Whilst staying at Caloundra, you have two kite beaches worth checking out. Golden Beach (TS Onslow Navy Cadets Park) and Happy Valley (Bulcock Beach). Both are awesome to kite on but do come with a few kinks. Now, some of you might know, I still cannot kite due to my leg injury so I cannot give you first person recount but I interviewed a fellow kiteboarder and all-and-all awesome gal Chloe Barret from #ChloeBarretTraining and #kitethrills and allow me to recap what she told me about Golden Beach.
The kite spot stretches between the mainland and north area of Bribie Island and boasts with perfectly flat water. It is best in SE winds during incoming tide and NE winds during outgoing tide. With that, you need to be careful as the water is shallow and sand banks emerge quickly during outgoing tide.
This is technically a sea canal but it acts as a river in terms of boat traffic and I’ve personally seldom seen the current this strong during shifting tides. With tides in mind, the speed of the water can add 5-6kns so account for it when choosing which kite to pump up.
The set up space is in the park, however it is not recommended for launching due to turbulence and obstacles. You’re best to walk out to the water and do a drift launch or launch from sand banks during low tide.
Furthermore, Chloe advised me to stay away from the crab pots – you’ll see a buoy floating on the surface - and the boats channel near Bribie island. The boats have a 4m channel that they can use and they don’t give right of way lightly. I’ll say fair enough in this case since the canal is so wide there is plenty of room for us.
Lastly, kid friendliness. The beach is great for splashing and there’s a few interesting things around that you can do whilst you babysit – like I did. There’s the Mangrove Walkway and a playground a few minutes walk away.
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