EP 11 | Lana Herman - Big Air Competitive Kitesurfer

Lana Herman is a professional Big Air kitesurfer from Slovenia, a Harlem Kite team rider, and a GKA tour competitor currently based between Brazil, Cape Town and wherever the next competition takes her. Before turning professional, she was a finance consultant. She quit to risk it for the biscuit — her words — and hasn't looked back.

In this episode, recorded on a rest day in Brazil where Lana is training with her coach ahead of a packed competition season, the conversation goes everywhere. They cover the mental side of learning high-risk tricks — the meditation, the visualisation, the step-by-step process of not getting injured — and the story of how Harlem rejected her sponsorship application, then came back and offered her a spot on the team after her profile started getting attention from other brands. There's also a great thread on the Slovenian and Slavic identity, collective suffering as a cultural value system ("my mother grew up thinking if you suffer in life you are doing good"), pre-competition Balkan yugorock pump-up playlists, and the social media post where she asked ChatGPT to make her look rich. The life philosophy holding it all together: "Life sucks and then you die." It makes more sense in context, we promise.

A warm, funny and surprisingly deep episode — Lana is exactly as good company as she looks on the water. 🪁

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(19)

EP 18 | Anne (BroomsShapes) - DIY board shaper & gear maker

Anne, the self-taught shaper behind Brooms Shapes, is a Berlin-based biologist and kitesurfer who builds almost all of her own gear: twin tips, surfboards, fins, and a hard shell harness moulded on a ...

3 Marras 1h 6min

EP 17 | Julia Keller - kite harness design, product engineering & female health

Julia Keller is a mechanical engineer who spent three and a half years designing kitesurfing gear — first a bachelor's thesis project at Duotone, then harnesses and accessories at ION, where she led t...

16 Loka 1h 37min

EP 16 | Michaela Pilkenton - kiting in US, female empowerment & body image

Michaela Pilkenton, a Hood River-based kitesurfer and Slingshot rider, was recently voted AWSI Female Wind Sport Athlete of the Year, in the first year the award combined every wind discipline. In thi...

28 Syys 1h 23min

EP 15 | Girls Wake Camp - Copenhagen Cable Park

This one is different. Instead of an online interview, this episode was recorded live at Copenhagen Cable Park during the Girls Wake Camp — a sold-out two-day wakeboarding event for women, organised b...

16 Syys 1h 10min

EP 14 | Sarah Sadek - big air kitesurfing, sustainability & competition

Sarah Sadek is the first and only female Egyptian professional kitesurfer (for now), a Harlem Kite team rider, GKA Big Air competitor, and the woman who went kitesurfing on the morning of her own wedd...

25 Elo 1h 18min

EP 13 | Zara Hoogenraad - kitesurfing, building community and being open online

Zara Hoogenraad is one of the most recognised names in Big Air kitesurfing — a GKA tour competitor, two-time King of the Air runner-up, world champion, Capital.com and Mystic team rider, and one of th...

18 Elo 1h 29min

EP 12 | Alessa Sophia Mensch - female hormones, mental health & Big Air kitesurfing

Alessa Sophia Mensch is a professional Big Air kitesurfer, GKA tour competitor, Brunotti and Naish team rider, and the co-founder of a women's health app currently in development and launching in Dece...

11 Elo 1h 53min