The Style of Wight coastal celebration: From rock-pooling

Our Island is one of the best places in the world to make the most of the coast, with a stunning array of different coastal choices. From rock-pooling to watersports; and bird watching to romantic sunsets - the Isle of Wight has it all

Living on an island means that we are surrounded by coastline, and the Isle of Wight has a huge range of different beaches, from those with dramatically steep cliffs, to others with gentle sloping shorelines or those, like

Cowes, with long promenades just above the water line.

Many of our beaches lend themselves to water sports, such as sailing, kayaking, paddle boarding, kite surfing or windsurfing – Cowes is of course best known for this but Ryde, Yaverland, Lake, Freshwater especially so too. Others are perfect for bird watching, such as the estuaries at Newtown and Bembridge. Ramblers are spoilt for choice with pathways circumnavigating our entire coastline, either around the shorelines, or across the cliffs that rise to 300ft above sea level in places. Sunrises are spectacular in the East, at beaches such as Bembridge, St Helen’s and Yaverland; and sunsets can be savoured over a sundowner in the West at beautiful beaches such as Compton, Totland and from the iconic Needles chalk stacks.

Whether you are looking for a traditional ‘bucket and spade’ family beach with shops and amusements, such as Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin or Ventnor; a cute coast with beach huts and ice creams like Gurnard or Colwell Bay; or a wild and unspoilt beach for getting away from it all, such as Compton, Brook or Yaverland, the Isle of Wight has the answer. See www.visitisleofwight.co.uk for a detailed list of all the Island’s beaches.

The whole of the Isle of Wight, including the waters around the Island, became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on June 19th, 2019. The award was made by the United Nations Man and Biosphere Co-ordinating Council in Paris and was designated by the UN agency as one of 20 new areas considered for their environmental significance.

Almost half of the Isle of Wight is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The title recognises the sustainable ways in which local people work with their natural environment and UNESCO's advisory committee praised the island's "strong tradition of environmental action".

Biosphere is the living surface of our planet, made from the land, the sea, the air we breathe and energy from the sun. People across the world have learned about the wonderful benefits from their biosphere and how to use them sustainably. UNESCO Biosphere Reserves are some of the best examples where communities have found ways to resolve the conservation of ecosystems with their ongoing sustainable use. There are over 686 Biosphere Reserves in 120 countries including 20 transboundary sites.

UNESCO Biosphere Reserves are ‘learning places for sustainable development’. They are sites for testing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and managing changes and interactions between social and

ecological systems, including conflict prevention and management of biodiversity. They are places that provide local solutions to global challenges. Biosphere reserves include terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Each site promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.

Biosphere Reserves are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Biosphere Reserves are designated under the intergovernmental MAB Programme by the Director-General of UNESCO following the decisions of the MAB International Coordinating Council (MAB ICC). Their status is internationally recognised. Member States can submit sites through the designation process on the UNESCO website.

Image: visitisleofwight.co.uk

Biosphere Reserves involve local communities and all interested stakeholders in planning and management. They integrate three main "functions":

• Conservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity • Economic development that is socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable

• Logistic support, underpinning development through research, monitoring, education and training These three functions are pursued through the Biosphere Reserves' three main zones. More than 680 sites in 122 countries now have the UNESCO designation, including Uluru in Australia, Mount Kenya, Yellowstone National Park in the US and County Kerry in the Republic of Ireland.

Over 50% of the Isle of Wight is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The AONB team put forward an application to UNESCO on behalf of the UK government. A region needs to show that people and the natural environment are coexisting harmoniously, in order to become a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. In spite of the modern-day pressures brought about by the progress of human beings, the Isle of Wight can demonstrate to the highest level that there is a balanced relationship between people and their natural surroundings, which continue to thrive here.

There hasn’t been any difference to us, although we hope it will help us to keep it that way. We know that the Isle of Wight is a beautiful place with a dramatic undulating landscape, beautiful beaches and friendly people, and that isn’t going to change. Becoming a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve means that other people have also recognised what an amazing place the Island is. The Isle of Wight is now in an elite group of regions, being only the 6th region in the UK to be awarded the UNESCO accolade.

The Isle of Wight will remain its wonderful self, the only difference being that when you’re enjoying a walk on Tennyson Down or taking the kids to Blackgang Chine, you'll have an even greater sense of satisfaction that you live on, or are visiting, one of the most remarkable Islands in the world!

Image: visitisleofwight.co.uk

Photography Christian Warren

Style of Wight were recently invited to experience a guided West Wight Tuk Tuk tour in a beautiful bianco white Piaggio Ape Calessino 200. A business established in 2019 by Island resident and entrepreneur, Scout, and his wife Kayleigh, The Isle of Wight Tuk Tuk Co offers a variety of open-air experiences from tours and taxi services to weddings and events. We began our experience at the picturesque Yarmouth Harbour and travelled west towards the iconic former military fort, Fort Victoria. Here we took the opportunity to enjoy a morning coffee and pastry overlooking the beach and listening to a brief history of the fort.

With the sun shining and the wind blowing our hair, we enjoyed the ride further west, stopping at Colwell Bay. Here we had spectacular views across The Solent to Hurst Castle. After a stroll along the beach wall taking in the seaside atmosphere, we then stopped for a crisp chilled glass of white wine at the popular beachfront restaurant, The Hut. Setting off from Colwell Bay with an Isle of Wight Ice Cream from The Beach Shop, we travelled in style further along the coast

stopping at the tranquil Totland Bay. Here we had incredible far reaching views out to sea and enjoyed watching families taking advantage of the clear turquoise waters.

Our next stop was the beautiful Freshwater Bay and, with it being the hottest day of the year, we absolutely had to join in with running off the sea wall into the cool glistening waters. A refreshing swim was the perfect end to our West Wight summer Tuk Tuk tour. Heading back to Yarmouth we were recommended freshly prepared baguettes from Gossips Café for lunch before waving off our friendly tour guide. With Scout’s excellent local knowledge, paired with the romance of an Italian Tuk Tuk ride, this fabulous experience, with prices starting from £35 for two people, is something we would definitely recommend trying out this summer.

To book a guided tour or for full information on The Isle of Wight Tuk Tuk Co services visit www.theiowtuktuk.co.uk, call 01983 329241, or email info@theiowtuktuk.co.uk.

Designer Monique Lucas draws much of her inspiration from the coastline of the Isle of Wight, where she works in her atmospheric studio, surrounded by reminders of her intriguing heritage

Islands are in Monique’s blood. Her father and his forebears lived on Jamaica in a stylish fashion, and her grandmother painted the coastline as a hobby. Half

American and half British on both her mother and her father’s side of the family, sailing was a massive part of

Monique’s childhood.

“I spent a lot of my life on the Isle of

Wight and travelling around a variety of other islands,” explained Monique.

“I was fortunate enough to live in both Hong Kong and Singapore in my childhood and travelled to many other tropical islands. I have also spent much time in Florida, visiting my grandmother over the years.” Monique recently launched her Marine table setting collection, which includes both coasters and napkins. They come in matching prints, such as the lobster print that you see in our photos. “I loved designing and drawing this print, it reminds me of summers here on the coast on the Isle of Wight,” she said.

“As well as creating my fabric designs, I do love setting a table,” she laughed. “It’s all about creating a lifestyle brand and placing my designs in settings that my customers might create themselves.”

This June Monique celebrated the

launch of her new Marine napkin range with a photo shoot on one of her favourite beaches on the Isle of Wight - Priory Bay. “Its rocky cliff-side forest and rustic beach shack makes you feel as if you're almost on a tropical island abroad. At points, you forget you are in the UK at all. That's the beauty of this untouched peace of paradise,” said Monique. Shop Monique’s new beach bags with the lobster design at Seaview Deli, High Street, Seaview. Sign up to Monique’s monthly newsletter to receive promotions, styling tips and more at www.moniquelucas.co.uk

For a chance to win a set of Monique’s beautiful lobster napkins visit our reader offers page at www.styleofwight.co.uk

Lovers of the cliffs and coast of the West Wight between Brook and Freshwater will want to see a new exhibition of ceramics at Yarmouth Gallery by owner Anne Toms’ daughter Amanda Rachel

Photography Christian Warren

All the new work created by Amanda Rachel Toms has been inspired by the cliffs with their different colours and textures.

In fact, Amanda has collected material from the cliffs and beach to use in the glazes she makes for her ceramic pieces. Some glazes are crusty like the rocks and others are smooth like the sea.

Amanda’s earlier work featured sculptural boat forms and lidded boxes, slab-built, and these newer bottles and vases are thrown and then altered to include areas of added textural interest. Amanda has a fascination with layers and edges created by erosion, and the points at which different materials overlap and meet. The work is made with different clays including paper clay, terracotta, black clay and porcelain. One-off pieces combine layers of clays, oxide, slip and glaze to build up a depth of colour and texture reminiscent of weathered and aged surfaces from the landscape. This includes boats that have been left to the elements, and ancient artifacts.

Born and bred on the Isle of Wight in 1970, and currently living and working in Hertfordshire, near the chalk landscape of the Chilterns, Amanda, her husband and two children often come to stay at their house in Anne’s garden. Only a stone’s throw from Freshwater Bay, she loves the walk across the cliffs to Compton, and down onto the beach. “At the moment, Amanda is completely obsessed with the cliffs and their strata,” added Anne. “How wonderful the cliffs are. When most people are looking at the sea, Amanda is looking back at the cliffs.” Amanda’s work will be on display and for sale at Yarmouth Gallery throughout the summer where there are greetings cards made from her photographs. Yarmouth Gallery is just a few minutes stroll away from the ferry terminal, between the harbour and the Common, in the High Street and is open from 10am to 4pm (possibly to 5pm in high season) from Wednesday to Monday.

Check out Amanda’s work at www.instagram. com/amanda.toms or on her website at www. amandatomsceramics.com

By Bryony Rust

Photos Tom Pratt

After a big storm, it’s always fun to see what new treasures have washed up on the local beaches. One of my favourite finds is an interesting twist of driftwood. It holds beautiful variety with the added mystery of how far it’s travelled or how long it’s lain there

Driftwood always reminds me of my Humboldt County roots, where driftwood art is positively synonymous with the region. After a recent storm here on the Island we seized the opportunity to gather some driftwood.

For creative projects it’s useful to gather a variety of sizes and, of course, take no more than you need.

Armed with our beach treasures, we set to construction with saw and glue gun. I truly don’t know how we’ve gone this long without a glue gun. Did you know they cost barely more than a tenner? And oh, the potential! The driftwood mirror project simply involved finding a mirror with a broad frame and then experimenting with different driftwood combinations before sealing the deal with a few dollops of hot glue. The bookends took a little more prep, though it was still a fairly relaxed activity. Playing with how the twisted wood fits together is like a pleasing puzzle with no ‘right answer’. After balancing and fitting our favourite pieces together, we drew pencil marks and sawed each piece down for a flat base. The pencil also comes in handy for marking where you want to glue each piece. It can be a little fiddly to make sure the glue goes where it should, especially with the uneven surfaces of a twig, so a quick pencil mark is a useful guide. Once your pieces are glued together, leave to set overnight. Now all that’s left to do is choose some of your favourite books.

A: We looked at a number of sites for our set up of the America’s Cup team back in 2014 and Portsmouth were really accommodating. The Camber is a fantastic site as it provides great deep-water access to operate our boats and our team, that was our key reasoning for the specific site.

For my family and I, moving to the Isle of Wight was a great adventure really, moving off the mainland. It obviously also has close connections with Portsmouth, and we fell in love with a home on the Island. We’ve been really happy living there.

A: Yes, the America’s Cup is commonly referred to as Formula 1 on water and for a very good reason, in that the fastest boat in the history of the Cup pretty much has always won and therefore huge emphasis goes into the design and development of the boats. That’s fascinating for the teams themselves and it’s one of the big drivers for people in the America’s Cup because they’re fascinated by the technology and that technological race. Also, as you see in Formula 1, there are a lot of fans of the sport that are really into the technology and that’s what draws them into following the different teams and the developments as you go through an America’s Cup cycle.

A: I’m really looking forward to seeing how the different teams develop with this new AC75 class of boat through to the racing in New Zealand when we will all most probably be in our second generation boats. That development will be fascinating. I’m most worried about the dangers of racing these boats with their power, their speed, and the foils acting as they do when the wing foils are out of the water. As a helmsman, as a team principal, it is something that I am conscious of and I want to make sure that we can operate and race flat out but also in a safe manner.

A: Yes, probably the Jules Verne. I’d love to sail around the world. My dad did that (Whitbread Round the World Race, 1973), so growing up that was always an inspiration. The Jules Verne has been a challenge which I’ve followed for many years and I am always in awe of those boats and those teams that have been able to sail around the world in such record times. It’s also an area of the sport where Britain hasn’t traditionally performed that well, so I think that would be a great challenge to try and get the British breaking some records.

A: The diversity of the sport. There are so many different challenges. If you master one element of the sport there is always another design of boat, another type of race, be that offshore or inshore, a different team, many different fantastic personalities to try and work with and learn from. It’s just a change in dynamic which means that it’s never dull. There’s always a new challenge and it’s always exciting.

A: My highlight is Round the Island Race in 2013, when we took the race record for a period of time in an AC45 catamaran with JP Morgan. We raced in memory of our dear friend Andrew Simpson which made it that extra bit special.

A: Yes, particularly for families there are many great attractions on the Island such as the Needles Theme park, Tapnell Farm (a particular favourite of our family!), the Garlic Farm, the amazing Robin Hill, and The Hut restaurant on a nice summer afternoon is hard to beat.

The Island has a beach for every activity, and one of them will be just perfect for you, your family and your friends. Or perhaps you prefer a solitary beach visit – naturally the Isle of Wight can offer blissful alone time, too

The beaches from Brighstone to Blackgang are inaccessible and wild, with pathways to scrabble down at your own risk, but the reward will be a primordial piece of coastline that will take your breath away. Atherfield has a very steep pathway down, a large pebbled beach and the sea has an undertow that can take you unawares – don’t swim alone and not at all if you’re not a good swimmer.

Whale Chine’s two hundred-foot red cliffs tower over you as you search for the fossils of ammonites and other sea creatures, but the sea can again be treacherous and getting down to the beach is a trial. You can get to it from Blackgang, but the way down to this beach involves walking through woodland and climbing down a rope at one point. Oh, and Blackgang’s a naturist beach, as you may know! Steephill Cove was said to be a secret beach, but the secret is now out, although nonetheless loved and cherished by those who visit this pretty, sheltered bay. You can walk from Ventnor esplanade, or walk down from Undercliff Drive – but walk you must as there is no access for cars.

There are other hidden coves along the coast from Ventnor to St Catherine’s Point, where the walk down to the lighthouse and Rocken End beach is a lovely one – although the beach is comprised of huge stones. Woody Bay, about halfway between the two, is beautiful and usually deserted, although again there are stones to negotiate and it can only reached via the coastal path. On the northern side of the island there are other hidden beaches to discover but be aware that these can have clay beneath the sand - Players Beach at Ryde, Woodside and, further west, those west of Gurnard Marsh and at Bouldnor. Priory Bay beach has been likened to a Caribbean beach and is accessed around the headland from the west or via a woodland path and steps from the Duver beach. Colwell Bay now has a Caribbean feel too, with many motor boats/gin palaces travelling over for lunch and mooring in the bay. You can even have a picnic hamper delivered to your boat by rib. Totland, around the headland, is heading in this direction, and both beaches have turquoise seas and safe bathing. Sandown Bay won 'Beach of the Year' in the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards 2019, with the magazine calling it a “traditional bucket and spade beach on the east coast of the island with miles of golden sand, pier and eclectic seafront – and just a short walk to peace, fossil-rich cliffs and stunning coastal wildlife”. Eleven of the Island’s 14 main beaches have the highest rating for bathing water quality. Having introduced a new standard 4 years ago, the Environment Agency gave their stamp of approval of ‘excellent’ to 11 beaches with the other three receiving a rating of ‘good’ so you can paddle, swim and enjoy water-sports knowing that you’re doing so in safe water.

From the RNLI

Without you by their side, children are vulnerable at the beach. They need you to protect them from the sea's unpredictable waves, rip currents and cold water. And, this summer, fewer lifeguard patrols will be on hand to supervise or rescue your family.

Don't use inflatables - they get swept out to sea, with you or your child on them. And watch out for rip currents. Every beach is different, so make a point of reading any safety signs.

If you have your mobile phone, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard, and they will send help. Leave difficult rescues to the lifesavers. If there are lifeguards nearby, alert them. If you or your children are struggling in the water, remember: FLOAT TO LIVE.

Gibbs and Gurnell in Ryde’s Union Street are the most wonderful, traditional dispensing chemist, but are right up to date with the lines that they stock, thanks to Lisa Garth.

One of the ranges they have, which is incredibly good for you, especially when your skin is punished by the sun, is Avène. This French skincare range is especially good for sensitive skin, is reasonably priced and is a beautiful brand in its stylish white and coral packaging. It is one of Gibbs and Gurnell’s best sellers. “It’s very popular,” said Lisa. “And with all ages.” Avène’s hydrating moisturisers, come with a 30 SPF, or not as you require. If you do opt for the skin protection factor this can give you a barrier against the sun at times when you might not apply a sun cream. These come in a light or rich crème and both are for day and night wear. Of course, Avène do also have their own sun-screen range, which has a unique twofold commitment: to offer the best photoprotection to sensitive skin while minimising environmental impact. Their Cleanance range for oily and blemish-prone skin is especially good for teenagers, and those who might be affected adversely by the sun. The Avène range is suitable for all ages, however, and is very popular with customers at Gibbs and Gurnell.

Their Thermal Spring Water Spray can be used as a toner but is equally refreshing to use to cool the skin down in hot weather. This spray has a powerful active ingredient, with natural soothing

and anti-irritating properties, which soothes sensitive skin and reduces skin reactivity. Avène also have a line of creams especially for those suffering from rosacea – a cleaning lotion, a moisturiser and a ‘Relief Concentrate’ for chronic redness.

Not only do Avène make face creams, but products for your whole body. Their Cold Cream Body range is formulated to support the hydrolipidic film in sensitive dry to very dry skin, and these creams intensely nourish and soothe. The cleanser in this range is a lipid-replenishing cleansing oil. Especially good for dry to very dry sensitive skin prone to atopic eczema and itching. Whether you have skin issues or not, the Avène range will have products to suit your skin. Gibbs and Gurnell, 34 Union St, Ryde PO33 2LE.