Fun over the coming days, pumping Saturday

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)

South Australian Forecast (issued Wednesday 15th October)

Best Days: Thursday morning and Friday morning down South, all day Saturday, Sunday morning, Monday on the Mid, Tuesday down South

Recap

The Mid Coast saw workable 1-2ft waves yesterday with a S'ly breeze, while the South Coast remained poor with plenty of swell but howling onshore S'ly winds.

This morning lighter more variable winds created cleaner and straighter surf on the South Coast with 3-4ft of swell and good options at Middleton and around the Port Elliot stretch, The Mid Coast saw clean conditions but a tiny swell to 1ft.

This week (Oct 16 - 17)

Conditions are now looking better for a period tomorrow down South with an W/NW'ly likely around Victor Harbour with a fun but inconsistent SW groundswell. An onshore change isn't expected until the early afternoon now, with fun 3-4ft waves along the Middleton stretch and bigger 5ft sets out at Waits. The Mid will be a bumpy 1ft.

A reinforcing S/SW groundswell for Friday is also looking better now, with the polar storm generating the swell aiming a better fetch of severe-gale SW winds through our swell window today.

This swell should keep 3-4ft sets hitting Middleton with 5ft sets at Waits as winds swing around the NE, creating favourable conditions. The afternoon will be average as winds swing more E'ly

This weekend onwards (Oct 18 onwards)

Saturday is still looking excellent, along with Sunday now, with the former seeing easing levels of good S/SW swell with fresh but easing offshore N'ly winds. Sunday will be smaller and better at exposed breaks with a fresh N/NW'ly ahead of a late S'ly change.

Therefore it'll be more than worth a whole day down across the South Coast Saturday (biggest through the morning).

Into Monday a fun new long-range SW groundswell is due, generated by a strong polar front firing up from the Heard Island region, projecting up towards WA while weakening.

Due to the large distance between the source of the swell and our coasts there'll be very long waits between sets, but the Mid Coast should see 1-2ft waves Monday morning, with 3ft sets at Middleton and 4ft+ waves at Waits and Parsons.

Winds will unfortunately only be good for the Mid with a fresh and gusty E/SE breeze, while Tuesday will be better down South as the swell eases and winds swing offhsore.

Longer term there's nothing significant at all on the cards but check back here on Friday for any change to this.