Because I am such a good guy, and in the name of promoting windsurfing, I sacrificed my lunch break just to check out and report on an old sailing spot that needed to be rediscovered....Cotton Tree, in a NE, it was tough work but had to be done.
Basically Three Spots, that all require a medium to high tide, as shown on the pic attached. The SUP sail spot in the photo has a sandbank showing dry but in an incoming tide its got knee/waist deep water and gentle rolling wave that goes accross the entire river...often a popular SUP wave spot, but would be great in a light NE with a sail for wave riding a SUP! A really easy fun little wave, great for kids.
The middle area is a great big shallow learning spot with consistent winds a great teaching zone.
The Slalom run is nerve racking as you MUST WEAR POLARIZED GLASSES! no room for big fins here and a very narrow window of tide availability.
It was very light but I managed to have some fun runs, redsigned the bottom of fin somewhat!, the shoreline gybe is dead flat , great photo show off spot, as you can fly flat out right up to the beach then crank in dead flat water!
I'd normaly kite in such light winds and in the area due to shallowness of the water, but definatly is now logged in for HIGH TIDE NE and strong winds only (smaller fins!, ideally 360 is your Max), in the river mouth area strong winds also plenty of water and some added ramps on an incoming tide, but needs more wind to work.
The entire experience had me thinking ...if windsurfing could only just get smaller fins, it would open up so many of these spots to sail at, there is bucklys chance of Govt dredging out the sand...with wave Quad boards becoming the norm maybe there is hope in R&D
So basically good spot for learners, (much better than Golden beach, as they can stand up everywhere when they fall) SUP Sail, and if its a really windy NE and high tide, well worth having a crack for some fast sailing in dead flat runs...I wouldn't rave about it as such, but its there as an option if you dont want to be in Mooloolaba Bay in a strong NE.
The launch spot is park at the 'boatshed' restaurant carpark, so
leave the Mrs under a tree with a bottle of wine and some fancy finger food, whilst you go for a sail..., i think they call that a WIN/WIN in conflict resolution 101!
for young / inexperienced, just be careful of very strong tides when there is a large difference between high and low. Safest just before and at high tide if a large run. Tide times are about 30 min behind Mooloolaba right at the mouth.
