Top surf and winter spell end of warm water

Jane Emerick
Unseasonably warm water and weeks of perfect waves have capped a golden autumn for boardriders on the Surf Coast.
But surf forecasters have welcomed winter today with a warning of plunging temperatures as thermometers drop and bigger swell churns up colder water.
Ben Matson, the founder of surfforecast website Swellnet, said small waves at the start of autumn combined with mild weather over the season to keep Surf Coast waters warmer than usual.
But larger waves over the past couple of weeks would circulate cooler water to the surface, he said.
Lower air temperatures would further cool the water, bringing it back from this week’s 16.5 degrees to the June average of 15.
Mr Matson said it would take surfers several weeks to physically register the drop in water temperature.
“As the swell gets bigger it churns up the colder water and in the past two or three weeks Victoria has seen big swells,” he said.
“The change tends to happen very gradually, it’s hard to notice day to day.”
Mr Matson said the water “ocean side” was always warmer than in Port Phillip Bay where groups like St Kilda’s Iceberg Club swam without wetsuits yearround.
However, he noted that surfers were taking advantage of the bigger swell and unseasonably warm water.
“There’s not too many complaints with the surfing community,” he said.