Eastern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Guy Dixon (issued Monday 1st February)

Best Days: Saturday and Sunday

Recap: 

The surf built throughout Saturday to a gusty onshore 3-5ft across open beaches, peaking on Sunday in the 6ft+ but with no quality worth speaking of. Today, the surf has been easing off the back of Sunday’s peak, although with quality lacking.

This week (Tuesday 2nd - Friday 5th):

The swell should continue to fade off the back of the weekend’s large peak, fading from the 2-3ft range on Tuesday.

The early morning session is looking good, with light/variable-northwesterly breezes tending northeasterly and increasing during the afternoon.

Each swell window looks to take a bit of time off, with the surf ebbing and pulsing in the 1ft range of small and weak background energy on Wednesday and Thursday.

If you’re keen to pick up the last of the swell, make the most of Wednesday morning where winds look to be light/variable offshore preceding an increasing southerly airflow.

Open beaches should then begin to see a building east/northeasterly swell on Friday generated by a broad but not every intense northeasterly fetch as the pressure gradient tightens between a developing Tasman Low and strong ridge over New Zealand.

Options should build to around 1-2ft by Friday afternoon, before more increasing further into the weekend.

A moderate southerly airflow looks to dominate Friday, so protected southern corners of the open beaches will be a good place to check as the first go the east/northeasterly runners fill in.

This weekend (Saturday 6th - Sunday 7th):

As this low deepens, the aforementioned northeasterly fetch looks to intensify, leading to more size across the open beaches. Saturday should offer inconsistent options in the 2ft range, larger on Sunday peaking in the 2-3ft range.

Meanwhile on Saturday, southerly/southwesterly groundswell generated by an intense, but poorly aligned frontal progression looks to fill in across the most exposed swell magnets providing options in the 2ft+ range.

Saturday is looking at beautiful clean conditions during the morning under a light/variable breeze, increasing slightly from the northeast during the afternoon.

Again, Sunday is looking nice and workable with light winds early, tending sebreezey later.

Next week (Monday 8th onward):

Further ahead, models suggest that an east/southeasterly fetch may develop over Cook Strait providing a fun wave across the open beaches early next week.

More detail in Wednesday’s notes.