Hi there
With a 15-20 kts forecast I was going for a sail in safety bay yesterday, wind was quite marginal for me, I was struck at why are all the windsurfers gathering in this what appeared to me as a duck's pond? Isn't it possible to sail more in front of shoalwater/penguin island along arcadia drive? Looks much better larger open water spot
Shallow water issue or seaweeds? But then All the guys on the duck's pond had antiweed fins
Thanks for your explanation!
gday, actually you can leave the duckpond in both directions, towards penguin island is very protected and if you want you can sail out past the island to the south and run downwind , before entering the next bay between the islands, allot of people do this as it gets you out into an open ocean swell, after running in and out between the islands a few times you can walk your rig across the sandbar and head back towards the duckpond, if you go the other way, the swell comes at you sideways across the bay, and you can sail in a straight line for a couple of kilometers out to long point and back, this a favourite of many of the locals, the duckpond is mostly for intermediates or speed runs downwind beside the sandspit, its also a good place to learn various jibes etc, the reason everyone uses weed fins, is because the bottom of all the bays in this area have seagrass and when the wind gets up over 18knts, then the dead seagrass floats to the surface, getting around without a weed fin in the bays etc is virtually pointless and very frustrating, its a good place to sail and has allot to offer, just invest in a weedfin and you can then go anywhere, also in winter when the NWsters blow you can sail at a place called crystals, it is on the northern side of the tip of cape peron i think its called, the waves come at you head on, about knee to waist height and produce good ramps for jumping and practicing loops etc and the water before the surf is dead flat for about 50 meters.so you can get up plenty of speed, hope that helps you out, cheers, steve
tried wave fin but still catches the weed. stick to a wave weed.
this time of year to pond is very crowded. if you go down to the next boat ramp heading towards shoalwater theres more parking and less people.
Im pretty sure that area is referred to as the "THE POOL"This area is extremely dangerous in peak hours and you may want to avoid it.
I tend to head straight out the back now where the odds of running into kiteboarders are minimal.This allows big open runs.
I perfer to get exposure in swell as i want to wavesail.
There is a little bit of swell which gets into Safety bay but its towards long point.
I often go out there and play the waves are big enough to ride and if you catch the swell line early you will be suprized how fun it is.
I use a wave fin on one of my boards this allows us on hight tide to go straight over the sandbar and also allows manoverability when catching swell
The is weed patches in the bay they will cause you to go sideways with the incorrect fin but it can be controlled I had a plastic bag stuck on it once ;-(
