El Niño in WA is a time of small swells and poor winds. A tragically perfect combination.

According to the forecast there is one offshore day in the next six. By my reckoning that is three days in three weeks.

Summer may be very long and tiresome if this continues. Even if it swings offshore it's going to be tiny. A summer of head high waves. Grrrrr. It's been a few years since we had a summer like this so shouldn't really complain but it has been an awful start.

Boooooo! to El Nino

YEAH!

I want to headbutt El Niño in the face until she dies!

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thedrip said..
YEAH!

I want to headbutt El Niño in the face until she dies!

She's a he.

ET.

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E T said...

thedrip said..
YEAH!

I want to headbutt El Niño in the face until she dies!

She's a he.

ET.

True. Little bastard.

El Nino is good for us on the East Coast of NZ.

Well you could always add a wind surfer to the quiver...as long as the winds SSW to W & at least 10 knts I don't mind

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MickPC said...
Well you could always add a wind surfer to the quiver...as long as the winds SSW to W & at least 10 knts I don't mind

I tried kiting over two summers but didn't have the time or consistent winds to learn. I live in Busselton - winds are generally light and from the wrong direction. Australind is flukey and inconsistent. Augusta is 100kms away and the west coast is nothing but little bay after little bay so I would be spending more time walking back after hitting a rocky headland than actually sailing. Plus the swells are a real issue while learning. I reckon Perth and surrounds are just perfect for learning a wind sport. Long sandy beaches everywhere with good winds. Or Esperance. Or Gero. Or just about anywhere in WA but the south west.

Or be 20 years younger with the time to put into driving.

Selling the kite gear has been how I have funded three boards this year.

You can pick up wind surfing gear pretty cheap on gumtree, seen quite a few kits for sale in Australind. Yallingup is very similar to where I'm learning mate, flat water inside an outside table reef with waves out the back. I'm learning on my 666 though, which is 32 inches wide. Makes it heaps easier to learn.

Your bailing to the great southern these school holidays aren't you Hows the weather looking for down there. I remember you saying you were gonna be doing some driving & this is the worst time of year for surfing up around where you grew up. I hated being up there between June & March, Southerlies every friggin day pretty much. You can usually find a place out of the wind this time of year in the great Southern.

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thedrip said..
El Niño in WA is a time of small swells and poor winds. A tragically perfect combination.

According to the forecast there is one offshore day in the next six. By my reckoning that is three days in three weeks.

Summer may be very long and tiresome if this continues. Even if it swings offshore it's going to be tiny. A summer of head high waves. Grrrrr. It's been a few years since we had a summer like this so shouldn't really complain but it has been an awful start.

Don't forget its overcast and raining on and off..

AUSTRALIA'S LONG RANGE SUMMER FORECASTForecast by Coastalwatch Chief Forecaster Ben Macartney

As many of us are now well aware we are in the midst of a big El Nino weather pattern that’s now the strongest seen since the record-breaking event of 1997/ 1998. The El Nino patterns are closely linked to abnormally warm sea surface temperatures throughout the tropical eastern and Central Pacific Ocean and they do have notable implications for surfing conditions for Australian waters. For the East Coast theoretically means plenty of hot, dry spells as high pressure dominates the southeast of the continent and Tasman Sea throughout the summer months – and that means plenty of small-scale NE wind swell and northerly winds, interspersed with the odd southerly buster and south swells spreading off a suppressed Southern Ocean storm track.

Although El Nino also means a below average number of tropical cyclones forecast throughout the Australian waters this season, warm sea surface anomalies over various parts of the Southwest Pacific point to an above average number of tropical cyclones for many island nations – specifically Vanuatu, Fiji – as well as the more distant regions of the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. So although the probability of a tropical cyclone setting up within close proximity of the Eastern Seaboard is reduced, there are above average chances we’ll see a handful of tropical cyclone-related swell events – not to mention more typical East trade wind swells of more remote origins impacting the Eastern Seaboard – particularly as tropical activity comes to a head during the second half of summer and early autumn.

Looking further south, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are likely to see higher average daytime temperatures, reduced cloud cover and lower rainfall under the influence of the El Nino pattern as it peaks through the summer months. Weather patterns will be characterised by the dominant high-pressure belt over the south-eastern interior. This points to good conditions across the most exposed southwest facing beaches as a subdued Southern Ocean storm track delivers small to mid-sized SW swell as northerly quarter winds emerge as the dominant wind regime through the summer months.

Across the West Coast, the double atmospheric whammy of a positive Indian Ocean dipole and the Pacific El Nino also points to above average air temperatures, drier than average conditions and below average tropical cyclone formation. Otherwise, the summer looms as a fairly typical one with respect to surf potential for the West Coast, with mostly small-scale SW swell interspersed with the odd mid to large groundswell. Expect a typical wind-regime characterised by early ESE winds tending SSE to SSW during the days.

Buckleys reading all that ^^^

Translation for WA Scotty - it should come good.

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thedrip said..

MickPC said...
Well you could always add a wind surfer to the quiver...as long as the winds SSW to W & at least 10 knts I don't mind

I tried kiting over two summers but didn't have the time or consistent winds to learn. I live in Busselton - winds are generally light and from the wrong direction. Australind is flukey and inconsistent. Augusta is 100kms away and the west coast is nothing but little bay after little bay so I would be spending more time walking back after hitting a rocky headland than actually sailing. Plus the swells are a real issue while learning. I reckon Perth and surrounds are just perfect for learning a wind sport. Long sandy beaches everywhere with good winds. Or Esperance. Or Gero. Or just about anywhere in WA but the south west.

Or be 20 years younger with the time to put into driving.

Selling the kite gear has been how I have funded three boards this year.

I tried that years ago. Sold a mint condition cordingley Mal to buy a windsurfer I used twice then tossed it in. That old mal would be worth a bucket full of gold now. One of the worst decisions of my many bad decisdions ever!

Kiting is supposed to be easier than wind surfing, but wind surfing has always appealed more to me after living in Margaret River & watching the guys carve it up at main break. Pulling into waves 2 to 4 times overhead behind the peak, whacking it off the peak & screaming around huge close out sections. Just looks more like a transition from surfing, bloody good alternative imo...but oh well, less the merrier I guess haha

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thedrip said...
Translation for WA Scotty - it should come good.

Thanks mate.
I like your version better.

Mick, I am heading up north for Chrissy. I think your experience may be a little different to Gero. Generally the dodgy months aren't that extensive. October-February, but from February through to October it's generally pretty consistent. There are far options up that way though.

After Boxing Day I am coming home and keeping an eye on the charts for a little window of joy joy out East. There's quite a few waves that work in different conditions so if the swells and winds align for one of the ones I am looking for then I will probably do a four or five day trip.

May even head south as I have mates down there, buts that just a roll of the dice. Place is pretty fickle.

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NewScotty said..
Buckleys reading all that ^^^

I only read the VIC part Scotty hahahaha

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thedrip said..
Mick, I am heading up north for Chrissy. I think your experience may be a little different to Gero. Generally the dodgy months aren't that extensive. October-February, but from February through to October it's generally pretty consistent. There are far options up that way though.

After Boxing Day I am coming home and keeping an eye on the charts for a little window of joy joy out East. There's quite a few waves that work in different conditions so if the swells and winds align for one of the ones I am looking for then I will probably do a four or five day trip.

May even head south as I have mates down there, buts that just a roll of the dice. Place is pretty fickle.

Ahh yeah you got the B...river stretch of coast. Bit far for me, was 50 mins just to the South end of Gero. We just had flatties & the beachies round there over summer...hope ya score mate...seriously considering a trip down to the Great Southern myself, I love it down there. Awesome coastline, waves or not