my biggest kite is 12m and my weight is between 110 and 115. If you can hold out till these low pressure systems dissappear it would be better. we are stuck with unridable south westerlies at the moment.

Geoffrey Bay on Magnetic Island works in a SW wind quite well. Here's a few of the boys riding it on a freak SW'ly we had as a tropical low went past last wet season:



In the standard winter winds associated with cold fronts , its usually best from early morning to about 1000 or 1030.

Looking at Buoyweather, there's not much of that likely in the next week.

Take up scuba diving is my advice!

More info on NQ spots here: http://www.tevenei.com/tvm/nq_kite_spots.htm

Yes its a common misconception that NQ always has trade winds all winter.

Have a look at this previous post, we went into some detail about the wind and kiting in coral reef areas:

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=39780

In a nutshell, we need a high pressure system in the Great Australian Bight or in the Tasman Sea to generate good SE winds along the whole QLD coast.

When the southern states are being swept by mega cold fronts (like now), we have have beautiful sunny days up here, about 27-28C, but not much wind....

If there is just a small to middle sized high pressure system to the south, then the further north you go along the coast, the more likely you are to get SE winds - Lizard Island for example at 14S has wind almost continually through April - September, while at Townsville 19S the trade winds wax and wane with the coming and going of the southern highs.

Also, the angle of the wind has a role to play as well......when the high is in the bight, the wind is often SSE rather than SE. This means it will often be gusty and lighter close to the coast, and stronger as you move out toward the barrier reef. When the high moves into the Tasman, then the wind swings to SE or even ESE, and this brings a more consistent wind stream onto the coast.

To complicate it even further, the patterns change through the winter and also from year to year. Some years we may have a very windy autumn and a light winter. Other years it may blow for weeks at a time with only short calm periods in between, while in other years it may be calm for long periods with only short bursts of trade wind.

Hope that helps your trip planning. I get a lot of emails from people saying things like; "will august or September have better trade winds?".

As you can see from the info above, its not a simple answer.

The short answer is : if there is a big high pressure system in the bight or the Tasman, then yes, you are going to get wind. North is better than south usually.

I've also posted this info in a general thread about the Trade Winds:

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52504

Andy