Beach - sand blasting or calm?

[Lolly]

Its that time of the year again when I really love to venture down to the beach - usually either morning 8am-11amish or evening 5pm onwards.

The only thing is I can never work out what the weather will be like. I've done a google search but haven't found what I'm after yet.

So how can I tell from looking out of the window whether I will get a sand blasting when I get to the beach and the waves too rough to venture beyond getting my feet wet or whether it will be calm and perfect?

If it helps at all I tend to go to City Beach.

[Sprint]

Just do Hillarys when it's less than ideal from the POV of prevailing winds, Ms Lolly.
Calm and protected.

S.

[Lolly]

I know its odd but for some reason driving any further than I have to, and suddenly the beach just seems too far to bother. I can do a straight from Maylands to CB and be there in 15-20mins and thats about my max tolerance. But good to know that there are protected areas of coastline if I do find myself venturing north.

[Sprint]

Ride.
Then the extra distance will be a pleasure.

I'm out of laterals - good luck Ms Lolly.

S.

[Lolly]

Ride, if only... a trip to the beach must be done with the pooch - it just doesn't seem to be right to go without him. That said, I almost convinced the other half to buy a bike that could accommodate a side car because he gets pretty fed up with cleaning the sand from the car. Alas, the fun season is about to begin for him too

[chew]

Try here, here and here.

Perth Weather Forecast (Swell, Wind, Tide, Rain & Temperature)

Trigg Point

http://www.srosurf.com/

[chew]

Try again, that went haywire at first.

[Lolly]

wow that first one is so detailed (but I think I'll need a meterology degree to interpret it ). The live cam is awesome - although the Swanbourne cam is not working but maybe thats just a glitch. It looks stunning at Trigg and Hillarys though! Thanks Chew!

[chew]

There was heaps of cameras but they have gradually disappeared but there is moving picture one of Smiths Beach/Margaret River down south left on line.
Coastalwatch :: surfcams :: Smiths - Yallingup PM&camName=Smiths - Yallingup

The sea breeze is basically, blue line is swell size, arrows are wind direction and strength.

You can change the arrow colour to surfers/fisherfolk (Green = Light wind) as we prefer lighter off shores to the howling onshores preferred by the wind/kite surfers.

Us older farts will figure out the lay of the land where we live and watch the trees/flags or other flapping stuff to check.

Offshores (easterly's) or Light Onshores (westerly's) are what you require.

But wait there's more!!!!!!!!!!!

Latest Capital City Observations Swanbourne

Will stop now before I am pidgeon holed as a weather geek.

[pucara]

Hey lolly, will not be a bad idea to do the fighting fit at least once at the beach next year eh? You can kill 2 birds with one bullet! Just a thought, i i will be when starts if i r running it again! Cheers. Alex

[agrid]

Western Australia is quite unique (other than Namibia) in that we have a desert inland but no mountain range. The air gets hot over the desert and rises, air must rush in from the ocean to replace it. This is our sea breeze. Initially it comes from the west but Corioli's effect eventually turns it to the southwest. On the south coast its starts form the south and turns to the south west. The seabreeze kind of shuts down by February because our Leeuwin Current warms the ocean of the metro coast so there is not so much temperature difference between the land and the sea. The interesting thing about the seabreeze is that it starts as a very coastal thing and gradually expands inland and off the coast. I've windsurfed too far off the coast out through the seabreeze where it was completely calm but people closer to the beach were having a fine old time. The distance between me an them was a few hundred metres. When the seebreeze is in you can let a few party balloons go and they will blow inland, half an hour later you will see them heading back out to see on the easterly.

If the predicted temp during summer is over, say, 32 it tells you the seabreeze will be pathetic and no sandblasting. If its 26 or thereabouts its going to be blowing its arse off.

Anyway up-to-date wind info can be found at: Perth Weather Forecast (Swell, Wind, Tide, Rain & Temperature)

[Bluebandit]

Try www.seabreeze.com.au then find the graph for Perth metro. Should be easy to interpret.

[Lolly]

so just to be sure I have got this right. I prefer it when the water is like a pond and there is little to no breeze to pick up any sand. So I need to head down when it is forecast to be 32 (+?) and when I check the links what would be the better wind direction (and will it be different if it is morning or evening?)?

Pucara - great idea! The martial arts guys do a 5 day mini beach gashuku where they head down at dawn and back at dusk for training - I'll see if our FF crew can't tag along. I've always joined them in the past and it is a lot of fun and energising.

[agrid]

Last Tuesday would have been good.

[Lolly]

Weather watchers - how is it looking at the beach at the moment?

[agrid]

Still offshore.

[Davey]

This arvo down at pinnaroo was lovely.

[Lolly]

Was quite suprised at how breezy it was outside so headed to the doggy park instead. It was lovely - no mozzies and the pooch had a ball (literally) in the river.