has winter been good in SA?
I've been hanging in vicco most of the winter and theres been a few good swells but certainly not consistent! I talked to the boys back home and I think the swells have been too westerly and close to the bight, favoring South Oz. I went home for a few weeks and scored pumping Chi's and the Hole! Just spent a week down mornington peninsula and scored some fun waves in that last swell! So I guess South Oz has scored better swell overall this winter!
Loads of swell is not everything though. There is always a swell coming, eventually, often there's just too much energy from the southern ocean and a bunch of wind too, Waits and W Cape are maxed out most of the year. But for all the wrong days those right days are really special, and SA (and VIC & WA) definitely have those Magic Days and pure natural joy that is rare elsewhere. If you've had some of that it's hard to forget and not easy to get :) ..
thanks for the info, yeh pretty much my observations are what u guys said. yes big swell often does not equate to cranking surf, but it seems this year the BOM has predicted 5-7 metre swells a few times, Im not always watching the weather but I cannot recall 5-7 metres being predicted this often.
Sypkan, the Bureau swell forecasts sometimes contain both windswell and groundswell and is a rough estimate on what boaties will experienced out on the water.
What this translates to at the beach all depends on the varying components of groundswell/windswell as well as the associated period to each swell.
You're better off keeping an eye on our forecasts for inshore wave heights than trying to use the Bureau's forecasts to work out where to surf.
Now regarding winter in SA, I know that more rural areas have had a stella season of surf with a couple of great days also closer back to Adelaide, but Vicco and the Surf Coast mainly has had another below average winter besides a few periods here and there.
Thanks for that Craig, I do use you forecasts but I find by combining them with the consevative by nature BOM's forecasts I get the best results.
Mow I am going to show my ignorance by asking doesnt the BOM seperate windswell and groundswell by giving us a metre measurement for Seas, and a seperate metre measurement for Swell?
Yeah they try and split it that way but from my observations it's a little crude and not always that accurate (as they don't have to be).
Those forecasts are really general and just give an overall picture of the ocean for that day, hence its hard to pick out major trends or the finer details of swell on one day.
Id go as far as saying the BEST YEAR (2012), in a long long time in S.A, out my way anyway, (west of Adelaide), The swells just keeps coming and coming and uncrowded most of the time,even on the weekends.
Scored great waves Sunday, and again today, tomorrow looks good too, and wednesday even better!!
Whens a bloke supposed to work?? Were gotta be due for a 3 month flat spell before long surely!!
Just read "Classic Lines" about Vic being a slow winter, in SA I think there has been lots of swell, I dont know if its been good or not because Ive been working too much but looking at these websites it seems like there's been heaps of swell. It might be just because of access to long range information so it seems like there is also always a swell coming