I've been thinking about where to head for the best sailing this weekend, and I'm thinking more and more to go to Elliott Hds, near Bundaberg.
I might drop in at Burrum on the way, but the rising tide in the afternoon should make for some epic conditions at the Elliott.

That's what I'm thinking.
Leave home early, get to Burrum by 10ish to sail the last of the run-out tide and the early run-in, then high-tail it teh last hour to Elliot Hds and sail the run-in tide from 3pm until dark.
It is likely to be 4.5m or even 4.0 wind up there, with good waves breaking in the river mouth and some great jumping/
Sunday morning could be really good at teh boat ramp at Bargara then, with massive jumps to be had.

try point vernon in hervy bay . some nice jumps any tide and large bombies at low tide

Definitely heading to Elliot Hds now.
Currumbiun was pretty disappointing today and not forecast to be better tomorrow.

south of the harbour should be very good on high tide in the morning if the wind is still up. trev and scott had good 30kn there this arv.
maybe pvern in arv

Elliot Heads is a bit of a trek. Why not stop at north Caloundra - Buderim St or Neil St.

NotWal said...

Elliot Heads is a bit of a trek. Why not stop at north Caloundra - Buderim St or Neil St.

I thought about that, but given the conditions, I thought it might be gnarly verging on dangerous. I'm still finding my feet after 5 ys of not sailing, and while I've sailed a ton of northerlies thihs season, BIG southerlies are a different kettle of fish.
Couple of guys I ran into from there reported broken boards and masts from FRiday, and they were at the Elloliot for the same reason.
Had a great trip to Bundy, an early start and cruise control/ipod made short work of the drive.
Dropped in at Burrum, but the bank was not out. Checked it out and met some guys, put some faces to forum names, which was cool.
Got to Elliot Hds on the low tide and sailed for about 6 hrs, put down a thousand gybes and felt heaps better about my sailing after that.
As the tide came in, the waves got better, and I changed down to a 5.0 for the late evening kick-in and had a great time hitting ramps.
Got the JP quad going so fast it actually got speed-wobbles as I came out of flat water into some chop and I had some mighty crashes.
Had anopther big day today, started ont he high tide and got some big ramps out the front in the squalls, messed around a bit and had some great speed runs as the bank came out. It's very fast and very flat, just short.
Lots of kiters with no sense of etiquette on the speed run though.
Back is sore, hands are sore, legs are sore, and I'm still grinning from ear to ear.

Gestalt said...

sounds like a cool trip ken,

i spoke with one of the caloundra shop owners today, he said a lot of gear was trashed also. he's been very busy replacing gear and selling tiny wave sails. said he had a blast at neil st himself the last few days and even tried a few back loops.

he got photos of the carnage and said he'd email me so i'll upload once i receive them.

That would be cool, I'd like to see that.
Seriously, with the forecast I xpected it to be very big and gnarly.
Forgot to mention, as I was finishing packing up around lunchtime today, a big squall came through that would have been 35-40 kts, easily 4.0 strength for any size sailor.
If the boys at Burrum got any of that, they would have been seriously honking.
I reckon that you would get some exceptional peak speeds on the bank at Elliot Hds, as it is dead flat water for a couple of hundred meters, at the right angle, esp when it goes easterlie like that really big squall today. A speed run at that point would have been bliinding.

^ nice


VP was suspect to say the least. went from 5 knots to 15 knots i packed up after only a couple of runs and headed home. wind died in the arvo as the rain came down.

Only 2 squalls at Burrum yesterday, one at about 11am and then a huge one at 5pm, both when the bank was covered . Otherwise lovely sunshine and a consistent 15 to 20 knots all day

What can we say, why drive , well Saturday was just one of those days out at the bin, at times there were about 15 of us having fun on logo high waves, the boys were looping and getting some massive air off the big wide sets.
It was really safe with a channel between the two banks.
The wide bank was firing all day, and the better clean faces were peeling off from outside the rock.
It was a great sight pulling up to the bin to see windsurfers scattered all over the breaks.
Good to see the brisy crew coming down to join in on the fun.
The forecast is looking good for the rest of the week with the wind and waves peaking on Saturday.
See u all in the water keep having fun.

F#*k, next R & R is Easter weekend. My luck wind and swell will stop as soon as I board the plane at Karratha airport.