April Fools! Not :(

THE SURF TODAY: A wave, a wave, my kingdom for a wave. Cape Town fires today.

While humour is sometimes appropriate to take our minds off dramas, in this instance, the cooking surf today all around the South African coast is no joke. The surf is cooking, and lineups are empty. And we're in for more of the same. Day after day after cranking autumn surf.

It's all so strange. Like my friend Glen Thompson says: "Do you know this is the first time since apartheid that the beaches have been closed to people. The difference with this ban is that it extends to everyone. This is a first."

It's a first for a few things. It's also the first time that when the surf forecast is for cranking waves, a sad, crying face

will appear in the Wavescape surf report, and when it's miff, it gets a happy face. The crappier the better, quite frankly, during this sublime surfing season. #ItsNotAboutUs

DRONE VIEW: Big wave surfer tortures himself watching Sunset from his roof. Photo Jason Hayes

Surf forecasting is still a thing though, I guess - we have to keep on keeping on - but now it's in reverse. That way I can at least continue doing it without totally losing one's mind.

Speaking of the reality vs the forecast, did anyone notice when going surfing on Sunday (okay that was a joke haha) the swell didn't really do it, despite an 18 second swell due to arrive, not that you were expected to know, bouncing off the walls of your house plotting how to avoid the gendarmes and where to paddle out without anyone knowing.

The groundswell arrived a lot lower than expectations - as indicated in the shot taken by Jason Hayes sitting on his roof operating his drone in the direction of big wave spot Sunset reef on Sunday.

GLITCH IN THE MATRIX: Swell height followed the forecast, but smaller, while period did not.

However, for us mortals, the surf would have been fine thankyou. The white water just visible along the near-shore line of Noordhoek beach in the distance indicates a bit of swell. I would hazard a guess, with a lack of evidence barring Wavescape cam images taken from distance, that the surf was an inconsistent 4-5' on open coast. More than enough for some fun. But lets not torture each other.

Today's swell, which arrived yesterday, is another story. It's proper, as evidenced from these photos taken by Troy Wells of www.5UR71NG.com on his way to get essential supplies this morning, @troywells_creative @5ur71ng

{gallery}SLIDESHOW/2020/april/troy-wells{/gallery}

As the forecast, well lets just say that we get respite from all the annoyingly good surf for three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. From next week Monday, sorry but its back to epic waves as the three ginormous storms line up.

On Monday a 15ft SSW swell strikes the Cape from a 955mb storm straddling a huge chunk of southern ocean. This is followed by a potent west swell from a much more northerly placed storm, hitting around 980mb and sending a smaller but proper 10ft west swell our way, arriving around Thursday next week. The third storm follows in the same west-placed jestream track, but stalls and stops off South America so we're spared the trauma of a third swell arriving next weekend.

By jove! That first surf after lockdown is going to be sweet.

STORM TRIO: There's more where that came from, much much more. Photo Windy.com