If (when!!) I get more skilled I want to take advantage of foil's ability to point higher upwind by. Going out in cross-off wind ..
The question.. How much off in the wind direction?? 45deg or more???
And if u do what wind strength r we talking about??
Cheers
AP
(Winter wind in SE Qld question)

As long as there is something downwind for you to hit when you drop the kite or the wind lulls. Westerlies in SEQ are fickled, can die out quickly and your only chance is to release the kite and paddle back in.
We are getting a lot of sessions north of Brisbane on the peninsula, plenty of places to launch with land downwind if things go haywire.
Wingdings can do cross off as paddling back in if the wind drops isn't an issue.

Hey AP if it's a NW head to the end of the spit. If it's a SW head to Weyba or take the drive to Bribie.
Don't go out in offshore mate unless you have a jet ski following.

Foil and ... kite? Wing?

Guys winging here do it all the time, they just paddle back to the beach when the wind dies.

I've seen one of the guys fly a kite upwind, pack it up into a bag then paddle/surf back to the beach

Yeah, even among the pretty experienced foilers here not many who will kite foil in an offshore, at least not up our way. Sometimes on those really NNW days with no swell you can get a run in, but can be a bit flukey.

Just too unpredictable if it's really offshore, if something goes wrong you're stuck off shore with all your gear and you need to get back through the surf with it. Most kite foil boards aren't know for their flotation and volume, and swimming through the surf with a foil, kite, lines etc. is not gonna be a fun experience!

Wing foiling where you have a board you can paddle home on is a bit of a different story. No lines to try and pack up on the water too, much less likely to end up in a mess in the waves.

W'lys have a habit of just switching off all of a sudden, or shifting 20-30 degrees suddenly without a lot of warning. Plenty of times we've done a sneaky winter downwinder in a NNW and ended up bussing it back because it decided to drop out totally or swing WNW half way down the beach, lulling down to 2 or 3 knots. Still worth a shot though

Especially if you're on the Sunny Coast, just head to the lakes. Weyba or even Cootharaba where you can just walk home if you run out of wind. I'm sure there'd be some spots down Bribie/Caloundra too where you at least can wash up on the shore somewhere!

Hi AP,

The incredible upwind ability of a foil isn't the problem with off shore winds, it's the gustiness. The turbulence of the offshore wind makes it nigh on impossible to get back to the beach with a dry kite. I've seen many try and get back, all ended up swimming the last 100m.

George is right, offshores can only really be done successfully on a wing foil. They handle the shifts and gusts/lulls and can easily be paddled back in through the waves safely.

DM