Wave rating: 3/5
Flat water rating: 3/5
Max wave power: mushy, high tide shorey can bite.
A typical South wind with a bit o' swell day at Mazza
A huge great shallow bay popular with windsurfers, freestylers and wave riders on the days when it can produce a nice, mellow, long workable wall with perfect orientation to the cross onshore winds. Can get wild and big but usually Marazion is a relatively mellow option.
Marazion is tucked right up out of the way of West swells, but a 3m plus swell with a long period (12 seconds or more) will bend in there. South West swells and South wind swells will find their way in much easier, but owing to the shallow slope of the beach and the convex refraction wave, the waves lack power – until high tide when a nasty shore break can appear.
If you turn up and there is no one else on the water, there’s probably a good reason for that so watch it carefully before rigging up. The hazards though are fairly obvious: a whacking great sea wall and a road running directly behind it.
This used to be a go-to option on South winds when I couldn’t face the murky waters of Par, but since kites have got better I now head to Watergate Bay on a South wind for some cross offshore waveriding.
Sailing against the backdrop of Penzance
Launching
Do not launch and land two hours either side of high tide. Plenty of space on the beach, coarse sand (tiny pebbles?) to weigh your kite down with.
Winds
South East through to South West via South provide varying angles of onshore.
Map to show Mazza, facing south
