Brighton better in se and even southerly. Other option is suttons beach, but more intermediate riding there. Sandgate is cross-off shore in southerlies. Land affects it, hence the gustiness. Plenty riders always happy to help at brighton. Great for beginners there in se wind. Hope this helps.

As mentioned above Sandgate in anything south of SE is terrible and a true southerly is dangerous, even a good SE you need to go north of the pool for clean wind.

I set up just before 11 at 12th street boatramp and had the entire sangate - brighton beach to myself for a good 3/4 hour. It was coming in SE and I packed up when the wind shifted back to S at about 1:30. Quite a few guys came out from Brighton (I was the one that had to pull safety and rerun lines on the sand after a down loop went horribly wrong ) - the couple guys down at sandgate would have had crap wind.