thinking out loud

Hello Friends,

Well, the rain seems to have finished along the northern beaches this morning. Wind is light SW for those who don’t mind the 16 degree temp. Swell is averaging around 4 metres out at sea, but it is dead south and the average period is around the 9 sec mark, so there isn’t a tremendous amount getting into protected corners such as Dee Why. There were a few hardy types out on surf rescue board at around 0700 when I had a look at the aforesaid stretch of sand. Sets were shoulder high, but not looking particularly powerful.

From the look of the buoy data, the swell peaked last night. However, the forecast is for the wind to kick back up into the 25-33 kt range (up to 40 kts out at sea), and that should drive the swell size back up. Tomorrow the call is for 20-30 kts of southerly early, fading as the afternoon comes along.

Looks like a beautiful leap year day coming up for us, so go well with your endeavors and stay happy.

Hello Friends,

Light south winds inshore this morning meant glassy surface conditions at the protected spots. However, the call from the Bureau is for the breeze to pick up and get into the 25-33 kt range by this afternoon. Swell is out of the south at 2 metres. Average period is an okay 9 seconds with some peaks into the 12 sec range. Wind is due to stay southerly over the next four days, so that should see the swell gradually push up into the 3 metre plus range at sea. That ought to keep the protected corners interesting.

If you’re up north this weekend, it looks as though another bout of sizeable but stormy conditions are likely to settle in and last into the new week. Yours truly will be making the trek north to those fair lands on Sunday. The plan is to spend the week in Noosa, covering by all manner of means the many doings at the Noosa Festival of Surfing. I’ll  be taking along my cameras and interviewer’s mic with the goal of hunting down a few interesting tidbits for RealSurfers. Should be fun - particularly if the forecast comes true and we see the 3-4 metre swell at sea some of the long range models are currently projecting.

Go well with your day!

Hello Friends,

Did you get any of the south swell yesterday Sydneysiders? Hope so, because this morning finds us looking at small, weak conditions. The dominant swell direction now seems to be from the NE and average size at sea is around 1.5 metres. Yesterday the average period was around 11 sec at the peak of the swell. It then plunged overnight to around 8 sec as the swell direction swung to the NE.

The average period seems to have bounced back into the 9 sec range, so maybe it’ll get a little more energetic. However, when I watched Dee Why before sitting down to write this, I didn’t see anything much above waist high come in. There were only one or two bods in the water, so I’m guessing I didn’t miss seeing any bomb sets.

The Bureau’s forecast says we’re due for light NW in the morning, accelerating into the 15-20 kt range this afternoon.

Outlook for the week ahead is for it to stay small to marginal for the next day or so, before a run of strong southerly conditions sets in for a few days.

Go well with your day!