Girlfriend and I have moved to sydney from the UK. We are trying to figure out a reasonable compromise for where to live (work/kite balance). She is working at Macquarie uni and it looks like i'll be working in neutral bay. We were thinking about Frenches Forest/Chatswood so that we could kite the northern beaches and head down to neutral bay pretty easily. Do you guys mostly live at the beach? We were a bit concerned about being out of the loop if we live miles away.
If you know of any rooms going for rent with like-minded people let me know!
Yes I live at the beach-never lived more than 100m away-it's that work vs play thing-I've always prioritised play.....
Welcome to Sydney, thesheep.
Obviously loads of considerations that depend on what's important to you and your lifestyle. A few things to bear in mind though:
1) as loco4olas mentions, nothing beats being right on the beach with the ability to spot whitecaps out your window and be on the water 15 mins later. Especially great if your work has flexible hours and allows you to rush home when those green arrows start popping up.
2) But we're coming into winter, where inconsistent westerlies prevail. Northern beaches have no good spots for westerlies. So you will find yourself trekking to kurnel/boat harbour/the Entrance a lot more in winter. Chatswood or Frenchs are better positioned for those road trips and will save you 20-30 minutes compared to say Collaroy or Narrabeen.
3) Northern Beaches great when wind blows (esp if youlike waves), but tend to get 5 knots or so less than Botany/Wanda. So if you are not into jumping in a car for 45 minutes, you will have to be prepared to spend more time sitting around waiting for the wind then hearing about a great session you missed at Kurnell. Again somewhere close to Pacific Highway or Eastern Arterial will get you down there quicker than being at the beach.
4) The Northern Beaches crew are a great bunch and very welcoming. Sign up to Rob's email at kitesurfing.com.au and soon you'll have a mobile phone full of numbers to share the stoke.
5) Beach houses are expensive, so if you/girlfriend wants space, going inland will get you alot more sq metres.
This place looks nice 
.the previous tennant moved out ages ago and the current tennants only use it for the odd shin dig .I am sure that you could come to some arrangement where you stay somewhere else or out the back room when they come to party.I reckon if you offer to mow the lawns and do a bit of pruning around the place you could get a good deal on the rent too .
You could kite right out the front in west through south to easterlies (but I'm not sure if you are allowed to kite on Sydney harbour) you would have to check with the neighbours to see if you could use their patch in certain winds .Launch looks quite rocky and tricky.
www.google.com.au:443/maps?q=kirribilli+house&hl=en&cd=1&ei=m229S-z3FIWQtAOPoLiWDA&ie=UTF8&view=map&cid=6868380644487851238&ved=0CBoQpQY&hq=kirribilli+house&hnear&ll=-33.851992,151.218696&spn=0.023273,0.038238&t=h&z=15
Some years ago I lived in Frenches Forest and worked in Surry Hills.
If one must live in the Sydney area this as good as anywhere.
From Frenchs Forest you have easy access to beaches from Manly to Narabeen.
Plus the designer of Griffin Kites is a local - Chris is a great guy and worth getting to know.
Cheers for the advice guys, the news about the shady winds over winter isn't so good. Think the frenches forest area sounds like a reasonable compromise if we are going to be driving to kite most of the time anyway. It's not the beach side place that we were thinking though!
Clearing the tree to get to the water from mr floats recommendation could be pretty interesting. If your sure they won't mind i'll head over now, sure the key will be under the mat...
Hey mate, send me your contact details on a PM and I'll post a note around to my mailing list of Sydney kiters.
Cheers,
Rob
kitesurfing.com.au/
We live in Dee Why and love it. We are close to the beach and everything else with good public transport to everywhere including Neutral bay.
We have been travelling to kite a bit this year as i have been learning and seeking flat water but it is a good base to head south or north depending on where the wind is. Plus it has a great lifestyle and laid back feel.
The problem with Frenches Forest is the transport if you need it and the traffic down towards the beaches (I know because i work in that area)..
Beaches are always better but are more expensive.
See you around
Hey the sheep, just to let you know I am in a similar situation as you just moved to aus but not from the uky but the south of Spain and I am living in frenchs forest at the moment. I do not recommend this if you are a keen kite surfer as you will spend most of your time trying to figure out if there is wind or not, and if your not sure you will find you will not want to get into your car to drive 20 mins only to find there is not, much better if you can be closer to beach. There is also no public transport up here and not one decent pub!! anyway good luck
I find Cronulla is the best spot in north (and south) of Sydney 
The northern beaches never has any wind, see:
www.windfinder.com/windstatistics/dee_why_long_reef_beach?utm_source=www.windfinder.com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=redirect
versus
www.windfinder.com/windstats/windstatistic_botany_bay_sydney.htm
The only races these days are to get on the water when the wind and / or waves are good... 
