Not that I'm a pro here but after what I saw yesterday its probably not a bad idea to put this forward as a plan for newbies. Was kite surfing the river mouth at Cotton Tree yesterday, a decent squall came through that was a bit much for my 11 meter so I parked on the beach for a bit to wait it out. At the same time as I was parking a new looking fella was heading out.

Got chatting on the beach for a bit and looked over to the far side of the river mouth to see the guy's kite in the water and being buzzed by a squaddie on a jet ski. His kite narrowly missed the rocks on the little island and presumably he washed up on North Shore. A good 15km hike back to his starting point. Obviously this could have ended up a lot worse, i.e. being dragged across the rocks and oysters.

I think a lot of people forget that once they are on the plane they are trucking along at close to or over 25 knots or close to 50 km/h, it takes less than a minute to cross a river mouth, even a wide one. You really need to have a plan B when you head out and establish clear boundaries of where you will kite to. Something like I'll kite to this point because if I wipe out I'll drift down to this soft landing, or if I get pushed out to sea I'll self recover and head for this point.

A lot of people find estuaries and river mouths attractive due to the lack of waves but I'll think you'll find it a lot easier to extract yourself from a waved beachside than the main channel of an estuary during spring (biggest difference between high and low) tides. This incident happened during neaps, close to the bottom of the tide but looked from my position just a case of poor planning.

Seriously don't get rescued by a squaddie, it adds to their self righteousness and gives them stats to use to close out kite surfers. Unless you're seriously in the sh1t, tell them thanks but not thanks, employ your self recovery plan and resign yourself to the extra long remastered version of the "walk of shame".

To sum up:

* Draw a mental picture of your kiting area with clear exit points for when the inevitable happens.
* Take into account wind direction, tide direction, strength of the tide and any dangerous obstacles (people, rocks, rabid dogs).
* Keep track of your position at all times and stick to your plan. Even if it looks sh1tty to turn inside your boundary do it anyway. If you have planned right and you wipe out at least you drift to where you want to.
* If you break your boundary make a new one with new exit points before you turn. Never turn in front of rocks/people/swimmers unless you're confident you can recover successfully before drifting on to them.
* Educate yourself on the tides, never go into an estuary unless you know the time and range of the tide.
* If it's gusty (South Easterly in QLD) and you're a beginner you WILL end up in the water and quite probably make a mess of your kite. Factor this into your plan.

Apart from all that, nice to finally get some wind again. Six hours of kiting yesterday and 3 today.. legs of jelly have I.

The guy I saw was yesterday, if that was you there was no offence intended. The intent of the post was to let others learn from my observation and your misfortune. Glad you made it out in one relative piece. Anything to add or change to what I have written?

Hey Guy's,was thinking of going to Cotton Tree... But would Dickie Beach
at Caloundra be better for surf riding? And I hear it's a nice big beach there?

O'h, n sorry to hear bout the mishap the other day. Hope you get back out
there soon!

Dl33ta said...


I think a lot of people forget that once they are on the plane they are trucking along at close to or over 25 knots or close to 50 km/h,

halve your guestimate and it's more of an accurate speed on a tt .

Thanks for the tips guy's. Had a kite at Dicky Saturday morning!

Hey Dl33tr,
On a SE'r down Byron way, the water will generally be moving to the North unless you are lucky and find a weird rip or gutter sending it South. (We had one for about 2months at the local but it's moved on, it was pretty handy!)
You mentioned that on an ebb tide the current heads south. Is this a genral rule of thumb for all beaches or just near river mouths? I was out on a flood tide today and could have done with abit of that ebb tide magic!