Days of strong E swell ahead to close out 2022 and start the New Year

Steve Shearer picture
Steve Shearer (freeride76)

South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Wed 28th Dec)

Forecast Summary (tl;dr)

  • Plenty of E swell Thurs, maintaining plenty of size through Fri with winds favouring the Points
  • Sizey mix of E swells Sat/Sun with pumping Point surf and light/mod SSE-SE winds
  • Strong pulse of E/SE swell Mon, holding Tues with light winds- size favouring Points
  • Slow easing in size from Wed into end of next week
  • Likely active surf pattern to continue into Jan  with active Monsoon Trough, still watching out for cyclogenesis later next week, stay tuned for updates

Recap

Fun levels of E’ly swell built in yesterday with 2-3ft surf reaching the 3ft+ range by close of play and the swell direction getting into most of the Points. Winds were generally mod SE with some pockets of lighter winds on offer through the day offering cleaner surface conditions. Today has seen more of the same E swell, slowly building in through the day with some 3-4ft surf on offer under SE winds, with pockets of lighter winds around rain showers. 

A bit scrappy but plenty of waves on the conveyor belt

This week (Dec 28-30)

The building blocks for a classic Summer monsoonal pattern are now firmly in place and almost the entire Eastern Seaboard from the Tropic of Capricorn to Tasmania is going receive swell as a result of it.  A dual-centred high straddles New Zealand with an elongated monsoonal low pressure trough located in the Coral Sea and extending into the near South Pacific. This is creating a long and broad E’ly fetch which is slowly extending southwards. As we near the end of the week, a more discrete surface low hives off the end of the monsoonal low pressure trough and retrogrades back into the Tasman Sea as it intensifies, generating large E’ly swells over the last days of 2022 and first days of 2023.

In the short run and the initial stages of the fetch have created a juiced-up tradewind type swell for the subtropics and this swell will slowly increase into tomorrow- up into the 3-5ft range. Winds do look a notch lighter through tomorrow as a trough slightly disrupts the high pressure ridge so expect mod SE winds, with a possibility for lighter SW-S winds inshore early and pockets of lighter winds through the day. Possibly light enough for more open locations to be surfed if you aren’t too fussy about wave quality. 

Mid period E swell should hold wave heights in the 3-5ft range through Fri-favouring the Points for quality and with SE winds continuing, albeit possibly stronger as the ridge re-establishes. 

This weekend (Dec 31-Jan1)

No great change to the weekend f/cast. Pumping E swell and plenty of it. With the Points firing on all cylinders as period and size both increase. 

Not great detail required for the wind f/cast- both days will see SE winds with lighter periods of SSE wind in the morning, possibly SW-S across the Gold Coast and NENSW and with pockets of lighter wind through the day if you have flexibility and can react to local conditions. Ideally suited to the Points from sun-up to sundown.

Expect a slow build in size Sat, from 4-5ft up into the 6ft range with size holding in this range through New Years Day. 

There will be some nice E/SE swell trains in the mix from a low out in the South Pacific E of the North Island, providing some 3-4ft sets through Sat into Sun but likely hard to discern amongst the more dominant E’ly swells from closer range. 

Next week (Jan2 onwards)

If models hold true we’ll be looking at the main course of this swell event to kick off 2023. Over the weekend a low hives off from the end of the large area of monsoonal low pressure and begins to drift SW back into the Northern Tasman (see below), intensifying with E’ly gales aimed back at the Eastern Seaboard. With the fetch travelling in the same direction as the propagated swell trains, we’ll see enhanced potential for swell production.

Expect a solid muscling up in size through Mon, with 4-5ft surf building into the 6ft range through the day as size and period increase from the E/SE. Expect surf to be a notch bigger across the North to Mid North Coast. Winds look good for Mon morning, light SW tending to light SE in the day. If you can get out to them, exposed breaks may be on offer but Points will be handling the size better.

Size holds at a solid 5-6ft into Tues morning before a slow easing during the day . A trough brings another favourable wind outlook, with early variable winds, tending S/SE and then light E’ly during the day. Thats not set in stone, so check back in Fri for an update. 

Flukey winds carry-over into Wed AM as the trough hovers about the coast before a more settled S/SE flow kicks in as a new, major high pressure ridge moves in from the Bight. 

Plenty of size is expected to hold into Wed as the low slowly hovers in the Tasman. Expect 4-5ft surf Wed, slowly easing into Thurs.

Under current modelling we’ll see winds tend S-SSE in a more stable synoptic flow. 

The easing trend is expected to continue into next weekend.

Longer term and we may see some S quadrant swell next weekend from S’ly winds in the Tasman, associated with a front pushing through. The monsoon trough still remains active and although models have gone a bit cool on cyclogenesis in the Coral Sea we may till see further low pressure development in that area or possibly further south associated with the remnants of this weeks low pressure.

Get your paddling arms ready and be ready to drop your standards a notch to deal with some onshore winds.

Check back Fri for the latest.

Comments

burleigh's picture
burleigh's picture
burleigh Wednesday, 28 Dec 2022 at 5:22pm

Waves have been so fun already. Love this shit

Surfalot67's picture
Surfalot67's picture
Surfalot67 Wednesday, 28 Dec 2022 at 6:48pm

Agree mate - super fun if you know where to look. Stoked already

maka2000's picture
maka2000's picture
maka2000 Wednesday, 28 Dec 2022 at 6:31pm

Shitty winds

Xavier Le Baron's picture
Xavier Le Baron's picture
Xavier Le Baron Wednesday, 28 Dec 2022 at 8:14pm

what a fun couple of days already. looking forward to main course this weekend. yeeew.

Surfalot67's picture
Surfalot67's picture
Surfalot67 Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 5:50am

Hmmm. Looks smaller rn

adsi's picture
adsi's picture
adsi Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 2:35pm

Insane current at broken head this morning, waves were much good either. Relentless waves with no break between to get out, hard work...

donweather's picture
donweather's picture
donweather Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 7:28pm

Swell muscled up big time this arvo

spidermonkey's picture
spidermonkey's picture
spidermonkey Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 8:07pm

Quality swell, shaping up to a pretty epic run of waves

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 8:14pm

Spent all day at the Superbank.
Dawn to dusk with 4 go outs.

Absolutely cooked now.

Luke02's picture
Luke02's picture
Luke02 Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 11:18pm

Get a few? Spent a bit of time watching the cams today. Unfortunately I could only find straight-handers north of Moreton.

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 6:54am

I got 25 waves across 4 surfs from dawn to dusk.

6 of those were insane.

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 7:14am

Sick!

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 7:30am

On a bigger Board SS ?

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 7:54am

No, just rode a 6'1" all day.

lostdoggy's picture
lostdoggy's picture
lostdoggy Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:03am

Did you take any mental notes of time and location of the bangers so we can find them?

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:24am

hahaha, I did, but I'm not ready for the brutal shock of having them look nowhere near as good as they felt.

lostdoggy's picture
lostdoggy's picture
lostdoggy Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:31am

You might surprise yourself :)

freeride76's picture
freeride76's picture
freeride76 Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:41am

I'll have a sneaky look.

udo's picture
udo's picture
udo Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:51am
dawnperiscope's picture
dawnperiscope's picture
dawnperiscope Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 10:58am

Classic.
I did the scroll thru the greeny cam last night for the first time to find my best wave…wish I didn’t!

lostdoggy's picture
lostdoggy's picture
lostdoggy Thursday, 29 Dec 2022 at 9:41pm

Starting at 1.25ish in of the 4.25pm replay.
Perfect wave at greeny, 7 people separately attempt to paddle on to it at various stages.
Remains unridden.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 6:20am

Got punished yesterday at my first surf in two months (out of the water due to shingles pain). 5-6ft sets with a lotta water moving, my paddle fitness wasn't up to scratch and I could have definitely used a bigger board. Nice to be back in the water though.

Standingleft's picture
Standingleft's picture
Standingleft Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:29pm

Thermal Ben takes his medicine. Onya.

Supafreak's picture
Supafreak's picture
Supafreak Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 8:24am

Well overhead on the sets first light today but lots of lump and bump . Constant paddling in , the current was relentless and I spent more time paddling in than catching waves. Frustrating and some drops were like riding a bucking bronco . Bit better further inside at greeny . I had an 1 hour surf out at dbar wall yesterday on the high tide , some good size sets and the DS handled the bump and chop on the drops pretty well.

Plasticspastic's picture
Plasticspastic's picture
Plasticspastic Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 12:06pm

Yeah Thursday was nice and lined up at cooly - me thinks swell may over power the banks - kirra is not really doing yet…

groovie's picture
groovie's picture
groovie Friday, 30 Dec 2022 at 5:45pm

Swell here on the Barrington Coast but winds have been straight easterly since dawn. Surfed a local point but quality was very low. Forecast continues with this devil wind for several days yet, pity because this is a great direction of swell for this coast but there is nowhere to hide from this wind!