Ventnor Blog

AJ Wells have been on IW Radio news today for their involvement with a huge enamelled piece of artwork produced by artist, Laura Boswell, which will be be displayed in an underpass in Aylesbury.

Next week (well, now actually), they’ll hit the headlines again when a new piece of public artwork is unveiled in Sandown.

Designed and produced by local artist Nathan Holt (that’s Nathan, not Nick) the enamelled artwork will take pride of place at the Eastern Gardens.

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Near the end of the White Air Extreme Sports Festival, held last month in Yaverland, three young thrill seekers thought they’d get involved and have a go at something extreme.

Full of confidence (and obviously very little fear) they asked the compere working the skate ramps whether they could stand on the middle ramp whilst some of the world’s greatest mountain-boarders jumped over them.

They must have had great trust in the mountain-boarders, because within minutes the three kids were standing on the ramps getting into position.

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A couple of weekends ago, whilst White Air was taking place, we popped over toe the official opening of The Fort, the name for the new Sandown skate park.

As well as chatting to Sandown Mayor, Ian Ward, and Cllr Val Stephenson who spearheaded the project, we caught up with Sandown Town Clerk, Val Taylor.

From the recording you’ll hear the sounds of the Samba Band in the background which added to the great carnival atmosphere of the event.

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Whilst at the official opening of The Fort, Sandown’s new skate park, The Sandown Lions made a very generous presentation of a £1,000 cheque to the skate park.

At the event, as well as chatting to Sandown Mayor, Ian Ward, and Cllr Val Stephenson who spearheaded the project, we caught up with Keith Rogers from the Sandown Lions after the presentation to find out more.

Keith told us that through various fundraising activities, the Lions had managed to raise £1,000 which they wanted to donate towards the upkeep of the skate park.

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Thanks to Marc Morgan Huws from
Southern Vectis for sending in the following information to VentnorBlog (see update st the bottom)

Routes 2 and 3 are subject to significant disruption following the emergency closure of Brading High Street.

Customers are advised where possible to use Islandline trains between Ryde - Brading - Sandown - Lake - Shanklin, who are accepting Southern Vectis tickets and passes for travel while the road closure remains in place.

UPDATE from Southern Vectis: (more…)

If you’re planning to head anywhere near Brading today - you’ll need to change your plans. Certainly for the next couple of hours anyway.

Apparently at 8am this morning, one lorry unfortunately lost a load of fuel outside the Post Office in the High Street and following that, a bus travellling from Brading to Shanklin discovered that it too, had been losing fuel on route.

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As the sun was setting over Sandown and the ramps were being dismantled last Sunday evening, we caught up with Nigel Howell, the man behind the ever-successful White Air Festival to find out how things had gone for him this year.

Nigel tells us that the festival is now in it’s 12th year, with it running for ten years in the winter, in August last year and now September this year. The operation has grown substantially, bringing more sports to the Island than ever before.

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Nigel Howell, founder of White Air, has exclusively told VentnorBlog that White Air, the extreme sports festival, is to leave the Isle of Wight next year and move to Brighton.

This news is all the sadder due to White Air having just delivered such a great festival last weekend, enjoyed by 10,000 people.

It’s clear speaking to Nigel that the IW Council could have done more in supporting the event.

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As we mentioned earlier in the week, on Saturday afternoon VentnorBlog went along to the official opening of the new Sandown Skate Park, The Fort.

Taking lead in the proceedings was Sandown South Councillor and Sandown Mayor, Ian Ward.

As explained by Cllr Val Stephenson earlier in the week, the project from start to finish, had taken around seven years to complete.

Ian told us that project started off with the initial idea, which led to drawings being prepared. Extensive research was needed, as well as costings and of course, fund raising.

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It would appear that the fabulous Red Arrows display which thousands of people along the east and south coast of the Wight came out to watch on Sunday, wasn’t appreciated by everyone.

Spectators on Culver Down were met with a stampede of cattle, who had apparently been frightened by the jets passing overhead and set off on a rampage - causing damage to several cars on the downs.

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On Saturday afternoon, we managed to drag ourselves away from White Air Extreme Sports Festival for an hour to attend the official opening of the Sandown Skate Park.

It was a great launch with Cllr Ian Ward, Leader of the Council David Pugh and Cllr Val Stephenson all making speeches and the samba band adding to the atmosphere.

After the ribbon was cut and the youth descended onto the new ramps, we caught up with Sandown Town Councillor, Val Stephenson who spearheaded the project.

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A huge well done to Nigel Howell and his team for pulling off yet another, massively successful White Air Extreme Sports Festival on the Isle of Wight.

We were hoping to file updates over the weekend, but ended up being so busy actually interviewing etc, that we didn’t get time to do that. We will however, be bringing you some great videos, podcasts and photos over the coming weeks.

We’re told the festival attracted over 10,000 visitors throughout the weekend, with more than 2,500 people taking the opportunity to ‘Have a Go’, trying out some of the brilliant extreme sports on offer.

The Red Arrows display two days in a row was a fantastic treat for the South Coast of the Island and the music a great addition to the atmosphere of the event.

The success of the festival is testament to the hard work and dedication of Nigel and his team. Well done to you all - you deserve a very large pat on the back.

Yes folks, VentnorBlog will be out with our cameras, mobiles and podcasting equipment this weekend at the 12th White Air Extreme Sports Festival in Yaverland.

As mentioned in a previous post we popped along this afternoon and we’re really impressed with the set up.

Organiser of the event, Nigel Howell has managed to pull this together against the odds and in double quick time this year. Well done mate - you’ve succeeded in once again bringing great publicity to the Island.

Over the next couple of days expect to hear about contestants from all around the globe who have travelled to the Isle of Wight — which due to events like this, is fast becoming a much sought after destination — to compete in this world famous festival.

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Saturday afternoon sees the official opening of the Sandown skatepark.

Leader of the council, David Pugh, will be ‘getting down with the kids’ tomorrow at 2pm, joined by Cllr Ian Ward and of course, Cllr Val Stephenson - who spearheaded the project and made it all happen.

After leaving White Air this afternoon, we popped over to the new skatepark to check it out and were pretty impressed.

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The 12th White Air Extreme Sports Festival got off to a flying start this morning.

With sunny days and warm weather predicted for the weekend, the Yaverland based festival should attract good numbers of spectators once again.

There are tons of events taking place over the next three days down at the Festival, including live music as well as all the sport.

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With just a few days to go until the start if the 12th White Air Extreme Sports Festival and we’ve got more news of the popular ‘Have a Go’ events.

Experience the sensation of freefall at White Air Skydiving with Adrenalin, the UK’s only mobile vertical Wind Tunnel.

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With White Air fast approaching, don’t forget that as well as all the excitement of the day’s activities, there will also be some great parties.

As well as live music from 12pm to 10pm each day, tickets are also on sale for the Saturday night party, featuring Sam Issac, and Mama’s Gun, as well as Radio One DJ, Rob Da Bank.

Also on the line up for live music will be the Guy Page Trio, The Operators, Bastila, Lucid, The Wild Oats, Ffred Jones and The Kurves.

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News just in from White Air HQ, is that next Saturday the White Air RAF Freesports stage will be hosting the the first ever Indo Board Performance Championship.

What does this mean?

Well, whoever can perform the best trick within 2 minutes and wow the judges is going to win themselves an Indo of his or her choice.

If you’ve no idea what an Indo board is, check out this video of tricks being performed on one (skip to half way through to get past the instructional video). Believe us, we’ve tried one of these and it’s not as easy as it looks.

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A last minute reminder for parents of children attending Gatten & Lake Primary School, Newchurch Primary School, Broadlea Primary School and Niton Primary School that there is a public consultation meeting tonight at Sandown High School (6.30pm in the South Hall).

The purpose of the meeting is to update parents on the proposals for the future of Island schools and there will be an opportunity for parents to ask the officers questions.

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Anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing the the Red Arrows perform will agree what an absolute treat it is.

The last time we saw them was just prior to the fireworks in Cowes at the end of Cowes Week. Their display is awe inspiring and we’re stoked to see that they’ll be returning to the Wight later in the month for the White Air Extreme Sports Festival.

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With less than two weeks to go until the 12th White Air Extreme Sports Festival is upon us again, this year’s event promises even more action for your pound.

Latest news out from WA HQ is that Head First, the Island based watersports centre which specialises in kitesurfing and wakeboarding will be attracting some of the most radical freestylers for a limited entry freestyle jam.

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Press release issued By Standards Not Tiers on behalf of St Helen’s, Yarmouth and Chale Primary Schools SOS Action Groups

On Monday 8th September delegates from St Helen’s, Chale and Yarmouth Primary Schools held a meeting in St Helens, which was attended by Representatives of NASS, (National Association for Small Schools) and SNT (Standards-Not-Tiers).

Left to right: Sarah Edmunds, Chris Welsford, Miranda Botha, Mervyn Benford, Chris Farnsworth, Alison Bacon, Patrick Joyce, Lisa Dyer, Owen Toms, Caroline Diamond, Jonathan Bacon.

Speakers discussed the Isle of Wight Council proposals for the reorganisation and closure of schools, which are amongst the smallest and most successful in the country and agreed to offer assistance to all Island schools that are threatened with closure, both primary and middle.

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As parents of a pupil of Niton Primary School - we were advised today of a public consultation meeting being held this Thursday.

There are four meetings being arranged over the next week or so for parents of pupils at specific schools.

In case you hadn’t received notification, here are the details from the EduWight Web site.

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The White Air Extreme Sports Festival is almost upon us once again and for another year there will be loads of ‘Have a Go’ events.

If you want to take advantage of skating on some of the UK’s top mini-ramps, then you’ll need to register asap, as we hear that tickets are selling fast.

You won’t need to pay a penny but you will need to register to gain access to the ramps.

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Thanks to County Councillor Patrick Joyce for sending through this response to a report in the County Press last week that he had not returned his annual report for last year. He disputes this allegation and you can read his Annual Report below. Ed

Reference article in last week County Press. I would like to clarify two points I am no longer a member of the Conservative group in County Hall and to rebuke the outright lie that I did not forward my annual report telling my constituency what had happened in the last year, unfortunately I assume Chairman Pugh did not like it so it was not published.

I attach a copy for my constituents (see below), they can decide at next year’s election if they believe I am carrying out my duties or not.

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