Rik, of Sailwest likes his own front yard, Point Moore, and there are other places such as Separation Point.

Personally, I believe that Coronation is the best sailing spot in Geraldton. Sunset Beach is quite good, especially when the swell comes through, and is handy if staying at Sun City.

Point Moore

Point Moore is a well known spot, that boasts great wave riding in the right conditions. It consists of a flat area (center of the picture, with reef breaks to the left and right, out to sea. Point Moore can be found by its Light House, which is visible from that land and from the air, from quite some distance.

Point Moore is ideal for wave, bump and jump and slalom Sailing. The point is the windy-est location, since it is situated 4 km out to sea, and thus gets better uninterrupted wind.

The area consists of a bay, flanked by two points.

The wave action is on the two points mentioned above. As a wave location, it is really meant for the advanced wave sailor. You need to know where to sail, where the reef is, and be able to wave sail reasonably well to stay out of trouble.

The bay is perfect in the morning for beginners, with the late morning and afternoon providing the right conditions for the intermediate and advanced sailors.

Point Moore also is a great spot for kiting. The beach is wide and generally uncrowded. There is ample setup area, and safe launching. The bay inside the two points provides a great relatively flat area for kiting. This is my preferred kiting beach in Geraldton.

The grass area behind the beach is also great for packing gear away, and there is a good parking area.

Directly behind the sailing spot is Sail West sailboard shop, run by local Sailor Rik. Rik is a mine of information about local conditions, and definitely the person to talk to about sailing Pt. Moore. Also, he is not averse to telling you the best place to get equipment if he doesn't have it himself. Sail West does a lot of long term gear hire, especially for international visitors and also has contacts for accommodation. The gear seems to be in excellent condition and reasonably priced. It is necessary to book the gear before coming. Rik also does the surf and sailing reports for the local radio station, twice a day.

This photo on the Sailwest site shows the Pt Moore area quite superbly. The Sailwest shop is in the bottom right of the photo.

St Georges Beach

Ideal Slalom and Bump and Jump sailing for beginners to advanced sailors. St. Georges Beach has a grassed rigging area and shower and toilet facilities.

Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach is a beach break to the north of the Geraldton city centre. It is directly next to the Sun City Caravan Park, Sunset beach is great when there is swell, with both jumping and wave riding, however it does not seem to hold swell well. Probably Point Moore would provide better swell a lot of the time. It would be well to ask Rik from Sail West.

Coronation Beach

Coronation Beach is arguably one of the best Sailing spots in Australia (at least for wave action). It is a very good jumping location, also providing some good wave riding as well. Coronation Beach is about 25km North of Geraldton.

It should be noted that Coronation beach is a great windsurfing beach, but much less a good kitesurfing beach. The problems are two fold:
One problem is that the beach is quite narrow, and putting your kite down can be tricky, you can come into conflict with trees and fences.
Another problem is that the windsurfers tend to spread out to quite some extent. You may have to go quite a long way down wind to get an uncrowded spot to kite.

I doubt that I would kite Coronation again. I would kite at Point Moore. Now that's a kiting beach!

The Coronation Beach turnoff is 14km north along the North West from from the corner of Chapman road (by the Gull Service Station (picture). The road is dirt and corrugated often doesn't have a road sign, but when it does it looks like this picture (without Barry). The beach is 8km along this road. It is probably a good idea to follow someone or get explicit instructions before going there the 1st time.

There are marginal toilet facilities (pic) which is doubtless just a hole in the ground, with the pictured surrounding structure (there is one marked 'L' as well).

There are a few tents, some of which are from fishermen who moore their boats in the bay, and some of hardy sailors.

This photo shows some sailing action at Coronation Bay.

This photo shows some more sailing action.

This photo shows the beach from the distance, as you drive down the road towards Mecca.

The mpeg below was provided by Peter (stoklas@swipnet.se). His original mpeg page has some great shots of sailboarding and skiing. Well worth a look. There is a great video of a loop as well. Beware that the mpegs are quite large (4 mb) and may take some time to load. This mpeg shows some of the wave action at Coronation Bay.

Sailing a Corro