Hello, got a few days coming up in Port Douglas. Left to my own devices, I'd head to Yorkies, but I'll Probably have to 'settle' with 4-mile beach due to limited duration of my pass.
Is there anything I need to know from a safety point of view? I see that there is the odd Croc scare that closes the beach, but as a general rule, any problem with heading up to half a km off shore and back in?
Safe as houses mate. 4mile beach is one of the premier kite surfing spots in Queensland and the beauty about it too, is that is has a lot of space on low tide. Even the land kiters get out there sometimes (ie: me! hehe).
Just say hi the the guys at the surf "shop" on the beach and they'll point you in the right direction and conditions. And it has great SE trade winds avg 20knots.
Ooh yeah! Boardies and rashy is ideal. Mate, go naked even! Seriously, the water is hovering around 28deg at the moment. Warm as toast. Wetsuits are only for the locals that have no idea what kiting down South is really like!
I was there last year... Amazing place... park, walk a few steps then set up the kite. It is a long walk at Yorkies. 1 of my 10 days it was windless. Most day on a 10 but I wished I had a 12 meter.
I had a great time... looking back, I should have taken my 12m not my 10m kite.
Did a mini downwinder from the south to the north end of 4-mile beach. I largely under achieved as I spent most my time trying to generate enough go from the 10m kite for the wind.
Which was odd, as it felt windy, but it didn't have much oomph to it. Probably less dense air than I'm used to in Victoria (given it's a lot colder). Plus I'm pretty dense.
Still, I didn't get eaten, or stung. I ended up getting pushed inland and practice kiteboarding on the sand,... which doesn't work (scab to prove it!).
Note to the 12m Airrush (black kite) guy on a twin tip, that was out on Monday a.m. Nice moves! How long have you been kiting?
Damn, but given my time again, based on that prediction, I'd still bring my 12m and a directional... or see if I can get my grubby little hands on a 17m something (zephyr).
Do you see a lot of those bigger kites? 15/17m up there?
Ye old Cairns bait and switch strikes again. I took my 17m up when it was promising green arrows and that still wasn't enough some days. Then it would gust up and you'd scramble for the 9 just in time for it to drop back to 11 weather.. Happy times... Happy times.
Nah that's b*s. when SB says it's good up Cairns and beyond, it's actually under stated! But of course it depends on your choice of time of the year. Aug to Oct are the best months and you can't go wrong.
Salty, yeah we see anything from 12m up! I can still manage to fly in my 10mt ATV from KSS Altona. So it's horses for courses. Infact I took her out today for a bit of fun land kiting and there was plenty of grunt in 15knots. Awesome times.
Seriously, the water is hovering around 28deg at the moment. Warm as toast. Wetsuits are only for the locals that have no idea what kiting down South is really like! 
