Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 19th July)

Best Days: Saturday

Recap

A slight drop in swell yesterday to 3ft with great conditions all morning, becoming a little bumpy at some breaks into the afternoon along with a late kick in new S'ly groudswell.

The swell has peaked overnight but offered great waves ranging between 3-5ft across south facing beaches in Sydney this morning, up to 6ft on the sets across the Hunter and with clean conditions (ahead of light afternoon breezes).

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This weekend and next week (Jul 20 - 26)

These notes will be brief as Ben’s on annual leave.

The general trend from now through the weekend is down.

Today's pulse of swell will ease into this afternoon and we've got one final front that's expected to produce a reinforcing mid-period S'ly swell for tomorrow morning, but this will just slow the downwards trend.

Expect sets mostly to 3ft across Sydney, smaller on the South Coast and bigger across the Hunter to 4ft or so.

The swell will ease into the afternoon and come Sunday, don't expect much over 1ft to possibly 2ft.

Winds tomorrow will be great in the morning, light offshore from the W/NW ahead of moderate to fresh N/NE sea breezes. Sunday looks clean all day at south facing spots with a N/NW offshore but that tiny swell.

Our small possible SE swell for Tuesday looks just that, small. A brief burst of strong S/SE winds of New Zealand's South Island will produce a small 2ft wave across south magnets in Sydney and further north, but don't expect much. Conditions will be favourable again with a W/NW tending N'ly breeze.

Longer term there's nothing significant on the cards with a weak front moving off the coast Wednesday not likely to generate any significant fetch of swell above 2ft Thursday morning, and it will be windswelly.

Therefore make the most of the easing S'ly swell. Have a great weekend!