Does anyone actually know why the North Head wind meter always ends up blowing around 5-7 knots lower than botany bay does (and the NSW Metro forecast too)? Whenever its' forecast to be 15-20, nice building stable sea breeze, it ends up being only 10-12 knots at Narrabeen.
Working in Mona Vale I always end up treking down to Botany instead after work (crap traffic) and am considering buying a bigger kite.
buy a kite for your location and average and save yourself the stress of traffic and enviorn impact etc.
you can always travel later when you have time and a plan.
Ah well I've had this kite for a while now since before I moved here. But its a bit deceptive too when the forecast for sydney metro looks good and you find that northern beaches consistenly doesn't eventuate to anything near what botany gets.
The southern beaches, Botany included, have all of the Sydney basin behind them sucking in the seabreeze, ie hot air rising and bringing in cool air from the ocean. The northern beaches don't have near the capacity to do this with a high escarpment and plateaus to the west.
There are many microcosms as well. Kurnell, on average is 5-10 knots stronger than the airport. There can be nothing at Towra, 15 at Dolls and 20 at Kurnell and sometimes Towra will be be stronger than Dolls. Its a strange world.
Palm beach still seems to get wind.
But the rest of the Northern Beaches sucks. It only happens when the weather heats up.
Good to know. I'm looking to rent a place somewhere between Balgowlah and Dee Why - partly because it's not too far from the office but also because I thought the kite surfing around northern beaches would be perfect... Guess not. Spent a month in Sydney (mid Oct - mid Nov) and the wind was .... disappointing. 2 days of 15+ knots. I was hoping it was just bad luck... 
I suppose it's only a half hour drive or so to Palm Beaches. 
Beats Brighton UK.
Localised wind patterns can be amazingly diverse. Local topography plays an enormous part in wind strength, direction and stability.
The distance over water between the two wind graphs for Newcastle, Nobbys and Norah Head, is about 40 km, yet the difference in wind can be substantial.
More incredibly, I have witnessed a Nor Wester blowing on Lake Macquarie, whilst a Nor Easter is blowing on 9 mile beach. A distance of at most 2 km. Still can't work that one out nor would believe it if I hadn't witnessed it.
Another consideration is the location of the wind gauge, which obviously has an effect on the readings.
If I were in your position, I would buy a bigger kite and go to your local rather than waste time in traffic.
It's happening now,
Can anyone who understands weather please explain this to me?
Does the moving air meet in the middle and rise or.... what?
thems some big arse arrows you got over newcastle, can't believe I didn't see them last time I was there....
I am still deeply scarred from working 5 weeks in Mona Vale a few summers ago. Had my gear in the car everyday and only got a couple of very average sessions the whole time.
5 years ago spent 10 weeks cruising up the coast in a camper van from Melbourne to Magnetic Island. Was hoping to kite daily. I got 6, maybe 7 sessions..
. I put it down to bad luck, but from I read here the East coast just generally has crap wind!?
don't understand it, but i've had 2 sessions at Botany this week at 25knts gusting to 30, while Narabeen was 12-15 on the drive home. Not so keen on flat water, but i'm thinking i'd rather 25 knts than a big kite in shyte wind - kinda kills the fun of waves.
Still, had a cracker early this morning at Narabeen - the southerlies seem to be reliable
You should try going to Palmie north end. When I used to live there it would crap at Narrative and 15/20 at Palmie. For some reason I think it all the buildings there but at Palmie it funnel through the heads and wraps in. I used to have some sick session out there when narrative had nothing.
It would be nice to put a wind meter at Narrabeen or Long Reef. I saw that it was advertised on Seabreeze but disappeared.
I use coastalwatch.com to track kitesurfers, however it looks like they all got better skills than me and can perfectly ride 10 meters kites while I'm struggling on 12.
