South Australian Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Friday 15th March)

Best Days: No great days, but late Mon/Tues could see small clean (though very inconsistent) waves on the Mid, and at Victor. Later next week has some promise too.

Recap: Wednesday’s solid surf eased through Thursday but still managed occasional 2ft sets along the Mid Coast, with bigger surf pushing 3ft at Middleton (larger at exposed spots). Morning winds were mainly light with afternoon sea breezes. Today saw a small building trend of new SW swell at the CdC buoy through the middle of the day, but it unfortunately hasn’t translated to much more size across either the Mid or South Coasts, with small residual swells on offer in the 1-2ft and 2-3ft range (though the lines have been nicely defined on the Mid, just extremely slow and inconsistent). 

Trigs on Thursday morning

South Port this afternoon

This weekend (Mar 16 - 17)

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The weekend’s not looking at delivering anything amazing in the surf department.

We’ve got no new swell on the cards, just easing energy from today, and a high pressure system south of the Bight will direct mainly moderate S/SE winds across both coasts.  

We’ll see small teaser lines across the Mid both days (biggest Saturday, if you have to split hairs), but only really enough for beginners.

Victor will suffer under the onshore breeze - there’s a reasonable chance for periods of light E/NE early morning both days but it won’t last long and with the lacklustre swell on offer options will be confined to a handful of protected eastern ends. 

Next week onwards (Mar 18 onwards)

At this stage we’re looking at some kind of blocking pattern holding through until Friday, which will deliver alternating winds from the south and east across both coasts - fine for Mid, but not a great period for Victor. At this stage Monday and Tuesday are your best options down south as we’ll see a weaker pressure gradient (and thus lighter winds) but they’re expected to kick in on Wednesday and Thursday.

As for surf potential, our far swell window is expected to see a conveyor-belt of reasonable systems through the Southern Indian Ocean into the South Ocean below Western Australia, before they’re steered to the Ice Shelf by the blocking high pressure ridge. This will create an extended period of small pulsey swells all week, bookended by an initial peak in size later Monday and early Tuesday, and then again around Friday. 

Underlying size at Victor should manage a very inconsistent 2ft or so at Middleton all week, with bigger surf later Monday and Tuesday (3ft) and Friday (3-4ft), though very inconsistent.

Along the Mid Coast we’ll see tiny teaser lines all week, but later Monday and Tuesday could push the 1-2ft range on the more favourable parts of the tide, and Friday has potential for a little more size. 

As the regional block breaks down later next week we’re more likely to see a resumption in typical autumn frontal patterns across the coast - and thus larger swells generated more close to the region - from next weekend onwards. More on this in Monday’s update.