Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

Following our news blip yesterday about the works taking place at the Ventnor Skate Park this week, Matt Hillier who was busy getting his hands dirty yesterday sent through some shots at the end of the day.

As you can see from the gallery below, the carpentry work was completed in time for the concrete, which arrived in the afternoon.

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The team behind the ongoing works to the Ventnor Skate Park tell us that more works started today.

The next stage of the project is to continue work on the sea/grind wall.

This morning all the carpentry work was due to take place, building the wooden slatted fence which is hoped to reduce the amount of sea-spray experienced by those using the ramps.

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Anyone walking past the Ventnor Skate park recently will have seen that more work has been taking place.

John Cattle, who has been leading the project to save the skate park with the help of project manager, John Baldry, have been hard at work fixing the damaged ramps and preparing for the installation of a new splash guard, which will protect the ramp (and skaters) from the wind and splash from the sea.

Generously lending a hand have been skater, Colin Richardson (pictured) and Fred.

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Thanks to legendary Island skates and filmmaker John Cattle for sending through details of this summer jam taking place tomorrow in Cowes. Let’s hope the weather is kind to the Island tomorrow. Ed

Cowes Skatepark will host the 2nd ‘Kimpo’s Summer Jam and Funday’, this Saturday starting at 10am. The event has been organised by Cowes Youth Forum.

Fun for all the family, bouncy castle, refreshments as well as the Skate and BMX Competition.

DJ on the day will be Leeboy from NPT who will be playing a bit of reggae, soul, and funk as the soundtrack to the proceedings.

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If you haven’t bought your copy of Wight Trash Transitions Volume 2 yet, make sure you head out to the shops this week to get your copy.

With 52 tracks from Island bands, this triple CD give you a great cross section of Island music and all proceeds will be going towards the renovation of the Ventnor Skate Park.

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The number of outlets where you can buy your copy of the Wight Trash Transitions Volume 2 Triple CD has grown this week to six, with HMV in Newport joining the merry list of distributors.

This bumper triple CD pulled together by John Cattle of Wight Trash and remastered by Rob and Jim Holmes of Jackson Analogue is an absolute steal at just £10, especially as all proceeds will be going to the renovation of the Ventnor Skate Park.

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Following the success of the Wight Trash Transitions CD launched last August, music (and skating) fans will be pleased to hear that Volume #2 is well underway.

Volume #1 of Wight Trash Transitions went a long way towards paying for the the concrete, drainage and other bits and pieces at Ventnor Skatepark.

But there’s still more work to do and it’s hoped that sales from Volume #2 will go towards the 40ft concrete grind wall, the see-through hard plastic wind and seaspray screen and to resurfacing the ramp with Skatelite. According to those in the know, Skatelite is a faster and stronger surface than wood therefore avoiding the need for the ramps to be replaced in the future.

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We took a stroll down past the Ventnor Skate Park yesterday and were amazed at the transformation.

All those months ago, when the fate of the skate park was hanging on a thread, who would’ve thought that so much could be done just by volunteers, donations and a passion to keep this facility for all to enjoy?

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Back in September at the official opening of the Sandown Skate park, named The Fort, we stopped to have a chat with Cliff Church, the man responsible for the design of the park.

Cliff was clearly chuffed that the park was completed and being so well used. He explained that they were finding the main user groups were bikes, roller blades and skate boards which sometimes made things a bit tricky.

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As reported earlier in the week, Bardon Vectis are scheduled tomorrow to be bringing down and pouring concrete to the required areas surrounding the Ventnor Skate Park.

The first delivery arrives at 8am and the organisers are on the look out for volunteers to help during the day.

If you can spare some time and would like to help out, just turn up at the Ventnor Skate park at the far end of the Eastern Esplanade car park.

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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At the end of last week, we took some time out to pop down to Ventnor Skate Park and find out how the renovation work was going.

It might not be obvious at first glance, but there has been a great deal of work taking place down at the skate park over recent weeks.

We managed to nab John Cattle for a few minutes to talk us through the stages of work that have taken place.

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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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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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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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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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At the end of last month, several Island bands and DJs (including The Waxworks who we mentioned earlier) gave their time (and talent) to entertain a crowd of 300+ people at the Ventnor Winter Gardens.

The purpose of the gig was to celebrate the launch of a limited edition compilation CD of Island musicians – Wight Trash Transitions Volume One.

All proceeds from the CD will go directly into renovation of the skate park (latest news on developments coming up later on the blog) and there are still a few copies of the limited edition CD available if you haven’t bought your yet.

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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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Well done to everyone involved in The Wight Trash Transitions CD launch party on Bank Holiday Sunday at the Winter Gardens.

It went down a storm.

After costs, over £500 was raised for Ventnor Skatepark, and every penny will go back into the materials and hire of equipment needed to bring the skate park back into use.

Over 200 people came along and showed their support, and with the big variety of music played live and on vinyl, there was definitely something for everyone.

Despite some mic problems on their first track, The Waxworks (pictured above and below) pulled off a superb debut performance and we can’t wait to see more from them over the coming months. The promises of identities being hidden behind balaclavas was only executed by the lead Waxman.

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Yes folks, tonight is the night.

The Wight Trash Transitions CD launch party comes to the Ventnor Winter Gardens and what a brilliant night they’ve got in store for you.

Kicking off at 7.30pm and entrance just a mere £2.50 – but they’ll need to fill the hall in order to make enough cash to cover the hire costs and security – so make sure you ring around everyone you know and get them out tonight.

What do you get in return? Five Island bands (including two Bestival Band competition winners) will be playing alongside three great DJs.

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We know that theres are loads of things going on this weekend, but one event you can’t afford to miss is the Wight Trash Transitions Launch Party which takes place at the Ventnor Winter Gardens.

It takes place on Sunday evening, kicking off at 7.30pm and for just £2.50 entrance you can enjoy five Island bands and three DJs, as well as a musical memorabilia raffle, with donations from the likes of Radio One DJ and Bestival Head Honcho, Rob Da Bank.

All the bands playing live are featured in the fundraising CD, Transitions Volume One, and include The Shanklin Freak Show who recently put on a fantastic show at Ryde Theatre.

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If all goes to plan, John Cattle, Chair of the Ventnor Skate Park Group will be appearing live on Express fm tonight.

It follows great coverage on Original 106 last Sunday of the work of taking place at the skate park and the launch of the Transitions Volume One CD.

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Just over a week ago John Cattle appeared on the Xan Phillips Show on Original 106 fm.

The interview came about after Xan received a copy of the Transitions Volume One CD compilation. As well as playing some tracks that night, we hear he played three more tracks from the CD last night too.

To show his support for the project, the Original 106 Web site also has a link to the Transitions page and Ventnor Skate Park MySpace page. Nice one Xan.

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Despite the problem of pesky kids, who seem hell bent on continuing to rip down the fencing that surrounds the skate park (even though they can’t use the ramps), work is continuing apace.

Huge pats on the back need to go out to John Cattle, Tom Parsons and John Baldry who have been getting really stuck in to the work and making great progress.

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A little while back (when it was sunny!), we went down to the skate park in Ventnor to chat to two of the key players for the re-birth of the park – John Cattle, who is chairman of the Ventnor skate park and John Baldry, who has generously volunteered his time as the project manager.

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