Kiting has penetrated my life totally. There are sports, so-called EXTREME sports. Sometimes I have been asking myself, why exactly is this name? Some of them are not even that extreme as an activity. Of course, they have risky parts, but nothing, that other sports wouldn't have. Take gymnastics or figure skating, if you fall, you fall hard. For me the extreme is in pure happiness, the vividness kiting as one of the extreme sports brings you. It immediately transports you into the present moment. Not just the endorphins bring you joy, but also the adrenaline rush kicks in elevating your mood and overall feeling to the next level.
Long story short, when I was 15 I found kiting existed in some of travel magazines. As a snowboarder, I was fascinated. Such an independent and free sport. You don't need a ski lift or electricity to move around. You just take your equipment, come to a windy place hop on your board and that is it. Unfortunately, it took me till my 22 birthday, till I did my first rides. Once I was in there was no way out. Even if I had a water phobia, I just had to do it. It was making me feel so incredibly good, I was doing it more and more. I even moved to the seaside, first to Holland, later to Portugal followed by Mexico.
It was 2020, the year that no one on the earth will forget. Pandemic, lockdown, staying locked between 4 walls. Well, this is what most of the population will remember. I chose luckily one of the places, where life continued just as if nothing has happened. It is not a casual place, but a piece of a paradise on the earth - the Mexican Caribbean coast. We had hundreds of miles of virgin white sanded beaches surrounded by incredibly blue water. And everyday wind. We were truly living the dream, all world locked home and for us, the only worry was if the wind is going to be enough the day.
On one of those days, observing the clear turquoise surface of the water in front of my everyday breakfast place, I decided it was time to learn foiling and go to the Olympics with this discipline. Foiling is a kiting discipline, where you levitate on a tiny stick a few decimeters over the water's surface. The feeling was supposed to be incredible, very similar to the feeling if you were flying or snowboarding in the fresh deep snow. I did a lot of social media work on getting into the kiting world. Then a few months later, I got my first equipment support and moved to the Dominican Republic where everything started.
I literally said bye to a long-lasting relationship, where we were building together a house, left for the Dominican Republic, and started foiling. It wasn't the easiest. But as always I was persistent and absolutely dedicated. So very much that I managed to attach one of the wings the other way to the foil which made me struggle for a few days. One day I was standing on the beach and my future coach comes by telling me if I knew, that my foil wasn't the way it is supposed to be. Ashamed I tried it the other way around, and finally, the foil stayed consistently above the water. And I immediately entered the incredible flow state of mind. Since then I would just take a foil to go and meditate, calm down, be creative, and get inspired.
But my goal was clear, just 2 weeks after I ever started foiling I tried the race foil, specifically developed for fast rides. I rediscovered my passion for high speeds, back in the days it was skiing or windsurfing, but this had another level, it was fast but so peaceful at the same time. Sometimes it was very difficult. In the beginning, you just fall all the time once you want to change direction. But the time on the foil is so incredible, that you just forget the falling, the salty nose showers.
I had the luxury of learning at the most beautiful beaches out there. Still remember my gybe lessons, at a super beautiful bay, with clear turquoise water. I drank so much of the salty water. But the palm trees I was facing, and the golden sand of the beach will always stay in my mind.
Next to the physical and technical training, I was working on my mental preparation as well. Foiling is a very sensitive activity, any bad mood or tiny lack of focus is immediately projected to the performance. So the goal was to clear and calm down my mind as much as possible. One wouldn't think about what can be discovered in the own brain.
And it became real, after 4 months of training with scarce resources. The day of the Pan-American championships had arrived. My kites arrived 2 days before, so I couldn't even try them out properly, and the foil I was supposed to use, I tried 2 times. I didn't even understand the race course. The main goal was not to get lost. It was very difficult at first, I wasn't making it on time, as one of the fastest guys participated and I was just so slow at that time. But with every race, I was getting better and finally, I made it on time. Not to forget that I was falling so much, struggling to go downwind, I was literally hating it, as I would be so slow. And I would be still so bad in the gybes - a pretty scary move, where one goes with the wind and change the direction, the faster the better.
So easily it can happen, that one decides to go for the Olympic gold.
And this is just the beginning...
