Windsurfing near Coila Lake
- Moruya heads (15 km)
- Broulee (20 km)
- Broulee north (22 km)
- Tura beach (94 km)
- Merimbula (98 km)
A great spot in a Nor-Easterly through to Northerly breeze - the Nor-Easter is pretty common here and only a sliver of land blocks it from the sea. Not bad in a Nor-Wester, but you have to get out a little to get past the wind shadow of the point just to the west, and the same problem may make it hard to get in. Can get a bit of swell out in the middle in moderate to high wind.
Good access, good parking, plenty of space to set up, toilets under 100m from the water. Some shade, but not much other shelter. You can buy food down in Tuross Head. There are surf shops in Moruya and Narooma, but they don't have much of relevance to windsurfing or kiting.
Not much in the way of danger, apart from not many people around. Some big (up to 30cm across) jellyfish are in the lake and I heard they can sting, but I had a wetsuit and booties on so I can't comment. Watch out for the rock ledge that sticks out north-east from the point to the west - it has a buoy that you should stay outside. Some large rocks near the shore to the east, but nothing sharp or dangerous as far as I experienced.
When I spent time there in October 2008, the lake had some blue-green algae about 2-3km to the west where it narrows and goes under the highway, but it wasn't bad in the more open main part where I was windsurfing. Algae was through many of the small lakes from Coila heading south as they aren't getting flushed out because of the drought and the powers that be don't want to spend the money dredging the entrances every year. It will probably get worse with time, sadly. If this does remain an issue you might be able to go to Broulee or Broulee North 20km to the north for some fairly smooth ocean sailing.