With its expansive coastline and relatively small CBD, Perth has plenty of great surfing beaches, it’s just a matter of knowing where and when to look. Too often it’s the case that you wake up to your alarm at sparrows fart, roll over to check the live surf report on your phone, realise the surf is on, drive to your local favourite spot only to find it’s flat, wrong wind direction, too small, too big….. the list goes on.



Chances are that the spot you always check may not be the best for the specific conditions that day. When your ‘go to’ is not working, there are plenty of other spots nearby.

Things you must consider:

Swell Direction:

This is an extremely important consideration, especially here in Perth. Why you ask? Well the answer lies 20 km off the coast of Perth in a small island known for its odd looking rat like marsupials (quokkas). Yes you got it, Rottnest Island.



Rottnest Island (and a shallow reef system surrounding it) acts as a barrier for the predominant swell that reaches Perth’s shoreline. Perth’s swell has travelled great distances across the Indian Ocean, created by huge storm systems hundreds of kilometres away. It is these storm cells that create the swell that arrives on Perth’s beaches. The swell travels from a south westerly direction and before it reaches Perth’s coastline, the cheeky little Quokka’s on Rottnest Island cop the full force of the swell. So the 3 metre swell that the local news team promised ends up being only half the size.



Location:

It is generally the beaches located between Fremantle and City Beach that have smaller surf due to the Rottnest Island effect. Beaches north of City Beach such as Brighton Beach, Scarborough, Trigg and the reef breaks beyond actually receive far more swell than their southern counterparts. This is because less of the swell that travels from the south west is blocked by the Island. You can see this from the picture below.