Kite Area guide
Port Douglas, Port Douglas
Four Mile Beach is Port Douglas's kite spot — shallow, wide and flat, with the Great Barrier Reef an hour offshore.
When to kite
Best months: May, June, July, August, September, October.
About this Kite Area
Four Mile Beach runs along Port Douglas and is where the town's kitesurfing happens. The water is shallow — knee-deep for thirty to forty metres offshore — and the sandy beach is wide at low tide, which gives plenty of space for launching and landing. Conditions are mostly flat, with swell building as the wind does, and the spot suits all levels and every discipline from foil to freestyle.
The season runs April through October, peaking in the southern winter, with August usually the strongest month. Trades average 12 to 18 knots and gust past 25 around the Low Isles. Expect sixteen to twenty windy days a month from April to September. The only local kite school operates at the southern end.
Three hazards define the calendar here. Box jellyfish season runs November to May, when stinger suits are recommended and the main beaches are netted. Saltwater crocodiles live around the Daintree and Mowbray river mouths, particularly September to April — stay away from the river mouths and the open beach is considered safe. And stingrays are common on the sand: shuffle your feet.