EP 10 | Leilani - Rise with the Wind - female empowerment

Leilani is a French engineer turned barefoot entrepreneur, kitesurfing instructor and the founder of Rise with the Wind — an organisation helping women from underprivileged backgrounds gain IKO certification, learn English, and build a livelihood through kitesurfing, all within a single year. In just a year and a half, the programme has launched in Brazil, Zanzibar, Morocco and Mexico, with a second Brazil location on the way.

The conversation starts with Leilani's own story: a high-performing corporate career in France and Australia, a decision to leave it all behind with six months of savings and a freshly earned IKO cert, and a broken fibula two weeks into her new life that turned out to be one of the most important moments of her journey.

From there it opens into something much bigger. They talk about the women in the programme — the girl in Zanzibar who prays five times a day, collects seaweed, and is now a kitesurfing instructor; the woman who left her husband because he didn't want her to study; the group of girls in Brazil who passed their IKO and went on to work at a Duotone centre. They discuss what it means to enter a culture with humility and curiosity rather than assumptions, why kitesurfing can change a woman's relationship to fear and failure, and what it might look like to create Muslim-friendly kite schools. And then, towards the end, a thread on passion burnout, golden cages, and why identity is just a dress you can change.

Episode 10. One to sit with. 🌊

Support Rise with the Wind: https://www.rwtw.surf/

Photos in the episode by: https://www.instagram.com/sam.vox