Like spring

 Great mid-winter day. Just a little nip in the air, wispy winds and clear water.

The swell has continued to drop but there are still some shortish waves out of the rip bank at Juniors. The odd set has chest height takes offs but its mostly around waist height. Best of all is that there is no one out.

I've just had the best three board session for ages all by myself. I started on the map, switched to the slab and finished off with a couple using the hand plane. Nice start to the weekend but now the jobs around the house start.

0.40 @ 11

Update

The Wall is a no-go, no enough swell and the wind straight on to it.

The conditions are getting worse by the minute but the blue sky seems to be tempting some to at least try.

Swell heading down and seas up - 0.72 @ 11 and a bit, winds NNE and gusting to 29 kmh (up from 9 in the last two hours).

Wintery

Bit of a very late glass off but with the low tide there wasn't much on offer.

The Bay looks like it has a bank or two forming. There were three out at the Wall, one way out the back (but not far enough) and two in the normal spot. There were some swells coming in but breaking to close to the rocks. In the 15 minutes I watched it for they didn't get a wave and probably only missed one that could have been surfable.

More bad weather tomorrow and stronger onshore winds. The swell is meant to be coming up but the conditions will make it pus. Stay inside.

0.78 @ 11 seconds from the west. Seas 1.01

Some waves

I was working today so didn't get a look until late this afternoon. it looked like the conditions had stayed glassy for the whole day and there was still plenty of waves around as the sun was setting.

The tide was pretty low after the big highs of last week so there was plenty of dumpers. The handful out at the groyne were getting the odd wave that was walling. It looked like the rip was quite savage as they couldn't seem to get in the best spot and the waves were warping a little.

Three groms were sharing an after school session at clean BP reef and getting filmed by one of the Dad's. The waves looked quite nice, a little wasted on groms !

The Back Beach had a few dotted here and there but there were plenty of closeouts and weed.

I'm guessing that Capel would have been very good and so would have Binningup. As is the norm in winter tomorrow is a bit of a toss up, you'll just have to wait and see.

There is predictions of another big swell with the front on Friday. Apparently down south was in the 10 to 15 foot range for most of last weekend and could be coping another pounding this weekend. Maybe Brave the crowds at the Farm ??

Another front

Another front on the way. It should hit any time now and be basically over by tomorrow morning.

There is a huge crowd out at The Wall for the arvo session. There are plenty of waves rolling off the inside but with 20 plus out it is a bit of dodgem cars, especially as a group of mindless body boarding groms as sitting down the line and dropping in on everyone. One was lucky that a shortboarder sacrificed himself and his board on the rocks rather than into his head.

One surfer per wave GROMS - learn the rules before you paddle out !!!!


There is a nice bank at The Wall at the moment. It is really close to the rocks and closer to the beach than normal. There isn't meant to be a massive wind with this front but the swell at Naturaliste has peaked over four metres but is slowly dropping. Might be some more Wall waves tomorrow.

The best surfers of the session needed no boards and were way out the back. Two show off dolphins were cruising, jumping out in front of the swells and doing a roll in the air. You could almost hear them say "beat that humans !"

Changes

Woke up to winter again.

A grey morning with strengthening south/south west winds. Strangely the onshore slop has more shape than the clean conditions of the last week or so. With a bit of angle to the waves there are a few corners at BP and Juniors if you need a weekend fix before the footy.

Battering

This front is a beauty. Winds have been over 75 ks a few times during the night and it is still smashing through. At 6.00 am the wind was a gentle 76 kmh. Overnight it sounded like trucks were smashing into the house.

We are being hit by the low behind the main front. It's always worse when you can see speckled clouds on the satelitte following the main band and that is what we have at the moment.

It will be interesting to see what the beach is like. The swell at Naturaliste has doubled since lunch time yesterday and is now sitting near six metres. The harbour is nearly 1.3 but the seas are a touch under two metres. The ocean will be a good thing to look at but not to venture into.

Front

Maybe a winter pattern might finally be forming. There are some forecasts of huge waves down south over the next few days but that doesn't mean surf.

It is possible that the Dunsborough side of the cape might be ok but it is school holidays so expect crowds.

Wintery

Very much like winter today, onshore and grey.

The swell has come up a little and Coastalwatch are suggesting the Farm, Rockies or South Point could be goers. Locally there were the usual Sunday groms hitting onshore peaks here and there. Four chose the shorebreak at the Wall and even though it was tiny they were having a ball.

Fraggles had some nice but really inconsistent waves but no one out when I checked.

What's happened ?

Been away for five days with work and returned to find a trace of northerly swell and light winds. It was too late for a decent look but made me wish I could have gotten home earlier just in case.

Looks like a low is going to give us some rain and wind tommorow and into Sunday. Swell might jump up to three around the Cape but if the wind direction is as predicted then surfing will be out for almost everywhere. Those spots that might have a wave will be packed with the weekend crew.

Interestingly, despite it feeling unusually dry, 0.2 mm more rain this year than to the same time last year. But that is still more than 100 mm short of the average. No wonder my water bill is so high.

Heres for a decent winter surf and rain wise.

Don't let the weather fool you

Its not winter yet but it sure looked and felt like it today. Dunsborough was cold and drizzly.

There were some waves this afternoon at BP and a small number of takers. The wind was strong but with more south than west. Every now and then a cleaner one came through Juniors but it would have been an effort to stay in a spot to catch them.

BP had some almost offshore rollers. If you could jag one from out the back it would have been fun but most were shore dumpers.

SSE forecast for tomorrow arvo. Could be good. Anyone got a spare shortboard ?

First Hot Day

We'll probably second hot day of Spring and the beach is packed. Good luck getting a parking spot at back beach.

Its one of those days that clubbies hate. First time most people have been in the water since last summer, the water is colder than people expect, Winter's rocks and sandbanks are still around and there is a decent size swell dumping onto the shallow bank and ripping back to sea. Plus they are only two weeks into their patrol season. If you decide to go for a swim be careful.

Although there is swell the lack of any banks continues to make it nothing better than close outs. Leave your board at home.

Another Disapointing Winter

According to the calendar winter is over and it is now spring. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the weather.

This was probably the worst winter for surf that I can remember in my 14 odd years here.

There was not a single bank at BP all winter. The reef was always a three section left in winter but it hasn't broken on the second shallow take off all year (and hasn't worked for the last four or five). Juniors is never good in winter but we usually get a decent rip bank off the southern rocks. It has threatened to appear a few times but never done it.

The BP Groyne has been surfed a bit but the bank and rip just aren't there. The sand isn't getting washed out and the weed is getting washed in. Fraggles broke about three times early and only once was more than a novelty.

The Bay was a little more consistent but not all time. The Wall broke a few times but you wouldn't have surfed it is there was any other choice.

The Surf Club had a few banks for a few days between swells. The Clam failed to really get one of the good winter banks and was mostly a close out. On the days it did work it was packed.

Bright sides were the opening of the path to the Bay and the start of construction on the BP look out but that's about it.

Fingers crossed for spring.

When Will It End

This weather seems never ending. Today was probably the worst and most sustained of the last few and it hasn't finished yet.

Needless to say that despite the huge swell there are no waves locally. The wind swung more west and was whipping spray off the top of the ocean.

Wednesday looks like the first respite and depending on what bank damage there is the weekend might be ok.

Gross Winters Day

Early start this morning and it was gross and wintery. It is starting to fine up now but there isn't much chance of a surf.

There is swell with the Port buoy showing over a metre but the wind is nor-west and destroying it.

To bad for those who have a RDO but ok for us that missed out on the weekend and have to work today.

Mash-ups

The wind has left nice little chunks of swell. There are decent waves up and down the Bunbury coastline with a heap out a BP reef and the Bay. The wind has been light all day and is only just swinging side/onshore southerly.

Hopefully the waves will hang around for the weekend. The harbour buoy isn't dropping away to fast but these short period windswells don't always hang around long.

The weather maps seem to show us starting to get into a seven day winter cycle. Monday fine, start of a front Tuesday, bigger front Wednesday, end of a front Thursday, fining up for Friday and the weekend before starting again.

One of the best winters in my memory (and it was ages ago) had a great 7 day cycle with massive fronts every Wednesday and Thursday and great conditions on either side. Biggest caused an 11 metre swell on the Naturaliste Buoy and every week had at least one 6. We can only hope.