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Week of large surf for NSW under active Tasman and Coral seas

Source Weatherzone Sun 18 Jan 2026

An active Tasman is bringing large and unruly surf to southeastern NSW, with the Coral Sea awakening and sending waves into southeast Queensland in the coming week. Ocean conditions across NSW’s South Coast rapidly deteriorated on Friday as a deep feed of easterly winds whipped up large and dangerous surf. The Batemans Bay Surfrider buoy recorded an increase of nearly 3 metres in significant wave heights in the 8 hours to 9pm on Friday. Image: Significant wave height recordings from Surfrider buoys off Sydney and Batemans Bay’s coasts between Friday and Saturday. Source: Manly Hydraulics Laboratory. The surge of large east-to-southeast swell moved up the coast throughout Friday and into the weekend, with maximum wave heights reaching over 9 metres off the Sydney coast on Saturday morning. A Coastal Hazard Warning for Damaging Surf was issued for coastal areas south of Seal Rocks around this peak period of swell activity, but has now been cancelled with a Hazardous Surf Warning remaining in place. Video: 10 metre wind speeds across the Tasman and Coral seas over the coming week showing areas of swell generation directed towards Australia’s East Coast. As seen in the video above, storms in both the Tasman and Coral seas will continue to blow strong easterly winds over much of the coming week, directing persistent swell towards the East Coast of Australia. While the largest waves were experienced on Saturday, the swell is not expected to drop below 2 metres across much of coastal NSW between the weekend and much of next week. Video: Significant wave heights across the Tasman and Coral seas over the coming week. Coasts between Jervis Bay and Seal Rocks, including Sydney, will receive the highest energy across the period, with much of this energy coming from longer period swell from the east to southeast. This combination of size, period and direction is particularly notorious for causing significant coastal erosion, disruption to port, ferry and maritime operations, and bringing deceptively powerful surf and rip currents. Video: Peak wave period across the Tasman and Coral seas over the coming week. From mid-next week, a constant run of east to southeast swell should provide excellent waves across the prime point breaks of northern NSW and southeast Queensland as the tropics awaken. - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2026