Stopover in beautiful Cairns for 2 days next week - Mon Tues 23&24. Anyone up for sharing some local knowledge and hopefully a session or 2 or 3.
Best backpackers closest to best beach would be good to know.
was there a week ago and yorkies knob seems to be the best place or the only place for the south easter if your not willing to drive about 1.5 hour south or about an hour north.
as stated previously andd for obvious reasons no use bringing a surf board but dont be disheartened because the kickers rolling in to yorkies north beach are way better than anything we get around perth. i had fun unhooking over them for hours until my arms could not take it anymore and then cut them up with my twinie all the way to the sand until the sun came down.
didnt bother with the actual sand bar at yorkies because like i said the flatwater/kicker/flatwater is nothing we are use to over here in wa and is just to much fun. The sand bar when working was pretty croweded and the crazy tide renders it unpredictable and can leave you hitting hidden tree stumps or skating across previously unexposed shallow sand (BE WARNED THE WATER IS DAMN MURKY!!)
the most important thing to note in cainrs is the wind.. take your big kites! i was on the beach ready to pump up my 7 in those howling winds when everybody better informed was on 12's. 22knots in perth i can take my 7 out, in cairns i was underpowered on a 10 at times.. be warned. The winds are also undulating because of the mountains south of cairns centro and if the winds have to much south in them you can forget kiting at all regardless of what the radar says!
the best fun i had was on a good east/se early in the morning doing a downwinder from holloways beach all the way to yorkies (maybe 4 k's), which i managed to milk out for hours. The wind is much stronger off shore than on cairns's beaches so unless its got alot of east in it dont use the reef's as a wind gauge unless you are going snorkeling!
other than that the locals are friendly and the cable park is fun aswell if the wind doesnt work out at all :)
do yourself a favour and go to green island and kite. You will need a car to drive from cairns to the kiting beaches to the north.
whatever you do don't attempt to ride a pushy to the cape or kite to PNG that would suck ass!
Puppet, both above are on the money 
If it's a SE and sunny the coast will be ok, if cloudy or rainy it'll be crap.
If any wind forecast, Green will be a goer but the tide will be up and down fairly quick while you're here, be careful of the reef. If you go to Green check with Toody, he's a friendly windsurfer and runs the hire joint there, but he does have a low tolerance for inexperienced kiters (rescued a few) but I'm guessing you'll be right 
Anyone reading this and thinks yippy Green's my next holiday, remember Green's 27k off shore and small, real small 
Cheers Bob.
if you are going to cairns get in touch with chris from kiterite, top guy who will give you the low down on stuff you need to know.
www.kiterite.com.au
