Steve King reports from more magical conditions in the South West last week…
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Marazion Beach near to Penzance on the south coast of Cornwall remains a popular spot for windsurfing despite being some what over shadowed by it’s north coast counter parts.
It’s generally the place to head to if the wind directions are a bit flukey for the north coast spots around Gwithian, if the conditions are just too crazy for the more exposed beaches or if you want to sacrifice any real down the line riding to polish up your jumping skills.
It tends to be onshore a lot, which usually provides fairly soft crumbly waves and lots and lots of whitewater to bounce over looking for a good ramp.
Every once in a while though excitement mounts as the forecast wind, swell and tide conditions are set to come together to deliver the perfect Marazion set up fabled to transform the ugly ducking of a beach into a beautiful swan. Typically however, disappointment more commonly replaces excitement as the forecast wind or waves fail to arrive.
Each year precious hours are wasted by many of the addicted local crew sitting glumly in the dreary car park gazing hopefully at the skies above Penzance for some sign of weather change, complacently ignoring the picture postcard scenery of the fabled St Michaels Mount straight out front. Instead day dreaming of the scenario “if only there were decent sized waves to be groomed by that cross off wind or vice versa”. These tormented few have had a taste of “Magic Maza” and endure the wait on the slim chance of getting more whilst those that haven’t dismiss it as a myth.
So, when the long range forecast started to show signs of a strong North Westerly wind in Cornwall coinsiding with a considerable SW swell any early excitement was dampened by the niggling doubts of wondering if things would actually come together this time.
As the day drew nearer the wind forecast on my favoured bigsalty.com had stayed promising and the swell forecast started to go off the scale, quite a common pattern for the last few months. Talk of the biggest waves in the world (on that day) hitting Cornwall spread across social media and the local tv and radio news broadcasts.
Yet again with a monster swell coinciding with spring tides there were flood warnings being issued left right and centre. Many coastal harbour towns already reeling from a winter of super storms were frantically preparing for yet another battering.
Head to page two for the rest of the story and full gallery…
