Surf Forecast Weekend February 20th/21st

Report Date: 19 Feb 2010

Welcome to SurfPhotos Weekend Surf Forecast. Here is a forecast of the likely surf conditions we can expect for this weekend (February 20th/21st).

Saturday: Combination of long range and powerful, but inconsistent E/SE groundswell and mid range, peakier and more consistent SE swell, both in the 3-4ft class, with the odd freak bomb sets around 4ft+ early morning, before waning throughout the day. Moderate to fresh E/SE winds, with lighter more S’ly winds around the Cooly and possibly Maroochydore stretches early morning.

Sunday: Waning inconsistent E/SE groundswell around 2-3ft, with the odd freak 3ft+ bomb set and new mid range E/SE swell around 3-4ft+, with the upper end of this size range more so along the SC south facing beaches (however winds will limit surfing opportunities at these locations). Moderate to fresh SE winds, possibly lighter and more SW/S along the Goldy and Maroochydore stretches.

Weekend Forecast
We’re currently seeing the peak in swell from TC Rene which developed earlier in the week way out in the Tropical South Pacific, however a small compact ex TC Rene still maintained some solid, albeit small/compact fetch of winds on it’s southern flank over the last day or so as it tracked close to the northern tip of NZ. In the past, models have tended to underestimate the swell sizes generated from these compact fetches due to the model resolution, and so there’s a reasonable chance that swell heights on Saturday morning could still have some reasonable size and power associated with them. Expect very long waits for the upper end of the size spectrum though, and it may not actually turn on until the tide starts to turn to incoming and the swell kicks a notch mid morning.

Sunday should see a new swell develop from the current high pressure system pushing out into the Tasman later today. These will create a lengthy fetch of moderate tradewinds on it’s northern flank, and it’s relatively slow moving nature, once it stalls near NZ will assist with optimum swell generation, with the new swell arriving Sunday, perhaps, once again not until mid morning on the flooding tide. Don’t expect overly high quality from this swell however as it’s only a mid range tradewind swell, and thus it will be peakier and weaker than the E/SE groundswell currently on offer today and into Saturday.

Enjoy the circus on the points tomorrow!!!

Weekend Surf Forecast January 23rd/24th

Report Date: 22 Jan 2010

Welcome to SurfPhotos Weekend Surf Forecast. Here is a forecast of the likely surf conditions we can expect for this weekend (January 23rd/24th).

Saturday: Combination of residual waning E’ly and S’ly groundswells and peaky, weak E/NE tradewind swell around the 1-2ft class, with the upper end of this size range at the SC open beaches and along GC south facing beaches (early morning). Light NW/N winds early, becoming moderate sea breezes during the day.

Sunday: Residual waning E’ly groundswell and peaky, weak E/NE tradewind swell (more so along the SC) around the 1-2ft class. Light NW/N winds early, becoming moderate sea breezes during the day.

Weekend Forecast
This weekend is shaping up to be small with only some leftover E’ly groundswell and S’ly groundswell early Saturday morning being the better quality waves. There should also be a small, peaky, weak E/NE tradewind swell in the mix (more so along the Sunshine Coast) courtesy of some weakish winds on the northern flank of a small Tasman high pressure system at present.
Local winds should be from the northern quadrant and reasonably light early morning, before the land mass heats up during mid morning and the sea breeze effect takes over.