Mermaid Mode

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 this episode she looks at how the US kite scene differs from Europe's, from weekend-warrior culture to the "micro spots" scattered across the country. She recounts going from ski mountainee...

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 by Frederikke and Louise, two local riders who wanted to bring back the magic they'd experienced at the girls' camp in Aarhus the year before. Just about thirty women showed up. Beginners who h...

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 wedding — in Dahab, where she lives and trains year-round. Half Egyptian, half German, she competes under the Egyptian flag by choice, and that choice says something important about who she is. This episo...

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 the only women in the sport building a genuinely engaged community around the reality of being a female professional athlete. She started kitesurfing at 23, partying her way between sessions in Tarifa f...

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 December. She's also one of the most thoughtful people in the sport when it comes to the intersection of female health, performance, and mental wellbeing — and this episode goes deep on all of it....

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...

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 seco...

Nathalie Lambrecht is one of the most exciting kitesurfers in the world right now — a professional Big Air athlete, North and Mystic team rider, GKA competitor, and reigning Red Bull King of the Air Women's Devision champion. She grew up in El Gouna, Egypt, started kitesurfing at eleven after her babysitter came home glowing from a lesson, studied in Stockholm from fourteen to nineteen, and ha...

Emely is a kitesurfing and yoga instructor who runs camps in Akayaka, Turkey — a place she fell in love with on a visit nearly seven years ago and never left. Recorded beach-side at Sydvestpynten, one of Copenhagen's most popular kite spots, this episode covers a huge range of ground: starting kitesurfing in Denmark in early 2000s, competing in the Danish Freestyle Tour, why fewer girls are en...

Lena is an artist, surf coach, certified surf therapy facilitator, and the founder of Cold Water Sirens - a community built around cold water surfing on the North Sea coast of Denmark. What started as a question: "why is there nowhere for women who don't fit the standard surf school mould to go?" became a community, a coaching practice, a film, and a philosophy about what the ocean can actually do...

Maria grew up water skiing in Gambia at age seven. By the time she moved back to Sweden, there was nowhere nearby to ride. So eventually, she built her own. Episode 6 of Mermaid Mode is the first recorded on location — at Flip & Fun Wake Park in Sweden, currently a building site an hour and a half from Copenhagen, and soon to be Scandinavia's biggest cable park. Maria and her partner Henni...

In this episode we sit down with Ola, a Polish-born kitesurf instructor, jewellery maker, and founder of Ocean Pilgrims. Eight years ago Ola came to Tarifa, fell in love, and never left. Today she runs a kite school with her partner, makes one-of-a-kind necklaces from reclaimed vintage beads, and is launching her first women's kite retreat — a mindful, no-pressure space for female water lovers...

In this episode, Sasha sits down with Nathalie — owner of Big Blue Boards, social media marketer, kitesurfing instructor, and organiser of women's kite camps across Egypt, Tarifa, Sardinia, Brazil and beyond. Nathalie's story is one of those "kitesurfing changed my life" ones that you can't help but love. A single trip to Egypt in 2011, a frustrating first lesson, and a decis...

In this episode, Sasha sits down with Su Kay — kite designer, Big Air record breaker, and co-owner of Lacuna Kites based in South Africa. Su has been in the kitesurfing world for over two decades, starting out in New Zealand sweeping the floor of a kite board workshop, and working her way through brands like Cabrinha, Airush, and eventually Lacuna, where she now leads kite design. They cover a lot...

In this episode, Sasha sits down with Athea — a kite instructor, content creator, and self-described "wannabe pro" based on the coast of Australia. In less than four years, Athea went from her first terrifying tandem ride on the open ocean to becoming a certified instructor and building a genuinely helpful online following with her breakdown-style kite tutorials. They talk about how to o...

In the very first episode of Mermaid Mode, we sit down with Kaya — 3x Danish champion, Junior World Champion, and GKA top-5 ranked freestyle kitesurfer. Despite her impressive résumé, Kaya is refreshingly grounded: she doesn't consider competing her whole identity, is studying further while traveling the world, and is laser-focused on pushing her riding to the next level. We dive into Kaya&#39...

In this first episode, I introduce Mermaid Mode — a podcast about women and water. This is a space for women who feel called to the ocean, lakes, rivers, and cold plunges. Women who compete in watersports, build careers in the water industry, write about water, research it, teach it, protect it — or simply return to it again and again because it makes them feel alive. In this episode, I share why...