Where did you surf today ?

[steve shearer]

Ive been lazy and relied on emails from an auto swell allert website.

They didn't send you an email????????? >><<

[Donweather]

This is proof i should do some weather checking myself, as anyone knows a low sitting still off the coast means waves.

It didn't sit still....that was what created it!!!

[marcus]

Ive been lazy and relied on emails from an auto swell allert website.

They didn't send you an email????????? >><<

nah i had it programmed for over 4m
they also send me a friday arvo one that covers the weekend.
nothing really stood out.
attached is the report i use to plan whether to go kayak fishing or surfing.
doesnt look like anything special was going to happen on sunday to me.

[steve shearer]

12 second swell period with glassy conditions didn't raise any alarms?

[crabmeat thompson]

It was definitely bigger and heavier here on Sunday morning than on Saturday.
Dropped off this morning but I still got 2 1/2 hours from first light. Smoother, longer lines. Went off a bit as the tide topped out but within a half hour or so of that there were some serious sets pouring through again.
Absolutely magic morning and as SS says, just a hint of autumn in the air although the water is still like a heated pool.

Saturday was way bigger here (FIngal area) than Sunday.

Saturday 3pm, I took the wife and squids down to the beach. A short walk through some dunes looking out for nesting sea turtles. Got to the beach and it was heaving. Had 4 attempts to get out the back, and on the last one, gave up. Headed back through the gutter and settled into the shorey.

It was still a solid 3-4 foot sand filled mess which was coming down like a guillotine in about knee deep water. Memories of body surfing the Waimea shorey at the same size come back to me. I remember smiling.

First surf on a brand new 6'2" epoxy step-up board. So I wanted to see what it can do and if it's as strong as advertised.

Pick off the last wave of the next set in the shorey, and take a straight drop, leaning back, winding up the windows as I come down the face. There's a rush to be had by taking a straight drop on a fairly solid wave. Totally buzzed, paddle back out for a few more.

The last one was a doubling up wedge. It completely exfoliated me.

Put the board down and join the kids in the white water rampaging up the beach like a tidal-wave surge. My 2-year old son already gets taken under water, held down and ragdolled in little shoreys. He might have the bug. Back home for a BBQ, thai salad and a sneaky shiraz Was a great arvo.

Sunday was a third to half smaller, with still some big bombs coming in inconsistently, but it looked like it had more punch? I was too sore from the arvo before to surf, so I was spectator all day long.

Got a few good ones this morning though. T-land was having a one day a year kind of moment. Stoked.

[marcus]

12 second swell period with glassy conditions didn't raise any alarms?

ha, I should have noticed

[alakaboo]

I'm still surprised to hear you say Sunday was smaller Steve? Wave buoys beg to differ, unless you're comparing to dusk on Saturday afternoon? Footage from Sunday certainly shows it solid on the open beaches/points.

Haven't looked at the wave buoys Don, but I'd guess that the Hmax may have been higher Sunday morning, but the Hsig was lower. There were some thumpers late Saturday and early Sunday, but the average wave height was higher on Saturday.
Certainly seemed that way where I was.
Very tidally affected too, almost a 2 foot difference in push between full tide and dead low.
Definitely punchier on Sunday. I'd hazard a guess at a 2s difference in period, it was chalk and cheese on the same peak.

[Donweather]

Boo, whilst I'm not disputing your on the ground observations, swell direction on Sunday would have a reasonable impact where you were surfing. Swell swung overnight Saturday from north of east to south of east. And don't get me wrong, the swell peaked late on Saturday from what I can see. My debate was with some reports calling Sunday morning smaller than what they called Saturday morning. Looking at the pics and wave buoy comparison between Saturday MORNING and Sunday morning I just can't see Saturday morning being bigger than Sunday morning.

And you were spot on with your 2sec period observation difference!!!

[Donweather]

IMO, this is why I think this swell caught a few people by surprise. Firstly it was under-forecast IMO, particularly for Sunday morning. Secondly, IMO, from experience, the wave models nearly always under-predict swell heights from compact intense fetches, purely just due to the resolution of the model. I don't have enough historical observations to know how the actual swells compare to compact retrograding fetches, but if this one is anything to go by, it would appear the models also tend to under-predict these swell heights also. In saying that, I notice that LOLA was predicting greater swell heights for this fetch compared with other WW3 models.

[steve shearer]

Firstly it was under-forecast IMO, particularly for Sunday morning.

Not for here. It peaked Sat and dropped but leveled into the 4ft range Sun......which was pretty spot on apart from some rogue bomb sets.(hMax).

Secondly, IMO, from experience, the wave models nearly always under-predict swell heights from compact intense fetches,

There was nothing compact about that fetch. It had plenty of length and width to it.....moreso from the ASCAT passes than models thought. And the head of the fetch had stronger windspeeds than f/cast which is why the swell had that kick in the tail Sun.

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah well in Sydney it was 3-4' on Saturday, 4-5'+ (bigger in many spots) on Sunday, and absolutely sledged in today at a real groundswelly 6'-8' through the mid-morning in the teeth of a southerly/se change.

Different pulse today would be from where the low intensified on Sat and "pinched" the fetch slightly as per shearer's last comment -- like a soccer player helping the ball into the net -- aimed better at the central NSW coast than at spots nth of Pt Macquarie.

You won't see it on this site because Realsurf mainly just reports DY, typically 2' smaller than exposed surf zones in this type of swell.

[kookster]

Surfed Wurtulla this morning on a main track that is usually packed to the hilt. Drive in and get a park easy, go down and there's not a farking soul out. I thought I'd been drugged and driven to the wrong spot - 300m to the north there were 100 guys battling and there was me and a mate for 2.5 hours from 8am - 10.30 with three banks to ourselves... take the right, then the left. Bit fat when we started, tide drained out and started walling and occasional unmakeable pit, then slightly wind and rip affected to finish.

OK this is my contrib to the weekend swells to help fill any voids.

Boo, not sure where you are. I'm at Warana. Surfed Platforms/Pt Cartwight from 10am down to the low, sets were 1.5 OH. Apprently the afternoon session was a good dose of DOH and heavy as hell. I am told there were plenty of sets breaking right across the back of the break, so it's got to have been every bit of DOH. Cartwright in the morning was IMO definitely bigger than the open beaches, which is rare but happens when the swell angle is just right.

Sunday morning I surfed open beach at Maroochydore just south of the Seabreeze Van park. It was too straight to be really enjoyable but it was solid, bombs were what I'd call 1.5. From what I'm told again Cartwright sounded as big as the open beach, but maybe no bigger, so this goes with the swell angle perhaps going that tad more south of east.

[petulance]

Well I'm definitely renewing my pledge to never surf Bondi on a Sunday. Tama looked okay but trying to find a park proved too elusive.

Bondi is that bad on a Sunday, eh? I haven't been out Bondi way in ages. And I would have thought that getting a park in Tama / Bronte would be impossible at the best of times.

[grapsta]

on a week day its common to luck into a park right on /near the beach at Tama / Bronte

[Donweather]

There was nothing compact about that fetch. It had plenty of length and width to it.....moreso from the ASCAT passes than models thought. And the head of the fetch had stronger windspeeds than f/cast which is why the swell had that kick in the tail Sun.

My specific comment about the compact fetch was relating to the core strength strongest winds which retrograded westwards with a speed similar to the swell.

I couldn't access the ASCAT archives for some reason, but looking at the hindcast models that's what was forecast to happen and IMO, the models tend to struggle when these core strength winds are a compact fetch.

Still haven't found an explanation for why your neck of the woods was so much smaller on Sunday Steve, cmoparde with adjacent nearby locations?

[steve shearer]

well we've ascertained that at least to the QLD border Fingal it was smaller on Sun morning compared to Sat.

[crabmeat thompson]

well we've ascertained that at least to the QLD border Fingal it was smaller on Sun morning compared to Sat.

For sure.

Spoke to some crew today. And just about everyone struggled to get out the back saturday arvo (most never made it 1st or 2nd go either), and the ones who did get out, said it was a gnarly, churning 6 foot. Sunday was a 4-5 foot with some bomb sets, but with the lulls, a much easier paddle out.

Spoke to another guy who surfs Snapper as his local, and he said Sunday morning was bigger than Saturday morning. Which considering the wave heights had almost doubled by saturday afternoon, isn't really news. In fact it's almost a complete waste of a paragraph.

You're welcome

[Donweather]

well we've ascertained that at least to the QLD border Fingal it was smaller on Sun morning compared to Sat.

Compared to Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon? I'm not disputing Saturday afternoon wasn't as big as Sunday morning. I'm disputing Sunday morning was bigger than Saturday morning.

Steve, correct me if I'm wrong, but you reported 4-5ft on Saturday morning but only 3-4ft on Sunday morning. Byron buoy shows similar swell heights and periods to Tweed and Goldy wave buoys on Saturday arvo and Sunday morning so I just can't see where this difference in reports on swell heights around your neck of the woods is coming from?