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Eagle Island Kiteboarding Locations
Figure 1: Cooktown to Lizard Island showing Eyrie Reef and Eagle Island.
Figure 2: Eyrie Reef, Eagle Island & Lizard Island.
Figure 3: Eyrie Reef showing Eagle Island & southern low tide sandbars.
Figure 4: Eagle Island looking north.
Figure 5: Riding the flatwater behind Eagle Island.
Figure 6: Boosting over the sand spit.
Riding Information and safety tips
Eagle Island is located on the northern end of Eyrie reef, about 7km from Lizard Island. It is a 670m long sand cay covered with low vegetation and oriented at right angles to the SE trade wind. There are also a series of sand bars on the southern end of Eyrie reef which become exposed on the lower tides. Access is by boat, or by float plane.
Eagle is in the northern trade wind belt and gets consistent SE winds most of the year, but especially April to September. There can be good SE winds during summer but you are more likely to get lighter northerlies at that time. It can be very windy here, with windspeeds of 20-35 knots common throughout winter, and gusts into the low 40's on the really windy days. SSE winds are generally more gusty than SE or ESE winds at this spot.
The best estimate of the wind at Eagle Island is to add 5 knots to the readings at Cape Flattery on the nearby mainland, which updates every 30min.
Best launch is at the northern end of the cay in the clean air flow. It is possible to do an assisted launch near the spit but the air flow is very turbulent close to the ground due to the cay vegetation upwind. There is perfect flat water in the lee of the cay and the sandbars, and Eagle also works well on the higher tides, unlike Lizard. On the very low tides, there is a lot of shallow coral close to the cay so care must be taken not to go over the reef areas when tides are lower than 0.5m. The deep sand spits to the north of the cay offer some good riding on very low tides, as do the sandbars to the south of Eyrie Reef. Check the tides here or download the J-tides program which has good tide graphs for nearby Lizard Island.
Eagle Island is a very isolated spot with hundreds of kilometers of shark infested water and reefs to leeward, so you need boat support to kite here as any gear malfunction will see you drifting away from the cay and off the reef. In an emergency situation, there is a nurse at the Lizard Island Resort and both the resort and Research Station are monitoring VHF 16 and could be also possibly be raised on a mobile phone in business hours. Take steps to be extra safety conscious while kiting this area as small mistakes can be punished both due to the strong winds and the remote location. Coral cuts are likely to be the biggest hazard from marine life, and it is important to treat cuts immediately with freshwater and then Betadine.
There are wind waves breaking on the windward edge of Eyrie Reef, and due to the north-south aspect of the reef edge there should be some peeling right-hand waves along here. We have seen this from the aircraft but not kited it as yet. You need at least 0.8m of water to get into the waves, and at that point it will be about knee deep over the reef crest. Best waves seem to be at tides of about 1.0 to 1.4m but we are still exploring this aspect of riding the island.
Access & Accommodation: You get to Eagle Island only by private boat or seaplane. Windswell Kitesurfing Port Douglas and Kite Action Sunshine Coast have organised successful trips in the past.
Several Cairns dive operators have run whole boat liveaboard kite expeditions to Eagle Island for large groups of kiters (up to 20) - see Undersea Explorer and Taka Dive for more info.
WEATHER
Satellite Pictures Local Waters Forecast 4-day Forecast Charts
Tides Current Windspeeds at Cape Flattery
For more info contact us by phone or email.