Thank God (or whoever) for throwing this thing at Margies.
So far this year, Mother Nature seemed to have a serious hate on for the newly rebranded World Surf League. But the forecast heading into the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro looks like she might’ve been saving up.
The Snapper event especially saw some absolutely terrible conditions, and although event organizers dropped a hefty sum on a few extra days, nothing materialized, save for Gabriel Medina’s verbal dust up with Glenn Hall–which (let’s face it) wouldn’t have been much of a talking point had the waves been firing. When Bells rolled around, the waves weren’t almost inverted like they were for the Snapper event, but they weren’t good by any means. Yes, there were a few moments of greatness, but that was all surfer-skill with not a whole lot of help from ol’ Ma Nature.
When the Margaret River event kicks off on April 15th, the forecast is calling for anywhere from 10 to 20 feet. “Considering what we’ve had to deal with up at the Gold Coast and now at Bells, the forecast for the Margaret River Pro looks enticing,” Peter Mel, Big Wave Tour commissioner and analyst. “If you look a the forecast going through, we’ve got three pulses lined up in the first week of the waiting period. It could be anywhere from 10 feet, maybe even up to 15 to 20 feet.”
Surfline, the official forecaster of the WSL and pretty much anyone who surfs, had this to say:
We remain on track to see a solid, ‘westerly’ angled WSW/SW swell (240-220 degrees) build in and peak on Wednesday. Model guidance continues to indicate deepwater/offshore swell height will be in the 12’+ range if not a little better, with sets running 3-4x’s overhead (surf size between 12-20’+ faces with even the occasional larger bomb possible).
The next swell on the radar looks to build in late Thursday and be strongest Friday. This swell will have a little more ‘south’ in it than the swell discussed immediately above, tracking in from 225-210 degrees.
A final swell should build in for Saturday. We’re still seeing a pretty large spread in the size, track and strength of the swell creating storm amongst our more trusted global weather models, but they are slowly starting to look a little closer. The big picture remains that strong surf will likely continue on Saturday.
So if things turn out like they’re supposed to, professional surfing fans are going to be in for a banger of an event. And if there’s one thing the Tour needs this year, it’s waves.
