Any one kited lizardisland

yeah must get cold being so far up north ****a.

Hey Bogan,

yeah I have kited it a fair bit in the last 18mo, I'm a marine biologist and go up there for work 4-5 times a year. That's me riding in the gallery pic.

Great spot...very strong and consistent SE wind from April to Sept (we are talking averages of 30 knots for weeks, even months on end), beautiful blue lagoon to kite in. The island itself and the surrounding reefs are amazing - one place you should put on your "see it before I die " list.

Expensive to get there (about $400 return ex Cairns currently - book through Voyages 1300 134044 ) BUT, what a lot of people don't know, is that there is a nat parks camping ground there, within walking distance of a great kite beach, so you can stay there very cheaply once you are actually on the ground. You have to cart all your own food and camping gear so you have to travel light or pay some excess, but there is also a fortnightly barge that services the resort so you might be able to get some gear on there.

Let me know if you want any more info. The director of the research station (Dr Lyle Vail) is a keen kiter, as is his son Alex (when he is there on uni holidays), and from time to time some of the transient resort staff have kites with them too, so there are a few kites flying from time to time.

I'm heading up on monday for 3 weeks, got the 8m and 11m packed! Also going to be there in July, August, and October. If you are there in those times, pop in to the station and say g'day, we can organise a sesh.

Andy

Hey Andy, if you ever need a biologist with a diving cert/boat licence/first aid give me a shout. I could do with working on my kiting skills, er, I mean, fishy identification skills.

Lynita can you email me through a CV? ([email protected])
Always looking for good field crew (and those that know how to launch and land a kite are a bonus).

Thanks.

Not on board, unfortunately I'll miss you in July, we leave the 14th.
Here's the directions: If you go to this page on my website

http://www.tevenei.com/tvm/eco_eg.htm

about half way down the page you'll see an image titled "Lizard Island Snorkelling sites".

Your vessel will be moored in Watson's Bay. July 26th will have a pretty low tide at 3pm, coming in through the arvo. You need to grab your kite gear and some water and hike along the track past the airstrip, to the beach directly to windward of the end of the runway. This is Mangrove beach, and the wind will be coming on there cross onshore straight from the lagoon entrance. Launch there, the best flat water is right in the bay, for waves cut upwind to the entrance or the reef front past the windward flat, just make sure you give the tide some chance to come in, as the coral is pretty close to the surface at anything under 1.0m. Mangrove beach has a nice sandy bottom and will work on the low tide.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you get a kite up at Osprey Reef, that must be a great spot provided you can launch?

Andy

Ahoy I kited at Osprey once but i was the Skipper,I dont think I'll be doing that again after seeing what big mouths the fish have out there-enjoy all the same

Just finished a 3 week trip there on wednesday, ali is pretty well right the wind is consistently above forecast. Wasn't below 20 knots other one for one rare glassy day, and most of the time closer to 30. Early last week we had 3 days of wind averaging about 35 and gusting into the low 40's....dunno how you would kite in that, it was hard to even walk up the beach! Awesome to see it though. I took an 11m 05 matrix and 8m 06 Flow and both got a good workout, with plenty of days maxed out on the 8m. Alex Vail was there for the last week laying down some impressive unhooked stuff on his old Naish Aero 6m.

Tide is definitely a factor though, the water smoothed down the lower it got. Mangrove beach was my pick of the spots. I hope some more people get to go there. See the older posts for info on flights and camping. Andy.

Hey wdric,

There is the resort for $850pp/pn or the campground, not really much in the middle unfortunately, unless you stay at the research station which is about $60pp/pn but you need to be doing a legitimate education or research program to stay there, not just kiting all day! I can organise a trip to the station if you are interested in combining snorkelling, marine biology and kiting.

A charter yacht from Cairns or Cooktown would be the other option, but you'd need a few people to make it cost effective. On the plus side you'd get to kite some great mid- and outer-shelf reefs between Cairns and Lizard.

Andy