In 1996 Southern Water were proposing to build a massive network of pipes to pump all of the Island’s sewage to Yaverland and discharge it through a 3.25kn pipe into Sandown Bay after only giving the sewage Primary Treatment (this means they only actually filter out the big lumps). It was going to cost the in excess of £70 million and cause major disruption to the Island. At that time I was studying part time at the IW College and decided I wanted to try and do something positive about our sea’s around the Island. Being a surfer I had come down with nasty colds, sore throats etc etc.. after surfing at Little Hope Beach or Ventnor. I wrote to many individuals including all the Island councillors, Professors of Biology, HR Prince Charles and many others. I contacted the Surfers Against Sewage who were well aware of Southern Waters proposals and they made me the Islands representative for the SAS. Surfers Against Sewage, along with local people and the IW Surf Club then organised a protest march along Sandown sea front from Yaverland to Sandown Pier to raise awareness of what Southern Water were planning to do. Surfers Against Sewage turned up in wetsuits with the gas masks on, many Island surfers were there, along with hundreds of concerned Islanders.
May 12, 2011 | Categories: The Nineties | Tags: "jason swain", 1990's, 1996, 90's, Al Reed, alan reed, archive, beach, blackley, blog, Campaign Clean Sea, Ceri Williams, Cerri Williams, concern, Demonstration, Discharge, Greedy Reedy, history, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Islanders, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Kev Goodall, Local people, longboard, Outfall, paul blackley, people, photo, photographs, pipes, portrait, Primary Treatment, Protest, pump, Ray Hutchings, Reedy, S.A.S., Sandown, Sandown Bay, Sandown Pier, SAS, Sewage, Steve Padley, surfboard, Surfer, Surfers Against Sewage, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory, Yaverland | Leave A Comment »
Rapanui Frostbite Surf Series Event 5 May Bank Holiday Monday saw the fifth and final event of the 2010/11 series take place at Sandown. After a poor run of swell no contest took place in April but a fortuitous Easterly wind-swell arrive at the start of May. With strong winds & currents it was going [...]
May 11, 2011 | Categories: The Noughties | Tags: Al Reed, alan reed, archive, blackley, blog, Chris Mannion, Dom Arnold, Dominic Arnold, Doug Richards, Dougie Richards, Douglas Richards, Dylan Hamlet, Frostbite, Henry Holmes, history, IOW, IOW Surf Club, iowsurf.com, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, isurf, Jamie King, Jamie Whittle, joe truman, Josh Jupe, juniors, Kyle Abram, Mark New, Mart Drake-Knight, Martin Drake-Knight, Matt Harwood, May Bank Holiday, May Bank Holiday Monday, Nick Whittle, Oliver Harvey, paul blackley, people, Phil Skelley, Phillip Skelley, photo, photographs, portrait, Rapanui, Rapanui clothing, Rapanui Frostbite, Rapanui Frostbite Surf, Rapanui Frostbite Surf Series, Rapanui Frostbite Surf Series Event 5, Rapanui Head honcho, Robyn Forrest, Sandown, Sandown Bay, stoked, surf, surf clothing, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, The Noughties, waves, wightsurfhistory, www.rapanuiclothing.com | Leave A Comment »
Recently, Rapanui has been proud to support the Isle of Wight surf Club. The brand contribute to the club financially, making rash vests and giving away all the clubs prizes, and their web development guys made and maintain the clubs site. The Surf club was re-established after the lads started chatting to Matt Harwood, local hero, who came over to wish the boys good luck when he heard about Rapanui – back when the company was still run from a bedroom. Along with Oli Harvey and a bunch of other Island surfers, Rob and Mart are excited about the recent positive happenings on the island surf-wise – “the surf club, the beach cleans, and other projects like Wight Surf History celebrating the Island surf culture is not just interesting – it really contributes to what we do at weekends. More friendly line ups, more mates and more waves. Island surfing has given us so much and these kinds of projects really do give something back, so we’re stoked to be a part of it”
Feb 11, 2011 | Categories: The Noughties | Tags: 7'6", Aggie crew, alan reed, All or futures conference, America, Apocalypse Now, archive, Bali, beach, Bembridge, big wave, big waves, Bingin, bio foam, biofoam, blog, Bob Drake-Knight, Bobby DK, Bobby Drake Knight-Knight, bodyboard, bodyboards, boogie board, brothers, cake & tea, cake and tea, California, Carlos Burle, Carlsbad, Centrica PLC, Ceri Williams, Chicama, child labour, Climate, Climate change, compton, Compton Bay, cool, Cornwall, David Brent, delaminated, design, designs, ding, ding repair, Eco-Friendly, Enterprising Young Brits Awards, environment, Fabrics, Fair Wear Foundation, Falmouth Uni, Falmouth University, Fashion, finishing ladies, Finisterre, flip-flops, football tournaments, Game, Games, Gaming, George Drake-Knight, Godrevy, Godrevy Lighthouse, Good Business Awards, Grange Chine, Gun, guru, Hang out, Hayle, hectic, history, Hot Buttered, house size barrel, ice cream, Impossibles, Indo, Indonesia, instalments, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Island, Isle, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Jamie Whittle, Joby Wells, Josh Jupe, Leonard Cheshire Disability, Little Stairs, Little Stairs beach, longboard, Marine Conservation Society, Mart Drake-Knight, Martin Drake-Knight, Matt Harwood, MCS, mini mal, news, newspapers, niton, Office, offshore, old board, Oli Harvey, Oliver Harvey, Organic, organic fabrics, Peru, Play Station, PlayStation, Railway, Rapa Nui, Rapanui, Rapanui clothing, Rapanui FC, rapanuiclothing, Rash Vests, renewable energy, Renewable Energy Engineering, Road Trip, Rob Drake-Knight, RSPCA, sandals, Sandown, School, Search, shaper, Shaping, Skateboarding, slaps, Sola, South Carlsbad, St Agnes, Stewart Longboard, stoked, suit, surf, Surf Club, surf magazine, Surf Movie, Surf Search, Surf Shop, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, Surfing Magazine, Sustainable, Sustainable Business, Sustainable Business Awards, sweat shop, swell, tea, The Noughties, Tony Hawks, top 100 Start-ups, Topshop, tube, tv, U.S.A., Unemployment, USA, waves, Wells family, wetsuit, wight, wightsurfhistory, wind powered factory, www.rapanuiclothing.com | 2 Comments »
What a day Saturday the 9th of October turned out to be. The swell started to grow from only a couple of foot first thing to an epic swell that saw Compton, Freshwater Bay and The Pearl all fireing. I checked Compton early and a few of you were either in or going in and it was about 2 – 3ft and building. The wind looked a little strong, making the waves hard to catch but as the swell grew it got better and better. I knew I was only going to get one go at getting a few waves so opted to come back in a couple of hours in hope my timing would pay off. Will still alot of things to finalise for the movie night I did about 15mins filming and the shot off to try and get as much done as possible in 2 hours.
While I was away my phone didn’t stop. I had messages saying nearly every break from Freshwater Bay right round to Sandown were breaking. When I came past Freshwater Bay there was too much water and I couldn’t wait any longer. At Compton I met up with Andy Haworth (Devon Lanes and Longboards) who was already on the cliff top filming (Can’t wait to see the footage Andy). After quick introductions he exclaimed that in all his times on the Island he had never seen Compton like that. While talking a set came through and I hadn’t seen anything like that at Compton for a very very long time. I then ran back to my car to get changed and get in. With only about 15 – 20 people in the water it was perfect, I managed to get a couple of the big set waves right to the beach. When I wasn’t catching waves it was just great to watch some of you guys getting some great waves and the standard of surfing on the Island is very high. I don’t know all of you, but being out there on Saturday really showed that all those days surfing in small wind chop, onshores and just getting in when there was any wave has produced some excellent surfers on the Island.
I only had a short time at the beach and only managed to photograph Compton for about an hour. If any of you have any good photographs of anywhere on Saturday please send them in to us and we’ll put up a gallery of all your shots. I have seen some great shots of The Pearl and Freshwater Bay on Facebook so send them to us too.
Havig such a great swell during the day it couldn’t have been any better for the Movie night. With everyone buzzing from the waves earlier in the day the Sandpipers was soon full to the brim and a wall of noise as everyone talked about the waves. We started the evening with ‘Devon Lanes and Longboards’ by Andy Haworth (If you are interested in buying Andy’s movie go to his website here Devon Lanes and Longboards ). This was followed by a great movie by Sid Pitman ‘Surf Rats’. We also had Strat Cat Productions who very kindly set up a screen and played movies in the Sandpipers big hall all night from ‘Brown Water’ by Sid, ‘Isle of Wight Surf Club’ by Annie Macpherson and Andy Haworths footage from the day. A big thanks to Mark, Nigel and the boys for helping making it a great night. The evning was to finish with ‘Fusion’ by Ross Johns and you can also buy his movie at surfclips.co.uk. At this point I think most of the Ale in the bar had gone and people still wanted more, so by popular request we put on Bert’s ‘Wight Water’. We went on playing movies well into the early hours and raised over £100 for the Freshwater Lifeboat. Many thanks to all who came and especially Jason, Andy, Ross, Annie, Sid, Bert, Al, The Sandpipers Hotel, the West Wight Landscape Partnership and all who helped to make the evening a great success (Apologies if I forgot anyone).
If anyone took any photos during the Surf Movie Evening we would love to put a few on here too, so send them in to paul@wightsurfhistory.co.uk
Oct 12, 2010 | Categories: Surf Blogs, The Noughties | Tags: "jason swain", 9/10/10, 9/10/2010, 9th October 2010, Al Reed, alan reed, Andrew Haworth, Andy Haworth, Annie Macpherson, beach, Bert, blackley, blog, Brown water, compton, Compton Bay, Den Butler, Devon Lanes and Longboards, Doug Saunders, Dougie Saunders, Epic Swell, Freshwater, freshwater bay, Freshwater Lifeboat, Fusion, history, Ian Hutchinson, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Lifeboat, longboard, Martin 'Bert' Spencer, Martin Spencer, Mike Hutchinson, MOVIE, movies, paul blackley, people, Perfect waves, photo, photographs, R.N.L.I, RNLI, Rog Butler, Roger Butler, Ross Johns, Sandown, Sandpipers Hotel, Saturday, Sid Pitman, stoked, Strat Cat Production, surf, Surf Movie Evening, Surf Movie Night, Surf rats, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, The Noughties, The Pearl, video, waves, West Wight Landscape Partnership, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory, WWLP | Leave A Comment »
Being a woodwork teacher, Hutch had made his own board, out of plywood naturally, and an invitation to try it at Compton was made. ‘Don’t try to shoot the curl’ he said, ‘just ride the white water’ What the bloody hell did all that mean?? Suffice to say that after half an hour I was exhausted, having totally failed to catch anything let alone ‘shoot the curl’.
Sep 27, 2010 | Categories: Surfer Profiles, The Sixties | Tags: 1" Pine Stringer, 1957, 1960's, 1965, 60's, Aluminium Channel, apprentice, archive, Bae, Bae Systems, bathroom, beach, Ben Kelley, Big Ear, Blue Peter, body surf, break, Brighstone, carpenter, Cascemite wood glue, Cat, Channel Islands, compton, Compton Bay, Cornwall, Cowes, crests, Cultural Revolution, Curl, Da Cat#, Dabell's, Dad, Dave Jacobs, Dave Jake, drainpipe jeans, drop-in, DSOTM, dumped, England, Experimental Workshop, fibre glass, fin box, foam blank, Gidget, Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Grange Chine, history, Holiday, Hurricanes RFC, Hutch, inventor, Inventor of the removable fin box, IOW, Isle of Wight, Jake, joker, July, Keith Williams, Kelley's Left, longboard, Magpie, Malibu, Man on Fire, Mickey Dora, Mid 60's, Mike Hutchinson, Miklos, Miklos (Micky) Chapin Dora III, Motorcycle jacket, Neap Tides, October, Odeon Cinema, Odeon Picture House, offshore, Pat Morrell, Patrick Morrell, pearl, Pictures, Plessey, Plessey Radar, plywood board, plywood surfboard, Polystyrene, Polystyrene foam, rainbows, removable fin box, resin, rockers quiff, Roger Backhouse, Rugby, Sandown, shaper, Shaping, Shoot the curl, Shore, shore break, Sid Pitman, Sidney Pitman, spray, steve williams, stoked, surf, surf board, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, swim, Teacher, The Cat, The Savoy, The Sixties, TV Programme, Uncle Fred, Waimea, Waimea Bay, waves, White water, wightsurfhistory, Woodwork, Woodwork Club, woodwork teacher | 2 Comments »
From the Virgin Islands they traveled onto America, working their way across to the west coast. They stopped in North Carolina to stay with Barney’s sister Rosie who was at university there. Word had got around about Barney and Chris’s travels through Europe and across to the Caribbean and onto the U.S.A. and the university president had questioned Barney’s sister Rosie where they would be staying. When he found out that they were staying at her small flat he made arrangements for them to stay at his mansion. The staff were never to remember Barney and Chris’s name properly and they soon became known as Bonnie and Clyde by the them.
Jun 17, 2010 | Categories: Surfer Profiles | Tags: Airwave, America, Australia, Bali, Balsa, Bantham, Barnes, Barney, Barney Barnes, Barnstormer, Barnstormer Sails, Barnstormers, Bilbo, Board Rack, Bonnie & Clyde, Bonnie and Clyde, Boobies, Boscombe, Breaks, British Champion, British paragliding Champion, British Paragliding Team, British Surfing Magazine Wavelength, Byron, Byron Bay, Caribbean, Cerri, Chambre d'amour, Champion, Chapter, Chapter popout, chapter popouts, Chris, Coast, Colwell, Colwell Bay, Constantine, Cornwall, Cosmic Children, Dave Gray, Dave Grey, designer, Devon, Dorchester, Dorset, Easkey, Europe, Figuera de foz, Fim show, fly, fly glider, France, Freshwater, freshwater bay, George Greenough, Gibralter, gliders, Godrevy, Gwithian, Helston School, Holiday Camp, Ian Williams, Innermost Limits, International Paragliding, Ireland, Islands, Isles, Jim Taylor, Kimeridge, Lahinch, Little Apple Bay, Magazine, Mansion, Monte Grappa, New Zealand, Newquay, North Carolina, Paragliding, Peniche, Penzance, pilot, Plymouth, Point, Point break, Porthleven, President, Rack, Raglan, Ray Hutchings, Razers, reef, reef break, Rincon, Ringstead, roger cooper, Roger Mansfield, Rosie Barnes, Sail, Sailing, Sails, Sandown, Scene, Shanklin, Sharkies, Shop, South, Spain, Spanish Point, St Ives, steve williams, Stradbrook Island, surf, Surf Club, Surf Insight, Surf Trips, surfboard, Surfboards, test pilot, Tonga, U.S.A., UK, Uluwatu, United States of America, University, USA, Vaughn, Virgin, Virgin Isles, Wavelength, waves, Weymouth, Wight Water, Windsurfer, Windsurfing, Winsurfing School, Yacht | 2 Comments »
During the early sixties it wasn’t just the boys enjoying the waves, there were some pretty hardcore girls surfing on the Island with no wetsuits or leashes too.
Mar 29, 2010 | Categories: The Sixties | Tags: 1960, 1965, 1967, 1968, 60, 60's, Aston Martin, Atlantic, Atlantic Coast, Bournmouth, Bude, Champion, compton, Constantine, Cornish, Cornwall, Crantock, Fistral, freshwater bay, Galway, Girl, Girlfriends, Girls, Ireland, Isle of Wight Surf Club Secretary, Judy Bull, Kimmeridge, La Hinch, leashes, Lynmouth, Marazion, Merry Hughes, Mini, niton, Ocean, Oil Spill, Oil Tanker, Oiltanker, Prah Sands, RAF ST Mawgan, Renuyle, Rita Long, Rolls Royce, Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin, Shigo, Split Screen, Split Screen VW Van, Steephill Cove, Sue Backhouse, Sue Ellis, Sue Ellis (Backhouse), Supertanker, Susan Backhouse, Susan Ellis, Sweeney's Hotel, Sweeney's Oughterard House, The Sixties, Torrey Canyon, Ventnor, Victoria Freer, Victoria Pickering, Watergate, Wendy, wetsuits, White City, Whitecliff Bay, Women, Woolacome | Leave A Comment »
During the early 1960’s a group of friends had started to hang out on the cliff tops between Ventnor beach and Steephill Cove. These bored teenagers soon began to focus their attention on the ocean. The Island at that time still had many unexplored pockets of coastline or so it felt to this group of friends. The ocean soon became their playground.
Mar 25, 2010 | Categories: The Sixties | Tags: 12ft wooden surfboards, 1960, 1960's, 29 Spring Hill, Archie Trickett, archive, B&W, belly board, belly boards, bellyboard, bellyboards, Biarritz, Bilbo, Bilbo surf shop, Bob Head, Cascades, Colin Burgess, Colin Hicks, compton, Compton Bay, European Championships, France, Freshwater, freshwater bay, Geoff Gardner, Geoff ‘Ned’ Garner, half inch thick wetsuits, history, homemade 12ft wooden surfboards, homemade skateboards, Hutch, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight County Press, Isle of Wight County Press Newspaper, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Joel de Rosnay, John Ainsworth, Kevin Digweed, Lillywhites, Little Stairs, Little Stairs beach, longboard, Mike Hutchinson, Mike ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, Ned, Newquay, niton, Paint Spot, Pat Morrell, Paul Coleman, people, photo, photographs, portrait, Rod Sumpter, Roger Backhouse, Russell Long, San Diego Surf Championships, Sandown, Skateboard, Skateboarding, skimboard, skimboarding, Steephill, Steephill Cove, stoked, Sue Ellis, surf, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, Ventnor, waves, wetsuit, wetsuits, Wight Water, wightsurfhistory, wooden belly boards, wooden surfboards, woodwork teacher, ‘Old Joe’ | 3 Comments »
