Strong southeasterly winds have been battering the QLD coast over the weekend as a strong high over NSW extends a strong ridge along the eastern seaboard. Winds have been gusting to 76km/h on the Gold Coast and 74km/h at Bougainville Reef on the North Coast today, with the wind chill making it feel a few degrees colder than the actual temperature. The strong southeasterly winds are creating large and powerful surf conditions along the QLD coasts. These surf conditions put the country's elite surf life savers skills to the test over the past few days as they battled it out for gold at the Australian Championships at Maroochydore and Alexandra Headland. Choppy seas are likely to reach 2.5 to 3 metres along the Gold and Sunny Coasts today with about 2 to 2.5 metres outside the reef along the Cairn's coast. Over the coming days, the high will gradually move east over the Tasman Sea allowing the ridge to relax and winds to abate. Surf conditions will however remain challenging until at least Thursday before novices are likely to enjoy the water again.