The Sea Inside | Cornwall’s Geology | Interview with Anna Jones The Colour Blue | Get Surfing | Artists of the Bay
Editor in chief Judi Blakeburn Editor Caroline Davidson Assistant editor Heidi Fitzpatrick Art director Nick Wylie Designer Holly Donnelly Illustration Rose Forshall, Giulia Flamini Contributors Philip Hoare, Philip Marsden, Michael Smith, Martin Hesp, Alex Wade, Sam Crosby Special thanks Kassia St Clair, Anna Jones, Mark Hellyar, Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo, John Murray, 4th Estate, Penguin Random House Photography Holly Donnelly, Sam Crosby, Karl Mackie, Luke Hayes, Hayley Ruth Elizabeth Green, Deb Porter, Kirstin Prisk, Ana Cuba, Maja Petric, Oliver Berry, Lewis Pinder, James Darling, Simon White, David Griffen Featured artists John Howard, Sarah Bell, Helen Bishop, Nicole Heidaripour, Holly Donnelly, Monty Cholmeley, Hugh Tomkins, Max Farnsworth, Luke Hayes
Cover on GF Smith Munken Lynx 300gsm rough Text on GF Smith Munken Lynx 120gsm smooth
Watergate Bay Hotel Limited, On The Beach, Watergate Bay, Cornwall TR8 4AA 01637 860543 | life@watergatebay.co.uk | watergatebay.co.uk Registered In England No. 3709185. List of directors available. All content, including words and images, is subject to copyright. Any copying or reproduction in whole or in part is not permissible without prior permission. Š Watergate Bay Hotel Ltd.
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Room with a sea view 4
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Hello… In his short essay, 'The Sea Inside', author Philip Hoare says, “The sea is around us and inside us”. That’s especially true of those of us lucky enough to spend our days at Watergate Bay, which is why this issue kicks off with Philip’s contemplations on his love for the ocean. When planning the magazine we didn’t set out to find a theme, but the sea is always our starting place and what we come back to. Everything within these pages somehow flows from it. There’s a piece on the rocks and minerals that form Cornwall’s cliffs, and an interview with a Bordeaux wine producer who draws on his coastal roots. In two very different features, surfing is celebrated both for its inclusiveness and for being such good fun. Layered between the articles are artworks by artists we work with. We wanted to print the best of what these artists create and we wanted to provide, in the artists’ own words, insights into the things that motivate and inspire them. Inevitably, the sea gets a mention. And although it wasn’t deliberate, every artwork we have chosen – whether an illustration of waves, a watercolour, or a photograph of London’s Olympic pool – has some connection with water. Beyond that, the art differs widely. I hope you’ll find in this issue what the sea offers me – moments of stillness and adventure. Dive in.
Will Ashworth Managing director
Contents El ements 12 The sea inside A writer's affair with the ocean Philip Hoare
16 Cornish rock Granite monuments, mineshafts and a glimpse into Cornwall's geology Philip Marsden
24 Blue The hue with a special place in our lives. An extract from The Secret Lives of Colour Kassia St Clair
F o o d & d ri nk 28 The modern cook An interview with cookery writer Anna Jones, plus three of her latest recipes Caroline Davidson
38 A Cornishman in Bordeaux Mark Hellyar casts local opinion aside to make innovative, natural wines Michael Smith
44 A good old-fashioned drink
A cti v e
The story of shrub, from old barrels of smuggled rum to modern artisan concoctions Martin Hesp
50 Prize surf
46 Rhubarb and vanilla skies
As surfing prepares for its Olympic debut, two of Britain’s hopefuls come to Watergate Bay Alex Wade
Recipe for a shrub
58 We should all be surfers A beginner’s guide to having fun in the water Sam Crosby
62 Great heights The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean is one of 100 women celebrated in Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
A t th e B a y From swim clinics to Kids’ Zone and bonfires at The Beach Hut, this short guide to Watergate Bay points you in the right direction
70 Things to do 74 Stay 76 Eat 78 Price list 80 Extreme Academy 82 Swim Club 84 Directory
Watergate artists What drives us to create? Does living and working by the sea have any bearing on what we produce? How does art make us feel? We invited a clutch of artists we work with and admire to share some of their best creations and deepest thoughts. What we received was a diverse crop of works and words, each revealing an affinity with place and process. Find our favourites tucked between the articles, interviews and features coming up.
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photography: www.hreg.co.uk
I was an imaginative, fearful child. I blame my parents. When my mother was heavily pregnant with me, my father – for some unaccountable reason – took her on a tour of a submarine moored in Portsmouth Harbour. She began to go into labour; I was nearly born underwater. That early introduction did not inspire me. As I grew up, in suburban Southampton, another great sea port, Mum used to tell me about the bath in her family home. One of those Victorian roll-top tubs, deep and sturdy. Along the side of it – as if to cheer it up – her father, my grandfather, had painted a great big spouting whale. I never knew my grandfather; I never visited that house. But that bath lingered long in my imagination. I connected its white enamel and its uproarious whale to the deep, dark sea that lay a mile from where I lived, from whose shore the sound of foghorns would drift into my bedroom as if the ships were sheep lost in the night. It wasn't until I was in my late twenties, living on the dole in London, that I learned to make a truce with the sea. To trust it; or at least, for a moment. Now I swim in it every day – every day. This morning I swam at 3am in the pitch dark, residual light glinting on the oily swell. It is the thought of what lies below that enthralls and appalls me. It is both comforting and scary. When I swim in the darkness, I pull it over myself like a quilt, and I think of my alternative, sea bed. And when I am away from it, I wonder if the sea is lonely without me. Even when it spits me out, rolling me around in the surf and driving flecks of stones under my skin for my impudence in thinking I can join it whatever it is doing, I do not relinquish the affair, but return like a chastised lover. Of course, the sea doesn't care. It can take as quickly as it gives. That's the point. It makes you feel alive because it demonstrates the alternative possibility. Sometimes fish bite me. Gulls swoop down, wondering if I represent food. Occasionally a seal will pop up – each of us as startled as the other. These creatures make the sea less lonely. I've never felt so safe in the water as when I've swum with whales – feeling as much as seeing their presence, for all
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their vast size. Sensing their connection, the way they communicate over tens if not hundreds of miles. The way that home to a whale is other whales. My latest book deals with drowned poets and eccentric artists, tempests and storms, selkies and cetaceans and all the fluid states in between. After all, we all began life in the little sea of our mother's belly; our first existence was in the salt water of the womb, growing vestigial gills and fins, as if we might unfurl and become another species entirely. The sea is around us and inside us: our bodies are 90% water and so is our planet. Ninety per cent of Earth's biomass lives beneath what Herman Melville called ‘the ocean's skin’. When people first heard the songs of humpback whales in the 1960s they thought they were listening to aliens underwater, singing a lament for what we had done and still do to them. Yet we are all aliens in the water – whether voluntary or otherwise, like those migrants arriving on European shores. Turning our back on the sea has been disastrous for us as a species, even as it has enabled our progress. Because we cannot see through its skin, we ravage it at will. It sustains, absorbs and inspires us, and yet we believe we hold dominion over it. The truth is quite the reverse. When we return to the sea we are stateless and free. Mortgages, cars and mobile phones have no meaning out there. We give up those little blue screens that determine and direct our landlocked lives and leave gravity and the CCTV cameras behind. Perhaps we have grown too fearful of freedom. But there are no orders or hierarchies or responsibilities out there. Only you and me and the rest of this wonderful, terrible, watery, fragile world.
Philip Hoare's RisingTideFallingStar is published by 4th Estate.
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Philip Marsden provides a glimpse beneath the surface of Cornwall Photography: Holly Donnelly
What makes Cornwall Cornwall? For its half million residents, as well as the four million or so who visit each year, something happens west of the Tamar, some weird displacement that’s hard to pin down: it’s the remoteness, the whispers of antiquity, the traces of a half-lost language, the strangeness of the moors, the thrill of the coastline. It’s the flat horizon of the Atlantic, the never-still expanse of the sea. It is – according to one elderly friend of mine – the way the cats look at you.
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Geology article Words: Caroline Davidson | Illustration: Rose Forshall
Ehendit eatestis por rem rehenis delicte ceatus. Nequi aborro est, quia vitae. Lorpor mos intiisti occusti alitatumquam quae pe il earitat faccaeste mo quo con eum inusciam volorion nus et.
“At Watergate Bay, the original slates can be seen with their contortions all too obvious�
Everyone has their own Cornwall. What lies behind them is an acute awareness of Cornwall’s physical nature, its shape on the map and the curious geology of its make-up. Rocks and minerals have always helped define Cornwall, from the land – and sea – scapes that fill the tourist posters to a human history reaching back to granite monuments of the Neolithic; from the 200-metre mineshafts of the nineteenth century to the towns and fortunes built on their yields. The essence of Cornwall lies underfoot, but in Truro, just off the main hall of the Royal Cornwall Museum, is a glimpse of its wonders. Housed in a series of wooden display cabinets are samples from one of the world’s great mineral collections. The rocks are intensely beautiful. Who could not be captured by the miniature architecture of the cassiterite or bassetite crystals, or the colours of azurite or malachite? The collection is a reminder that on this small peninsula can be found 450 different minerals – nearly 15% of the entire range of the planet’s rocks. More than a third of these are ‘rare’ or ‘ultra-rare’; five are found only in Cornwall. It was during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, from about 400 million years ago, that Cornwall’s slates were first laid down. The portion of Earth surface that would become Cornwall then lay in an oceanic basin to the south of the equator. Over time it migrated north, exposed as it moved to a particularly violent series of elemental contortions – upswellings of molten rock, volcanic surges, foldings caused by the shift of tectonic plates. These events buckled the sediments, while the intense heat drove aqueous solutions through cracks to form quartz veins and mineral lodes. Cornwall’s geology is on view not just in the Royal Cornwall Museum but along its 400 miles of coast. Walk any section of it and you can sense something of the deep processes that have shaped the planet. Go out to the far west, to the
south of Land’s End where the granite is sculpted into extraordinary shapes, and you will see the same rock-forms as on the tors of Bodmin Moor. On the Lizard, rare samples of the Earth’s mantle can be seen solidified in colourful bands of serpentine. The soft killas of central Cornwall has allowed the formation of the twisting estuaries of the Fal, Helford and Fowey. Bedding planes that are buckled, twisted and crushed characterise the coast around Bude. Pillows of congealed lava are visible near Polzeath. As dramatic as any stretch of coast is that between Newquay and Trevose Head. At Bedruthan Steps high slate-stacks stand in the surf while the beach’s cathedral-like caves seem built on a vertiginous scale. At Watergate Bay, the original slates – hundreds of millions years old – can be seen with their contortions all too obvious. There is something else too at Watergate Bay, something that initially makes less impact: time-smoothed outcrops of green and purple mudstone. These twin strata recur like a faint musical motif in the symphonic grandeur of Cornwall’s geology. I have seen them elsewhere – below St Mawes Castle, even on the Devon coast. What soils, what particular scrapings led to those colours is not now clear, but to think of the tinted silts dropping down through the water to settle on the seabed is to sense for a moment the dizzying age of the Earth, the mystique of geological time.Then the cliffs become more than just a hotspot of mineralogy but a place redolent of all natural forces. On windy days, looking out over the sea, with the cloud-shadows racing over it, you can see exactly the same tones appear, the same distinctive shades of green and purple.
Philip Marsden’s Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place is published by Granta.
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‘Cave study’, etching and aquatint
“I want to encourage people to look again at the familiar and the commonplace�
John Howard, printmaker John, who runs a print studio on the Fal estuary, creates hand-finished typefaces for Watergate Bay Hotel. johnhowardprintmaker.com
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Dogs are welcome on the beach at Watergate Bay all year round 22
photography: Deb Porter Photography 23
Blue is the best colour. It’s the colour of the sea and, if there is enough of it in the sky, it can make a sailor a pair of trousers. In The Secret Lives of Colour, Kassia St Clair tells the stories of 75 different colours – among them, shades of blue from ultramarine to cobalt, electric blue and cerulean. In ‘Blue’, her introduction to the hue, the colour favoured by coastal dwellers is shown to have a special attraction to us all... Photography: Kirstin Prisk
Blue During the 1920s the Catalan artist Joan Miró produced a group of paintings that were radically different from anything he had done before. One of his ‘peinture-poésie’, a large canvas created in 1925, remains almost completely blank. In the top left-hand corner the word ‘Photo’ is rendered in elegant, swirling calligraphy; over on the right there is a popcorn-shaped daub of forget-me-not-coloured paint and underneath, the words, in neat, unassuming letters, ‘ceci est la coleur de mes rêves’ (‘this is the colour of my dreams’). Just two years previously, Clyde Keeler, an American geneticist studying the eyes of blind mice, had made discoveries that indicated Miró might be on to something. Inexplicably, although the mice completely lacked the photoreceptors that enable mammals to receive light, their pupils still contracted in response to it. It would be three-quarters of a century before the link was definitively proven: everyone, even the nonsighted, possesses a special receptor that senses blue light. This is crucial because it is our response to this portion of the spectrum, naturally present in the highest concentrations in early daylight, which sets our circadian rhythm, the inner clock that helps us sleep at night and remain alert during the day. One problem is our modern world, filled as it is with spot-lit rooms and back-lit smartphones, overloads us with blue light at odd hours of the day, which has negative effects on our sleep patterns. In 2015 American adults reported getting an average 6.9 hours of sleep on a work night; 150 years ago it was between 8 and 9 hours. Westerners have a history of undervaluing all things blue. During the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, reds, blacks and browns reigned supreme; the ancient Greeks and Romans admired the simple triumvirate of black, white and red. For the Romans, in particular, blue was associated with barbarism: writers from the period mentioned that Celtic soldiers dyed their bodies blue, and Pliny accused women of doing the same before participating in orgies. In Rome wearing blue was associated with mourning and misfortune. (Exceptions to this ancient aversion to blue are more common outside Europe; the ancient Egyptians, for example, were evidently very fond of it.) It was largely absent too from early Christian writings. A nineteenth-century survey of colour terms used by Christian authors before the thirteenth century reveals that blue was the least used, at a mere 1% of the total. It was during the twelfth century that a sea change occurred. Abbot Suger, a prominent figure in the French court and an early champion of Gothic architecture, fervently believed colours – particularly blues – to be divine. He oversaw the reconstruction of Saint-Denis Abbey in Paris in the 1130s and 40s. It was here that craftsmen perfected the technique of colouring glass with cobalt to create the famous ink-blue windows that they took with them to the cathedrals at Chartres and Le Mans. At around the same time, the Virgin was increasingly depicted wearing bright blue robes – previously she had usually been shown in dark colours that conveyed her mourning for the death of her son. As the status of Mary-and Marian-centred devotion waxed in the Middle Ages, so too did the fortunes of her adopted colour.
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“Many cultures have included a special place for blue and blue things in their lives” From the Middle Ages the pigment most commonly associated with Mary was the precious pigment ultramarine, which remained the most coveted, bar none, for centuries. This was not the only substance to have a huge impact on the history of blue, however: indigo was also decisive. Although the first is a pigment made from a stone and the second a dye wrung from fermented plant leaves, they share far more than you might imagine. Both required care, patience and even reverence, in their extraction and creation. While colourmen and painters were laboriously grinding and kneading the one, dyers would be stripped to the waist beating air into nauseating vats of the other. The pigments’ expense helped stoke desire and demand in a dizzying circle that ended only with the creation of synthetic alternatives in the nineteenth century. Although traditionally the colour of sadness, many cultures, including the ancient Egyptians, Hindus and the North African Tuareg tribe, have included a special place for blue and blue things in their lives. A large number of businesses and organisations use a dark shade for its anonymous trustworthiness in their logos and uniforms, perhaps little considering that its history of brisk respectability began with the armed forces, particularly the navies (hence navy blue), who needed to dye their clothes with a colour that would best resist the action of sun and sea. At the end of the twelfth century the French royal family adopted a new coat of arms – a gold fleur-de-lis on an azure ground – as a tribute to the Virgin, and Europe’s nobility fell gauntlet over greaves in their rush to follow suit. In 1200 only 5% of European coats of arms contained azure; by 1250 this had risen to 15%; in 1300, one quarter; and by 1400 it was just under one third. A recent survey conducted across 10 different countries in four continents found that blue was peoples’ favourite colour by a considerable margin. Similar surveys conducted since the First World War returned similar results. It seems blue, once considered the colour of degenerates and barbarians, has conquered the world.
Extracted from The Secret Lives of Colour, published by John Murray (publishers). Copyright © Kassia St Clair 2016.
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“I work with watercolour – the only truly transparent medium. Pure colour pigment is mixed with honey and gum arabic and then diluted with water. The resulting veils of transparent colour, juicily applied to finest cotton rag white paper, allow light to pass through the glazes and bounce back from the white, through the colour, to the viewer. It’s like stained glass. And it’s just perfect for the purity of the Cornish light”
Sarah Bell, watercolour artist and tutor As artist in residence at Polo on the Beach 2017, Sarah roamed Watergate Bay with a sketchbook and a paint box to capture live the speed and drama of the three-day event. sarahbellart.co.uk
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‘Watergate Battle’, watercolour on paper
The mode r n co o k The unstoppable rise of Anna Jones Words: Caroline Davidson | Photography: Ana Cuba
“I’m a home cook and a writer,” says Anna Jones with characteristic understatement. Anna is a chef who, unusually for the times, has made her name through cookery writing rather than appearances on TV or owning a restaurant with a celebrity following. Her first two books, the vegetarian A Modern Way to Eat and A Modern Way to Cook, gained her such a loyal fan base The Sunday Times dubbed her the new Nigella. Perhaps now she has a third book under her belt, the satisfyingly doorstopish The Modern Cook’s Year, she can shrug off the comparisons. Her apparently effortless knack at shifting meat-free cookbooks puts Anna in a league of her own. Anna’s gorgeous books are packed with simple, joyful recipes served on highly desirable crockery, styled with crumpled linen, white marble and worn timber. Anna is a stylist as well as a writer. Objects of desire in their own right, her books capture not only how modern people want to cook and eat, but how they want to live: beautifully, easily, with just a dash of ceremony. As modern as anything else is the vegetarianism – and the way her books serve it almost as a side dish. The word ‘vegetarian’ does not appear on the cover of The Modern Cook’s Year. Talking to Anna on the eve of its publication, she explains, “I try and get across a sense of change without sounding dramatic. We need to rethink how we eat in terms of the world around us. I’m stepping forward a bit in a non-soapboxy way, introducing people to a way of cooking and eating that is fresh and modern.” Perhaps Anna learned how to approach food as a vehicle for change from Jamie Oliver, the chef who was there at the very outset of her career. In 2003, when Anna was 24, she won a place on Jamie’s Fifteen apprentice programme in London. The social enterprise, which continues today at Fifteen Cornwall, was in only its second year. The business was still small – “Jamie’s mates were running the restaurant” – but it was growing fast. The previous year the fledgling scheme received huge exposure on Channel 4’s Jamie’s Kitchen, with Anna’s group being filmed for a catch-up show. She had five seconds on TV. “I kept pinching myself. It all happened so quickly,” says Anna, who had left her job and applied for the apprenticeship just days before, having read an article about how we can identify our passion based on which bit of the newspaper we turn to first. What does Anna take from the experience? “The rest of my career,” she says. “The way you’re taught at Fifteen is very gentle. You’re paired with chefs and taken through each section – it’s not like that elsewhere. I received a holistic, rounded education and a rock solid work ethic. When you’ve been on your feet all day to do something you love… It showed me that to get where you want to be you have to put in the hours.” There it is. That’s how in four years Anna’s written three books including over 600 recipes while having her first child and, for the past year, coming up with a further
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two recipes a week for her column in the Guardian’s 'Cook' supplement, for which she also does prop styling. Anna Jones the business is thriving. She gives workshops on food writing to new cohorts of Fifteen apprentices. Some of the programme’s graduates work for her. “Linking up food and writing is a dream come true,” says Anna, who started writing almost as soon as her apprenticeship at Fifteen ended. After stints cooking in London and Europe she returned to work for Jamie as a recipe writer and stylist, paving the way for Innocents Drinks’ Hungry?, the first book she authored. “I’m in awe of people who write novels,” she offers. “Writing a recipe has a clear structure." One of the many clever things about her books is the inclusion of grid-type recipes and flavour maps, such as ‘How to build a hearty salad’. Scientific looking and carefully structured on the page, they are actually devised for the more intuitive cooks who prefer to freestyle rather than follow a recipe to a T. “They’re for cooks who just want a bit of guidance,” says Anna. “They’re to help people visualise things when they’re away camping, say, without a book in front of them.” She really does care about making it easier for people to cook better, healthier, vegetarian food. But she is wary of what she calls the ‘wellness critique’, or clean eating. “Food has become a divisive topic. It’s more and more important to shout about normal food. Food is a unifier; one thing we all have in common. It’s about joy, sharing, nurturing – and showing people you love them.” True to her word, dinner tonight is a nurturing pumpkin curry (it’s October). She made a big double vat of it at the weekend because, “with a two-year-old, it’s good to have supper made”. Two more quick questions. What’s her favourite ingredient? “Lemons, 100%. I use four a day.” No surprise there. Not only does a waxy, knobbly specimen with a leaf feature on the cover of her latest book, if Anna were a fruit she’d be a lemon: zesty, sharp, versatile. What food does she want to eat on a Cornish beach? “Samphire. I love eating it by the sea. We have a camper van with a full cooking setup. I’m thinking samphire, sautéed with lemon and butter.” Easy as pie.
Fifteen Cornwall is next door to Watergate Bay Hotel. To find out more about the Fifteen Cornwall apprentice programme visit cornwallfoodfoundation.org
Read on for three recipes from The Modern Cook's Year
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Chard, l e e k a n d w a ln u t c ros ta ta This forgiving tart comes together pretty quickly. The star here is the flaky walnut-spiked pastry. It sits around a centre of sweet buttery leeks, chard and some verdant green herbs. It's quite a crumbly pastry, thanks to the walnuts, but they make it so toasty and flaky it's worth it. The tart is free form, so if the pastry cracks you can pinch it back together with your finger easily – just be sure to do a final check around the outside of the pastry once it's filled to make sure all holes are pinched and no filling can escape. I serve this with some simple boiled potatoes and a lemon dressed salad.
First, make the pastry. Put the walnuts into a food processor and blitz until you have fine, uniform crumbs, but keep an eye on it – if you go too far, they will start to come together as a nut butter. Add the flour and salt and pulse a few times to mix everything evenly. Next, add the butter and pulse a few times until you have a rough looking dough. With the motor running, add a tablespoon of the very cold water and pulse again for four turns of the blade. Take the lid off and pinch the dough with your fingers. Add a little more water if it feels dry and keep blitzing until the dough comes together in a ball; it should be a buttery pastry and not feel crumbly. Wrap the dough in cling film or greaseproof paper and put it into the fridge. Next, warm a frying pan over a medium heat, pour in a drizzle of olive oil and add the leeks and a pinch of salt. Fry for 5-7 minutes, until the leeks are soft and sweet. While this is happening, wash the chard and strip the leaves from their stalks. Slice the stalks into 2cm lengths, then roll up the leaves and slice across the middle into 1cm-wide ribbons. Back to the leeks. Add the garlic, dried chilli and fennel seeds and fry in the pan for a couple of minutes to toast the spices. When the pan is smelling aromatic, add the chard stalks and stir. Cook for 5 minutes until the stalks lose their rawness, then stir in the leaves and add the vinegar. Cook until the leaves have wilted – about 4 minutes.
Put the vegetables on to a plate to cool and preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Finely chop the herbs and place them in a large mixing bowl. Grate in the Parmesan and whisk in the eggs with a fork. Season with salt and pepper. Take the walnut pastry out of the fridge and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Drizzle some olive oil into the centre of the paper. If your baking sheet is quite flat, you should be able to roll the pastry out to a round about 30cm across and 1cm deep. If you have a standard deep roasting tray, flip it over and place the paper on the underside instead. Mix the cooled vegetables with the egg mixture. Arrange the vegetables in the centre of the pastry, leaving about 3cm around the edge. Gently fold the pastry border back over the vegetables, pleating a little as you go. It will be crumbly and more difficult to handle than other doughs and may break at its edges, but it will be worth it for the flaky short pastry at the end. Place the crostata in the centre of the hot oven and bake for 35 minutes, until the edges are deep golden and the filling is starting to bubble, then turn the heat down to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and bake for a further 15 minutes, until the pastry is cooked through. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then slide on to a wire rack to cool and let the pastry crisp up. Serves 4–6 • Olive oil • 2 leeks, outer leaves removed, washed and finely shredded • A bunch of chard (about 200g) • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped • A pinch of dried chilli flakes • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar • A large mixed bunch of soft herbs, leaves picked • 25g Parmesan (I use a vegetarian one) • 3 medium organic eggs For the pastry • 60g walnuts • 200g white spelt flour • 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt • 100g very cold butter, cut into cubes • 2 tablespoons ice-cold water
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Figs, ricotta, radicchio, almonds This last year or so, since my son Dylan arrived, I've been learning a new way to cook. No more long evenings in the kitchen: for now, my cooking is sandwiched into a neat window of time before baths and stories so I've rediscovered the joy of one-tray or one-pot meals. While I love the feeling of a pan over a flame, there is something very pleasing about knowing your dinner is cooking while you sit down and do something else. Though the method may be simple, I still want flavours and textures that excite me, as well as bringing some balance. Here figs, almonds, radicchio and plump cannellini make a complete meal.
If your ricotta is very wet, put it in a small sieve lined with muslin set over a bowl in the fridge for a few hours. You will probably get a couple of tablespoons of liquid in the bowl, which you can discard. Preheat the oven to 220˚C/200˚C fan/gas 7 and get a large, lipped roasting tray. Scatter the beans into the tray, making a little space in the middle for the ricotta, then turn the cheese out into it. Scatter the quartered figs on top of the beans. Grate the zest of the lemon all over the tray, focusing particularly on the ricotta. Sprinkle over some of the thyme leaves and dried chilli flakes and season. Drizzle a little olive oil over then roast for 45 minutes, or until the ricotta has shrunk a little and is beginning to brown, and the beans have softened and their skins crisped. Meanwhile, make the herb oil: bash the rest of the thyme leaves until you have a deep green paste, add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, the chopped fresh chilli and season. When your traybake has had 35 minutes, put the almonds on to a separate tray, season and roast for the last 10 minutes of the time. Remove the traybake and the almonds from the oven, roughly chop the almonds and sprinkle over the bake with the radicchio. Drizzle over the herb oil and serve in the middle of the table for everyone to dig in.
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Serves 4 • 200g ricotta • 1 x 400g tin or jar of cannellini beans, drained • 4 figs, tough stems removed, quartered • 1 unwaxed lemon • A small bunch of thyme or oregano, leaves picked • A pinch of dried chilli flakes • Extra virgin olive oil • 1 red chilli, finely chopped • 100g almonds, skin on • 1 head of radicchio, shredded
Vanilla and blackberry drop scones These were a Saturday favourite growing up. We used to make them with blueberries or strawberries on the top of the Aga at home, topping them with too much butter and far too much maple syrup. We'd make a triple batch of batter as my sister Laura and I would eat eight or ten on the trot. These are a more grown-up version made with blackberries and vanilla and finished with a saffron-spiked yoghurt. Warm from the saffron, sharp and sweet from the blackberries and comforting from the childhood association. The 8-year-old in me could eat these all day.
To make the batter put the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl. Use a balloon whisk to stir the dry ingredients and get rid of any lumps of baking powder. Crack in the egg, then add the vanilla and the milk and use the whisk to stir everything into a thick batter. Crush the blackberries slightly, then ripple these through the mixture with a wooden spoon, so you get lovely stains of deep purple as they cook. Next soak the saffron in a tablespoon of boiling water. Mix the yoghurt with the honey in a separate small bowl. You can fry the drop scones on a hot flat griddle or in a frying pan. Put your oven on at its lowest setting. Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat and allow it to melt and froth. Use a small ladle to scoop four small rounds of batter into the pan – you want each one to be about 6cm wide. Cook for a couple of minutes, until bubbles rise to the top and the bottom looks set and golden. Carefully and quickly flip the rounds over and cook for another minute or so until golden and cooked through; keep these warm on a plate in the oven while you cook the rest, adding more butter to the pan as you go if you need to. Mix the saffron liquid into the yoghurt and mix until it's buttercup yellow. Serve the drop scones with the yoghurt, some more blackberries if you like, and a little more honey for drizzling over.
Makes about 10 • 175g white spelt flour • 2 teaspoons baking powder • 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar • A pinch of fine sea salt • 1 medium organic egg • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste • 150ml milk (I use unsweetened almond or oat) • 150g ripe blackberries • A knob of unsalted butter To serve • A small pinch of saffron strands • 100g plain yoghurt • 2 tablespoons runny honey, plus extra for the table • Blackberries (optional) Recipes from The Modern Cook’s Year by Anna Jones. Published by 4th Estate, out now.
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Late afternoon light at The Beach Hut
A Corni s h ma n in B o r d e a u x On the final day of Port Eliot Festival 2017, writer and wine shop owner Michael Smith swapped a tent for Watergate Bay Hotel, where he would first encounter a bottle of Chateau Civrac – and the story of the man behind it Photography: Maja Petric, Holly Donnelly
The driving white surf galloped in from the Atlantic and smashed into craggy cliffs. There’s always the sense of a primordial, elemental drama about Cornwall. There certainly had been that week, stranded in a sodden tent battered by Biblical rain. But the light at the end of the tunnel was checking into Watergate Bay Hotel, prising the caked wellies and socks off sore feet, soaking in a deep, steamy bath, finally able to enjoy the cliffside view. Through the big bay windows of our room, cocooned in soft towels, we watched as the rain came down in vast curtains off the sea. We’d not eaten a decent meal all week, living off salami, Babybels and drive-through Maccy-D’s (oh the shame of it), so I ordered what looked like the richest dish on the menu: juicy, pink venison and maybe the most sumptuous dauphinoise potatoes I’d ever tasted. The wine, a red Chateau Civrac from Bordeaux, managed to pull off an unlikely trick. It was complex, heady and savoury, like a big, distinguished old wine whose tannins have softened with age and opened out into mysterious depths of flavour. Yet somehow it was also light, lively and fresh. It danced and shimmered in a ruby glow as I supped and swirled it. This was Bordeaux, but not as we know it. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact its producer, Mark Hellyar, is a Cornishman. Chateau Civrac was a delicious riddle – good job I was here to unravel it. A little later, I spoke to Mark full of questions and admiration... Michael: Lots of people are making innovative, unconventional wines these days, but doing so in Bordeaux, a wine region with such a grand, prestigious, and possibly stifling tradition, marks your wines out. How much does the fact you’re from a different country, unburdened by the Bordelais’ age-old ideas of the right way of doing things, have to do with this?
Mark: You understand the problems well! Bordeaux has a great deal of tradition and traditional ways of working. It would be much harder for a natural Bordelais to not conform. For myself, as an outsider, it’s much easier. In fact, as a Cornishman, I see it as my duty to do things differently. There’s an elusive but very distinctive taste in your red that I love – I imagine it as a bit Worcester Saucy but my friend described it, more accurately, as the kind of umami you might get in a big beefy tomato; it seems like a taste that’s emerged right out of the soil of Bordeaux. How much is this flavour to do with the low-intervention, natural methods you use? And do you think these methods allow for a purer expression of the tastes inherent in the ‘terroir’ – the sprit of place managing to distill itself into the bottle – of Bordeaux?
I firmly believe that a wine should taste of where it comes from. The French inevitably, and perhaps irritatingly, talk of terroir but the truth is that the soil changes how the juice from a grape tastes. For Civrac, the Merlot develops a smoky, plumby aroma, particularly from plot 2 on the southern edge. It’s an aroma that I’m starting to recognise earlier and earlier in the winemaking process. To me, my wines are savoury, lending themselves to food well.
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Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux are all names of places as well as wines. As you say, much is made in France of terroir, but the heritage and culture of the hands navigating the winemaking process are also considered an integral part of this process.
“Bringing people, family and friends together around a table for food, wine and conversation is one of the great joys of life”
Are there any ways in which you think Cornwall, or Cornishness, gets into the flavours and the spirit of your wines?
Yes, by allowing me to experiment without being worried about local opinion. There is a difference between the French palate and the English palate and as a winemaker you always run the risk of developing your own cellar palate. However, to make wine, you have to know what you are trying to make – what you like and dislike. I also believe it is important to understand your market and the tastes of your customers. My family has lived and farmed in Cornwall for 200 years. That’s helped me, as a small producer in Bordeaux, appeal to the foodie market now prevalent in Cornwall.
You’ve also put a bit of Cornwall into your Bordeaux by involving the Cornish art world, collaborating with Cornwall-based artist and environmentalist Kurt Jackson. How did this come about?
Wine, art, food and surfing are my passions. Bringing people, family and friends together around a table for food, wine and conversation is one of the great joys of life. It was during a moment like this that Kurt and I discussed the possibility of working together. Bordeaux has a tradition of putting art on wine labels; Kurt had always been a supporter of my Wild White sauvignon and together we shared a passion for the environment and its conservation – me as a ‘rude mechanical’ working in it and he presenting it with an artistic eye. So a project was born. Our Scarce Swallowtail – Wild White launched at Kurt’s gallery in west Cornwall autumn 2017, with the proceeds of the event going to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. In what other ways is your interest in the environment reflected in your winemaking?
Our vineyard is a natural place supporting a good wildlife system. To minimise mechanical intervention we hand prune the vines and use tractors as little as possible. This does mean the place looks a bit messy, with grass growing between the vines and lots of native plants and wild flowers within that grass – but that goes with the territory of making natural wines. Finally, you’re a Cornishman with a past life working in technology – why the change to winemaker, and why Bordeaux?
Wine, I believe, is a true mix of science and art. I am clear-sighted and analytical and I always look at the big picture. But, as a scientist, I was not exploring my creative side enough. Life events can make you question yourself – where you are going, what you are doing. Wine for me was an opportunity to explore my creativity and perhaps to challenge not only the analytical part of my brain but also the creative side. It’s been hard but it has also been a privilege.
Michael Smith’s latest film, Stranger on the Shore, is available on BFI Player. His shop, Borough Wines, Beers and Books, is in Hastings. Chateau Civrac is available in Zacry’s, The Living Space and Swim Club.
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‘Crab’, collagraph print
“I get a sense of freedom using a printing method that doesn’t give me complete control. The best things come from those imperfect, unexpected moments”
Helen Bishop, printmaker When she isn’t organising people and projects in her role at Watergate Bay, Helen is experimenting with collagraphy, a printmaking process based on collage. Instagram @wild_shed
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A good o ld - f a sh io n e d dri nk Shrub is an artisan concoction with centuries-old, Cornish roots Words: Martin Hesp | Photography: Holly Donnelly
In all the bars in all the world there are countless drinks and cocktails with exotic sounding names. Shrub is not one of them. But while it might not sound adventurous, the word ‘shrub’ describes an intriguing style of drink that has been delighting palates for a very long time. And now, after a spell in obscurity, shrub is taking off once again. The shrub renaissance is being led by some of the world’s top mixologists. By using raw ingredients like ripe fruits alongside the magic elixir, otherwise known as vinegar, the inventors of the new drinks are creating extraordinary flavours that can be tasted in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic mixtures. The story of shrub is a fascinating one that was born centuries ago on the wild coasts of Cornwall where barrels of smuggled rum were often tainted with seawater. In an attempt to make the stuff palatable, the ever-inventive Cornish came up with a strongly flavoured cordial to take the edge off the salty booze. Perhaps they called it ‘shrub’ because it mainly consisted of herbs picked from local hedgerows. These were infused with cider vinegar and a pinch of sugar. The popularity of shrub crept east of the Tamar and eventually a well-known firm of vintners cashed-in by creating a branded drink of that name and marketing it far and wide. That shrub is still available today, but it’s not the artisan-made drink we’re talking about here. The substances fuelling the shrub renaissance are very much homemade concoctions. And one of the most exciting things about the concept is that you do not need to be an expert mixologist to make your own.
Looking into the subject he discovered that vinegar (which, of course, Aspall makes in the form of cyder vinegars) was often added to drinks to make them more palatable. “The Babylonians added date vinegar to water to make it safe to drink. The Romans were at it as well, mixing vinegar and water to make a beverage called posca. Colonial-era sailors carried shrubs rich with Vitamin C aboard their boats to prevent scurvy. Unsurprisingly, shrubs gained popularity during the Temperance movement, and many nineteenth and early twentieth-century housekeeping manuals contain recipes for them,” says Henry. “A whole new world opened up. I make shrubs not from pre-packed cordials and syrups, but from the raw fruits themselves. And once you start doing this, the portfolio of options really does expand exponentially. You can use pretty much anything to make a shrub – parsnip, rosemary and cracked black pepper anyone? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” So this really could be a soft drink revolution.
You can create shrubs at home and enjoy them as non-alcoholic cordials mixed with something like sparkling water, or as delicious cocktails armed with a punch. You can even use shrubs to flavour stocks and sauces. It was Henry Chevallier Guild, of cyder-makers Aspall, who began thinking about shrub style drinks when his wife persuaded him to join her in occasional periods of abstaining from alcohol. Henry has written about the subject and he says that one of the difficulties of abstinence is the shortage of alternative “interesting things to drink”.
“Colonial-era sailors carried shrubs aboard their boats to prevent scurvy”
Both shrub and syrup are derived from the Arabic ‘sharbah’ which means ‘a drink’ – like the word sherbet. They really are very old drinks indeed. But today it’s all about ‘mouth feel’. That is what you get with an alcoholic drink – non-alcoholic drinks tend to be overly sugared to make up for the lack of it – and it’s this that is helping to drive the reappearance of shrub. Shrubs have a handmade feel – you can follow seasonal recipes – but it is the acid quality that makes the real difference. Inspired, I made a shrub at home after buying a couple of punnets of raspberries nearly past their the sell-by date. Armed with a bag of satsumas, a bottle of Aspall’s cyder vinegar and a few spoonfuls of sugar, I was in business. And, I promise you, the results were delicious.
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Rhubarb and vanilla skies A shrub created by Watergate Bay Hotel’s executive chef, Neil Haydock To make the rhubarb shrub chop the rhubarb into roughly 1cm pieces. Put in a mixing bowl and cover with the caster sugar. Mix together and put in the fridge for one week. Divide the rhubarb mixture into two. Place half of it in a saucepan and bring to the boil before adding the cider vinegar and vanilla pod. Remove from the heat and cool. Add the remaining rhubarb and store in the fridge until needed. When ready to serve, strain the liquid into a jug and throw away the rhubarb pieces. Pour 30ml of the rhubarb shrub into a Champagne saucer and mix with St Germans Elderflower liqueur. Top with Champagne. Play with the quantities to get your desired flavours. Garnish with a vanilla pod and some fresh rhubarb, as pictured above.
Rhubarb and vanilla shrub Makes enough for around 10 glasses • 500g rhubarb • 100g caster sugar • 200ml cider vinegar • 1 vanilla pod Cocktail Per serving • 30ml rhubarb shrub • 15ml St Germans Elderflower liqueur • 125ml Champagne Jacquart Garnish Per serving • 1 vanilla pod • 6cm rhubarb
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‘By Night’, scraperboard with ink
“That moment before you start anything, the pause, the slight apprehension but ultimately the excitement of the possibility of creating something new or interesting or even unsuccessful – that fascinates me”
Nicole Heidaripour, illustrator and designer Nicole has produced original illustrations for previous editions of this magazine. She says ‘By Night’ is inspired by the unforgiving seas of the North Cornwall coast. nicoleheidaripour.com
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Prize surf Surfing’s rewards are rich, whether you’re gearing up for the 2020 Olympic Games or riding your first white water wave Words: Alex Wade | Photography: Kirstin Prisk
It’s a bright September morning and the surf is good. Head-high set waves, given a boost by the incoming tide, are pushing into the beach. Near-shore, in the white water, a family of five are having a surfing lesson. A young boy can barely conceal his elation as, perhaps for the first time, he pops to his feet and rides a wave. On the sand, a couple walking their dog share the moment. No sooner have they smiled at the boy than their eyes are drawn seaward. I watch too, as there, in the line-up, a surfer has just hit the lip of a wave and flown skywards. “Did you see that?” says the woman to her partner. What the couple have just seen is 21-year-old Jobe Harriss, the reigning British men’s surfing champion, executing a textbook backside air rail grab. The jargon may elude them but there’s no doubting the sheer athleticism of surfing of this calibre. The couple scour the ocean for Harriss as he paddles back out, only for another surfer to distract them. This time it’s Peony Knight, 19, a fixture on the women’s World Qualifying Series. Knight drops down the face of a sizeable wave, turns crisply to her right and surfs it with style. Just another day at Watergate Bay? Sure. But Harriss and Knight are here for more than just the waves. Fresh from travels to France and Ireland respectively, they’re keen to catch up about an event that’ll be on them, and us, before we know it. Step forward the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – at which surfing will make its debut as an Olympic sport. “To be in the Olympics is the pinnacle of achievement for an athlete,” says Knight. “Being part of Team GB would be a huge honour.” Harriss agrees. “It would be amazing,” he says. “To represent Britain in the Olympics? Just incredible.” Surfing’s arrival as an Olympic sport was announced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the eve of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Elite surfers including the 2017 women’s world champion, Tyler Wright, and three-time men’s world champion Mick Fanning – whose brush with a shark in
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a contest in South Africa, in 2015, made headlines around the world – were among those to welcome a development first mooted by legendary native Hawaiian swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku more than 100 years ago. ‘The Duke’ first won gold in the 100m freestyle in the 1912 summer Olympics in Stockholm, and would win five Olympic medals in total. He became a character actor in Hollywood films and served as the sheriff of Honolulu for 13 consecutive terms – and also travelled the world giving surfing and swimming exhibitions. Of a Long Island swimming exhibition in 1918, Kahanamoku wrote: “I was already thinking of surfing in terms of how it could someday become one of the events in the Olympic Games. Why not? Skiing and tobogganing have taken their rightful place as official Games events. I still believe surfing will one day be recognized, voted in and accepted.” It’s been a long time coming, but the 2020 Olympics will see 20 men and 20 women surf in a shortboard-only contest at Shidashita beach in the Chiba prefecture, 25 miles to the south-east of Tokyo. Harriss and Knight can’t wait, and they’re spurred on by the IOC’s selection criteria, which puts a premium on Olympic ideals of universality and inclusion. The IOC wants representation from as many countries as possible – and that means Brits like Harriss and Knight could be heading to Japan. “All we can do is surf as well as we can, in as many events as we can,” says Harriss, who is tipped to bag the 2017 men’s title. Knight, who is backed by O’Neill, echoes him. “I’m spending the next two years competing in a number of major women’s events. It’s important to do well. Hopefully our efforts will pay off when it comes to selection for Team GB.” If they’re selected, Harriss and Knight may even find themselves in the company of the world’s best-ever surfer, 11-time men’s champion Kelly Slater: he’s said he wants to represent the United States at Tokyo 2020. Meantime, as the pair push the limits of their September training session, the family of five pick up their boards and head up the beach. They’re exhausted, aglow and radiant, and just then, in the furl of a wave, surfing’s inclusiveness hits me.
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Imagine taking your children to the local park to kick a ball about, and there, just a few feet away, is Harry Kane. The Spurs striker, England’s hottest footballer by a country mile, is doing some stretches. A ball is at his feet. Surely the man courted by Real Madrid – a galactico in the making – isn’t really going to play football, right in front of you? Imagine again. Kane flicks the ball into the air, and goes through an effortless keepie-uppie routine. His skill is mesmerising. You and your children look on, and then, to your astonishment, Kane beckons you over. “Join in,” he says. It wouldn’t happen in football. In surfing, the sea welcomes all-comers – Olympians included. Alex Wade is the author of Surf Nation and Amazing Surfing Stories.
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“We hope to capture what it was like to be present at the time. The age of the process removes the subjectivity that comes with modern photography, allowing as much character to come through as possible – helped by the artefacts, or ‘blemishes’, on the plates caused by elements unique to a location, such as sand stuck in the collodion.”
Monty Cholmeley, Hugh Tomkins, Max Farnsworth, photographers Last summer, these three parked their ‘horsebox vanera’ – a camera and mobile darkroom made from an old horsebox and technology from the 1850s – on the beach at Watergate Bay where they shot atmospheric images on a grand scale.
‘Max’, wet plate collodion 56
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We sho u ld a ll b e s u r f e rs How to get surfing – a beginner’s guide Words and photography: Sam Crosby
It’s a human trait to be drawn to the sea. The mystery of surfing, in particular, nags at the uninitiated. As with a fleeting glimpse of wildlife, fear mingles with an impulse to edge closer. I felt its pull years ago – and I followed it. I can still remember catching my first clean ‘green’ wave in Devon when I was 19. And yet, even before then I dubbed myself a ‘surfer’. I thought surfing was wearing Hawaiian shorts, a beaded necklace and a holier-than-thou smirk. The cool-factor outshone the act of surfing itself. Fortunately, I grew up. Now 30 and living in Cornwall, I‘m nearly ready to drop the inverted commas when I call myself a surfer. I’ve put in the time and energy to get surfing. I’ve stuck it out, gaining balance, strength, confidence and experience along the way. This year I earned my level 1 surf instructor qualification. My mission now is to encourage others to try surfing – at its core an open, accessible pursuit – for no other reason than to have fun in the water.
Tips for getting started Jump in Sometimes the best advice is the simplest: give it a try. There's a chance you'll stumble into surfing on holiday, in the same moment you might go coasteering or try a new food. My advice: if the opportunity comes along, take it. You need no more than a couple of hours and an entry level of fitness to get started. Hire a coach The sea is a changeable environment where experience is everything. Some basic tips and a watchful eye will give you the best, safest start. A good coach will show you that the early stage of surfing – falling off your board and jetting around in the white water – is one of the most fun (there’s that f-word again). Use a big board Surfboards can make or break your experience. Getting hung up on style makes it all too easy to end up with a board that looks better under your arm than your feet. You’ll progress more quickly, and have more fun, with a board suited to your ability. Start with a ‘foamie’, the surf coach’s go-to, then, after some progression, get hold of a second-hand Mini Mal or longboard. Make sure you get a good wetsuit. Modern wetsuits are incredible pieces of kit – they will surprise you, even in the coldest winter months. Save on travel You don't have to go far. For beginners, the UK coastline has conditions comparable to the best in the world. Breaks on sandy beaches, soft underfoot, are best. Popular beginner beaches with surf schools on site (some seasonal) include North Cornwall’s Fistral and Watergate Bay, Woolacombe in Devon and Llangennith in South Wales. Further north, Tynemouth beach in Northumberland, Scarborough in North Yorkshire and Belhaven Bay in Scotland are well-known surf spots.
Check the conditions When it comes to surfing, no two days are the same. There are windy days, dreamy days, beige days, friendly days, rubbish days, difficult days and somewhere-in-between days. With a change in swell and local weather conditions, a spot can shift overnight from 10ft-plus of unapproachable swell to beginner surf heaven. Surfers use online surf forecasting apps like Magic Seaweed to check ahead. They’re reliable, but only to a point. Always check in with a lifeguard. Beware surfing’s egos Aside from basic techniques and some rules of engagement (read on for these), there is no right or wrong approach to getting in the water. Surf culture changes with the wind. Ignore it. Likewise localism, whereby a minority of individuals lay claim to a surf spot out of a misplaced sense of ownership. If you’re surfing safely, respectfully and within your ability, you have every right to do so – wherever you are. Remember the rules There are a dozen or so universal rules of surfing in place to promote safety. Any good coach or surfer will teach you to: •
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Hang onto your board when you fall off, in case it hits someone else Stay between the black and white flags when surfing, and between the red and yellow flags when swimming and bodyboarding Never ‘drop in’ – paddle into a wave someone else is surfing already
Keep surfing There is no aha! moment. After that first stage of learning to get up on a board and ride a white water wave, you’ll progress to green waves, and then the learning curve begins to level out. Don’t get frustrated (if you find a way to remember this, please let me know). But if you do, play the long game. Why? Because when you’re getting surfing, with all its freedom, frustration, aloha and everything in between, failure means progress. Keep going to the beach. Keep surfing. And soon enough, you’ll be experiencing what, for me, is one of the best, purest feelings in the world: riding green waves.
Sam Crosby writes about learning to surf at overthedune.com
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“The sea inspires me. It never gets old�
Holly Donnelly, designer and photographer Holly is a graphic designer at Watergate Bay Hotel. She is also a (very good) surfer who likes to experiment with film. Instagram @hollydonnelly
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‘Flare’, 35mm film
Great heights Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls tells the stories of 100 remarkable women. Drawn from around the globe, from the past and the present, and from disciplines as diverse as painting, politics, science, literature and sport, the women who light up the book’s pages have all gained huge success in their field – often against all odds. Disenchanted by the portrayal of women in children’s books and media, authors Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo thought it high time the achievements of talented, trailblazing women were collected in one place. As its title suggests, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is aimed at young girls, but its short, pithy biographies, gorgeously illustrated by 60 female artists, are uplifting reading for all. Here’s one such tale, about a woman who aimed particularly, thrillingly, high. Illustration: Giulia Flamini
A melia E ar h a r t - Avia t or Once upon a time, a girl called Amelia saved enough money to buy a yellow airplane. She called it The Canary. A few years later, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. It was a dangerous flight. Her tiny plane was tossed around by strong winds and icy storms. She kept herself going with a can of tomato juice, sucked through a straw. After almost fifteen hours she touched down in a field in Northern Ireland, much to the surprise of the cows. “Have you come far?” the farmer asked her. “All the way from America!” she laughed. Amelia loved to fly and she loved to do things no one had ever done before. Her biggest challenge was to be the first woman to fly around the world. She could only take a small bag, as all the space in the plane had to be used for fuel. Her long flight was going well. She was supposed to land on the tiny Howland Island, but never got there. In her last transmission, Amelia said she was flying through clouds and was running low on fuel. Her plane disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and was never found. Before leaving, she wrote, “I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it, because I want to do it. Women must try to do the same things that men have tried. If they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.”
July 24, 1897 – CA. July 1937 United States of America Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls is published by Particular books, and available from all good bookshops. Copies of the book can be found in Watergate Bay Hotel’s family suites, as well as the Swim Club library.
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“Adventure is worthwhile in itself” – Amelia Earhart
“I try to show life and atmosphere as well as pure architectural form – a space or a view in its most interesting state”
Luke Hayes, photographer The portfolio shots on watergatebay.co.uk are by Luke – a photographer specialising in design and the built environment. ‘Aquatics’ is an under-belly view of the London Aquatics Centre. lukehayes.com
‘Aquatics’, photograph 65
The pool at Swim Club
At the Bay
W h a t t o d o , w h e re to ea t, w he n to ge t ac ti v e a n d h o w t o rel ax at Wa te rg a te B a y
Things to do Active Breaks Our short swimming, yoga, surfing and coastal fitness breaks are a great way to try something new Swim Clinic A two-day clinic designed to help you swim smoother, faster and further. Run by a professional coach from Swim Lab Yoga Break Deepen your understanding of yoga and discover different disciplines on this two-day break. Aimed at beginners and intermediates Surf Course An intensive two-day course from the Extreme Academy. Improve your surfing with in-water coaching and workshops teaching surf science and technique Coastal Fitness Weekend A weekend of innovative fitness sessions in the great outdoors, led by personal trainers from Mountain Beach Fitness Retreats. Aimed at all levels watergatebay.co.uk/swim-club/active-breaks
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April 20–22 21 28–29
Porthleven Food Festival Coast Beach Clean 2018 Legend of the Bay
May 12–14
Surfaced Pro surf competition Fowey Festival of Art and Literature
June 1–3 7–9 14
The Great Estate Festival, Scorrier House Royal Cornwall Show, Wadebridge Golden Globe Race, Falmouth
July 7–8 26–29
Events calendar Food and drink, sporting and music events take place in and around the Bay throughout the year, while there are many more great things to do and see across Cornwall. Just a small selection feature on this calendar, with the events taking place at Watergate Bay listed in bold. Check the following links to find out more watergatebay.co.uk/events visitcornwall.com/things-to-do
Wave Project Summer Surf Challenge Port Eliot Festival, St Germans
August 8–12
Boardmasters music festival
September 7–10 14–16 15–16
Newquay Fish Festival The Little Orchard Cider and Music Festival, Penhallow Watergate Bay Speed Hillclimb
October 13–14
British Stand Up Paddle Association National Championships Halloweden, Eden Project
November
Fireworks at Watergate Bay Truro City of Lights
December 6–9
Padstow Christmas Festival Mousehole Christmas Lights Festival of Light and Sound, Eden Project
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Beach events Watergate Bay is host to some of the biggest events in the surfing calendar Legend of the Bay A dual discipline competition bringing together the best kitesurfers and stand-up paddleboarders over one big weekend British Stand Up Paddle Association National Championships Stand-up paddleboarders battle it out in the country’s biggest SUP competition Surfaced Pro The first surfing competition with equal prize money for men and women Wave Project Summer Surf Challenge Experienced volunteers help people with disabilities give surfing a go
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Polo on the Beach Large crowds enjoyed high-goal polo, live music and fireworks at the tenth edition of Aspall Polo on the Beach, which took place in 2017. After all the excitement – which also included welly wanging, pasta making demonstrations and Kerplunk – the free community event is taking a breather, returning in 2019. Meantime, the souvenir-edition poster designed by artist Becky Bettesworth is available to buy watergatebay.co.uk/shop/poster
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Stay Rooms We have many, including house, sea view, partial sea view, suites, family suites and Village family apartments Kids Families are looked after with kids' suppers, a baby monitoring service that can be used in all our restaurants, and the Ofsted-registered Kids’ Zone running fun supervised sessions for children aged 3–7. XA Club is for kids aged 7–12 Dogs Bedrooms in the coach house and some in the ocean wing are dog friendly, along with The Living Space and The Beach Hut. Watergate Bay beach is dog friendly all year round
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Taste of the Bay Three nights, three restaurants – the best way to experience Watergate Bay. Think burgers and mussels at The Beach Hut, pork loin and chargrilled monkfish at Zacry’s and a five-course tasting menu at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall. Breakfast and dinner included watergatebay.co.uk/taste-of-the-bay
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Eat Zacry’s The hotel’s main restaurant with a charcoal oven at its heart and a focus on bold British food. The menu changes each night The Living Space Salads, sandwiches, kids’ plates, large plates, sharing plates… Easy eating throughout the day, with food served from the open kitchen
The Beach Hut Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner the recently revamped Beach Hut is always buzzing with families, groups of friends and dogs with their walkers. Right on the beach, the restaurant has wooden booths, sandy floors and large windows with surf views. The seaside menu is big on burgers, fries with rosemary, mussels, fish and chips and crab spaghetti
Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall Right next door to Watergate Bay Hotel, serving seasonal Italian dishes with a Cornish twist
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Price list House rooms House rooms do not have a sea view low season mid season
B&B
Standard
£185
Dinner inclusive
£240
high season
B&B
Dinner inclusive
B&B
Dinner inclusive
£200
£255
£290
£345
Standard family suite £285 £365 £305 £385 £395 £475 Better family suite
£330 £410 £350 £430 £420 £500
Best family suite
£350 £430 £370 £450 £440 £520
Partial sea view rooms Rooms with some views of the sea, most are at the front of the hotel low season mid season
B&B
Dinner inclusive
B&B
high season
Dinner inclusive
B&B
Dinner inclusive
Standard
£220 £275 £240 £295 £340 £395
Best
£225 £280 £245 £300 £345 £400
Better family suite
£365 £445 £385 £465 £455 £535
Sea view rooms Looking directly out to sea with unrivalled views of Watergate Bay low
B&B
season Dinner inclusive
mid season
B&B
high season
Dinner inclusive
B&B
Dinner inclusive
Standard
£230 £285 £250 £305 £350 £405
Best
£245 £300 £265 £320 £365 £420
Suite
£365 £420 £380 £435 £450 £505
The Village On the cliffs above the hotel low season mid season
high season
B&B
Family apartment
£620 £700 £665 £745 £785 £865
Dinner inclusive
B&B
Dinner inclusive
B&B
Dinner inclusive
Prices in this section are correct at the time of publication but rates can be varied dependent on the time of booking. VAT is included at the current rate but these prices are subject to change if VAT rises above 20%. E&OE. 78
Bedrooms
The details
Our rooms can be double or twin, some are dog friendly and others are wheelchair accessible. All will remind you of your beach location
All our bedrooms have an en-suite bathroom, TV, iPod docking station or Bluetooth speaker, hair dryer, bathrobes, tea and coffee facilities and free WiFi. All rooms will take a cot and some will take an extra bed for a child
Standard: Contemporary beach living comes as standard. Some rooms are interconnecting Best: A little larger. Some are interconnecting and have balconies. All are designed for contemporary beach living, with wooden floors and textural features Suites: Open-plan with contemporary design and comfort, bold textured décor and a freestanding roll-top bath in the bedroom bay window
B&B Bed and full breakfast in Zacry’s Dinner inclusive Bed, full breakfast and a three course dinner in Zacry’s Room prices All prices are per room per night based on two people sharing, except for family suites which are per room per night based on up to five people and a baby sharing
Family suites A king size room for you, while the kids get space of their own. All have a separate bunk room and a contemporary beach-house style
An additional 25% of the room rate is charged for a third person in a double room. Children under three years old (sleeping in a cot) stay free of charge
Standard family suites: Sleeps a family of four and space for a cot
There is a 25% discount for single occupancy of a double room
Better family suites: A little larger. Sleeps a family of four and space for a cot
Interconnecting rooms are charged at full rate for two people sharing
Best family suites: Sleeps a family of five and space for a cot
Dogs Dogs are charged at £15 per night for the first dog and £5 per night for each additional dog. We do not provide dog food and there is a maximum of two dogs per room
Village family apartments Contemporary two-bedroom properties offering our most spacious family accommodation. Open-plan with a kitchen, living area, dining area and a decked veranda
Terms and conditions at watergatebay.co.uk
The seasons Low season 25 February–24 March 2018 4 November–22 December 2018 2 January–23 February 2019
Mid season 25 March–29 June 2018 2 September–3 November 2018 27 December–29 December 2018
Summer holidays 30 June–1 September 2018
Christmas and New Year breaks 23 December–26 December 2018 30 December–1 January 2019
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Extreme Academy A sports school by the beach providing lessons in a range of watersports, including surfing, kitesurfing, handplaning and stand-up paddleboarding
Learn to... Surf Intro - 2.5 hrs
£35
Improvers - 2 hrs
£30
Ready-to-ride - 2 hrs
£35
Surf and hire - all day
£47
Explore the Bay by paddle - 2.5 hrs
Private lessons One-to-one - 2.5 hrs Groups of two-to-four - 2.5 hrs
£95 £160
Bodyboard Bodyboard essentials - 2.5 hrs
£25
Get straight into the surf, no experience necessary
Learn to bodysurf with our smallest craft
MegaSUP - 2.5 hrs (up to six people)
£40 £160
Waveski Kayaking meets surfing - 2.5 hrs
£35
Waveski and hire - all day
£47
Kite
Handplane Taster course - 2 hrs
SUP
£25
Powerkite
£20pp per hour
Buggies and landboards
£30pp per hour
Kitesurf £40pp per hour Extreme Day Groups of four or more Including lunch at The Beach Hut
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£85pp £100pp
Surf hire... Equipment
2hrs 4hrs day
Wetsuit
£7 £9 £13
Wetsuit gloves
£3 £4 £6
Wetsuit boots
£3 £4 £6
Beginner board
£7
Intermediate board
£9 £11 £17
£9
£15
Custom board
£15 £20 £25
Stand-up paddleboard
£11 £15 £21
Sit-on-top kayak
£11 £15 £21
Torpedo (kids' surfboard)
£5
Bodyboard
£5 £7 £10
Dually (double bodyboard)
£5
Hand plane
£3 £4 £8
Fins and socks
£5
£7
£7
n/a
n/a
£3
Deck chair
£7
£7
£10
£10
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Swim Club Swim Club is our take on a spa, including a 25-metre infinity pool, cardio room, café bar, treatment rooms, and an ocean room with sea views, comfy sofas and a fireplace
Massage Full body (60 mins) £65 Back, neck, shoulder (30/45 mins)
£40 / £50
Back, face, scalp (60 mins) £65 Side by side for two (60 mins) £110 Hot rock detox (45/90 mins)
£55 / £100
Reflexology (60 mins)
£60
Freestyle massage Personalise your massage from the choices below Where: full / back / arms / legs / feet / head / neck / scalp How: relaxing / invigorating / bit of both / hot rocks How long: 75 mins For one
£75
For two (side by side) £145
Wraps and scrubs Body scrub body brush, scrub, moisture (45 mins) £45 Body wrap body brush, scrub, wrap, face + scalp massage, moisture (90 mins) £85 Back to front back scrub, massage, mask, moisture (60 mins) £45
Works
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The works Body brush, full body exfoliation, wrap, fast facial + massage (120 mins)
£110
The full works Body brush, full body exfoliation, wrap, fast facial, massage + speedy hands & feet (180 mins)
£165
Hands Speedy file, cuticle tidy, polish (30 mins)
£30
Original file, cuticle tidy, hand + arm massage, polish (45 mins)
£35
Special file, cuticle tidy, scrub, mask, hand + arm massage, polish (60 mins)
£50
Feet Speedy file, cuticle tidy, polish (30 mins)
£30
Original file, cuticle tidy, scrub, foot + leg massage, polish (60 mins)
£45
Special scrub, mask, file, cuticle tidy, foot + leg massage, polish (75 mins)
£55
Gel polish Gel polish add to any of our treatments as a longer lasting alternative to nail varnish £10 Gel polish removal
£15
Face Fast cleanse, exfoliate, mask, scalp massage, moisture (30 mins)
£35
Drench cleanse, exfoliate, face, neck + shoulder massage, mask, scalp massage, moisture (60 mins)
£60
Eye refresh cleanse, eye contour & pressure point massage, protein eye mask, scalp massage, moisture (30 mins)
£35
The face works cleanse, exfoliate, stimulating face massage, hot & cold stones, mask, scalp massage, moisture (75 mins)
£70
Eyes Eyelash tint (30 mins)
£15
Eyebrow tint (15 mins)
£10
Eyelash + brow tint (30 mins)
£20
Full leg (45 mins)
£30
Eyebrow shape (15 mins)
£10
Half leg (30 mins)
£20
Bikini (15 mins)
£15
Brazilian (30 mins)
£20
Brazilian hot wax (45 mins)
£30
Underarm (15 mins)
£10
Lip or chin (15 mins)
£10
Back or chest (30 mins)
£25
Eyebrows (15 mins)
£10
(surf) Wax
Pregnancy Most of our treatments can be adapted using our specially prepared pregnancy massage oil
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Directory Stay Reservations - 9am–5pm 01637 860543 Book online - watergatebay.co.uk life@watergatebay.co.uk
Eat The Beach Hut 01637 860877 | the-beach-hut.co.uk Zacry’s Restaurant 01637 861231 | zacrys.com Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall 01637 861000 | fifteencornwall.co.uk Venus Café lovingthebeach.co.uk/watergate-bay
Active Extreme Academy 01637 860840 | extremeacademy.co.uk Swim Club - treatments and classes 01637 861237 Events and meetings 01637 860295
Shop Watergate Bay shop Online and in Swim Club, selling the Watergate Bay Elements bath and body range as well as a selection of gifts and homeware watergatebay.co.uk/shop Shop on the Beach Right where you’d expect to find it, selling seaside clothing and footwear, technical surf equipment, buckets and spades and... toothpaste. Everything you need for a stay at Watergate Bay 01637 860051
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