. It dropped from 12 sec to closer to 7 sec in the space of about 8 hours. The Sydney trace mirrored this trend (but around 6 hours later) and this morning is seeing an average period of 8 seconds in our region. The good thing where we’re concerned is that the period seems to be on the improve again. Eden’s almost back to 10 sec, Batemans Bay is at 9 and we’re on 8. Looks better up the coast, with Byron and Coffs at around 11.

So, what’s the takeaway? Well, basically, I reckon we should see waves of some sort through the day. The wind is set to be light this morning and out of the southern quarter. By this afternoon the Bureau says it’ll go around to the NE and start building toward 20-25 kts by close of play.

On another note, an email came through alerting me to a good article by Nick Carroll over on Surfing Mag’s site. Nick’s joining the call for much improved medivac services in remote Indo surf zones following the horrific experience of Daz Longbottom earlier this year. Here’s Nick’s opener:

“Imagine yourself in this situation:

You’re a skilled surfer on your first ever trip to the Mentawais when a free-fall floater goes badly wrong. Your head and your board meet at precisely the wrong angle, at the wrong moment. Twenty minutes later, you’re lying on the deck of the charter boat, strapped to the remains of the board, with a bad headache and no feeling whatsoever from the chest down.”
Click here to read the rest of Nick’s story…