May 17th – 24th, North Narrabeen
Pro surfing is returning to North Narra, albeit as a Challenger Series not a Championship Tour event. The last time the Woz visited there was in 2021 when a hastily cobbled together Championship Tour stopped off there on their way to Newcastle.
That comp was won by Gabriel Medina and Caroline Marks, and it received good if not great east and south-east swell for the event. North Narrabeen loves swell with east in it as this provides the classic bowling lefts that run down the shallow bank at the opening of the lagoon. What it doesn’t like is south swells, especially pure south, as the swell line hits the bank straighter, making the left much shorter and quicker, although it can shift attention over to Alley Rights. These rights also prefer east, with southerly swells not bending in as favourably and running a little fat and slower. They will, however, keep throwing up workable but not necessarily well-shaped walls.
Lucky for that, because the only thing on the menu for the Sydney Surf Pro is south swell. With such a tricky outlook we’re not going to guess which days the contest may run, and instead just forecast the conditions.
In 2021, Morgan Cibilic beat John John at North Narra and began his march towards the Top 5
The opening day of the waiting period – Wednesday – will start off poorly. A surface trough sliding up the southern NSW coast will bring a fresh spike of moderate-sized southerly swell to 4ft, but conditions will be choppy thanks to accompanying, strong southerly winds.
The following days are expected to be smaller but with improving conditions as the trough moves east into the Tasman Sea. Smaller 2-3ft waves are due on Thursday out of the S/SE and a morning W/SW-SW land breeze should create clean-ish surface conditions. There’ll likely be lots of leftover lump from the previous days’ winds, with strengthening southerly winds from later morning bringing back the chop after lunch.
Similar-sized waves – that is, 2-3ft – are expected into Friday along with morning W/SW breezes that should remain favourable most of the day.
The clean line of the Narra left – shown here being dissected by Carissa Moore – may be hard to find during the waiting period (Photo WSL/Dunbar)
Fresh westerly winds will create clean conditions on the weekend, however there’ll only be a small signal of S/SE swell. It’ll be around 2ft+ on Saturday, but even smaller on Sunday with gusty offshore winds shifting to the south into the afternoon when it’ll be both small and onshore – ugh.
However, the shift in winds will be associated with a strong frontal system pushing up into the Tasman Sea, bringing a renewal of moderate-sized southerly swell. Monday could see 4-5ft sets with clean morning conditions ahead of afternoon sea breezes, though we’re stretching the forecast to predict winds that far out.
The swell will then ease through Tuesday and Wednesday, which are the final days of the waiting period.
We’ll update the forecast as it rolls on. You can also check Swellnet’s Northern Beaches Forecast here.
// CRAIG BROKENSHA