Episode #62 - Caitlin Baxter

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. This week we have Caitlin Baxter joining us. She has a very talented wing foriler from Australia. She joins us to talk about how she found win for favorite wings, favorite

[00:00:12] foils, along with her adventures in the sport and her future aspirations of competing on the pro tour. I hope you enjoy this episode. It was really fun to record with her. If you haven't caught Fridays episode, it was the 8 of The Wing Life Show with Gwen, Damian and

[00:00:29] myself. On this episode, it's called Foil Control. We have talked all about your up and riding but then what? How do you transition from going into a straight line into a

[00:00:41] job or into a tech? So I hope you enjoy this one. It was a great one. Now I want to take this opportunity to thank our team for making this show a reality. We have Frank

[00:00:50] and social media. We have Matthias on guest outreach, and we have Stefan on editing. A big thank you guys. There's a lot of work going into each and every episode. Next I'd

[00:01:01] like to say thank you to North foils. They are our first official sponsor. They have a great team, great gear, and they're just as passionate as we are. So I'm stoked to be working with

[00:01:12] you guys. I'll be riding some North SF series foils. This went to our 11th tonna so stay tuned. Lastly, Winter is coming and if you haven't decided where to go yet I would suggest hopping over to our website, winglifepodcast.com and clicking on trips in the main navigation

[00:01:30] menu to see what we have in store for 2025. We have two amazing trips up there so make sure to go check them out. Now I hope you enjoy the episode. Welcome to the winglifepodcast where we talk about wing foiling and the lifestyles of those

[00:01:54] who enjoy this great sport. Well hey Caitlin, thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me excited. So I heard you're wrestling crocodiles today. Sounds about right down here in Australia but not just the kangaroos at some

[00:02:08] morning. No, that's nothing. No water. Now we're pretty lucky down on the surf coast. We stay away from crocodiles which is I would learn how to wing foiling the water at all. Yeah those

[00:02:23] things are intense. Where are they in a different part of Australia then? Yeah yeah so we're down on the surf coast here there further up north which we're actually planning to maybe head up there later this year because it's warmer and really good downwinders but the water's

[00:02:40] murky and yes there's lots of crocs up there. Okay so I don't have any sharks and stuff you're way down to the surf coast or isn't that too? Definitely. Where good spot down here for

[00:02:52] the great whites pass by? Well we are, I've never touched wood, never seen one which is good but they definitely are around and you hear about them but we're pretty lucky I watered so cold down here that we kind of tend not to get too many vicious creatures.

[00:03:11] All right like to just not think about it and hope the best. You ladies and guys are tough down there I think you just born tougher than the rest of all. We were just used to it we were like

[00:03:21] all there out there but it's fine. That's why foiling is good because you got a big knife on the bottom of your own boards so you usually usually cool. That's the thing that's the thing did you grow up

[00:03:33] in us? Yeah yeah so my mom's actually American but they moved down to WA over and perth and I grew up there but that was a big win surfer and then we moved over to Melbourne and when

[00:03:48] I was about eight been here ever since and we actually in the move to the surf coast about a year ago so really only just getting into the waves and stuff now and completely obsessed so you get

[00:04:01] both really really quick. What was your first sport kind of entering into it? Did you get into one surfer? I interestingly enough and I'm sure with a lot of people COVID was a thing that put

[00:04:11] me onto wing foiling so in Melbourne, I lived like kind of in the city through lockdown and we're in the LAD five kilometers from our home so we were lucky because we were right next to the bay and

[00:04:25] so in our five kilometers you could pretty much walk down to the water and I went for a walk on down I was like that looks really cool. These two guys out they were riding some of the bay waves down

[00:04:36] in the bay and I was like I got to give that a go. Had never done any any winsports or anything I'd served a fair bit but yeah just picked it up and got into it when we had time.

[00:04:48] How were your first sessions learning that Broncos sport? Not good and that was like three years ago and you know how much it's developed since then so like early days we thought the thing to do

[00:05:00] was have a small foil and like you just wanted to do a small zcourney and we're like oh my gosh this is a heart of sea have ever had to learn it was yeah. It was tough but I think that's what helped

[00:05:12] us through COVID because we like we need something to focus on and something to fix it on and I think I was down there every day through winter. We had we actually had some pretty good win

[00:05:23] which was lucky and yeah just had to learn how to do it and also my dad and I were learning together so I had to be better than him because I'm pretty good at it. My brother and I kind of learned

[00:05:35] at the similar time and he was kite foiling so he had like a racing kite foil and I think it's the only time in life I've ever been better at him but something because I had a big

[00:05:48] foil as just doing laps around there he's getting so frustrated and that's going to be really good with the summer. I think that's the best thing ever is having your family members is just having

[00:05:58] someone that you want to be more competitive than makes you so good I don't know what it is but yep that's hilarious so funny. It was pretty fun so what are the conditions like I guess in your

[00:06:10] area for for foiling? Yeah so it was pretty decent really good through summer we have probably from November so we have to use different summers but November through to about March we get just

[00:06:25] seabreezes every day and it's south west of these here 15 to 20 knots every afternoon you go down to the beach at one or two and everyone's waiting there ready to go and it just kicks in you have

[00:06:38] until 9pm when the sun sets and your all just out there it's it's amazing we have waves and wind right through and then about end of March it just switches off and we then get north

[00:06:53] north leaves and north west leaves which are offshore for us so it's it's harder it's like flatter and not as good but if you get a good swelled out it's still really fun because you can kind of

[00:07:06] ride the waves with offshore winds but that's sort of few and far between through winter unfortunately. So it's time to do other you focus on other things I guess or more surfing yeah definitely have

[00:07:19] taken on the task of doing a bit of other foiling now because our swell picks up really nicely through winter so getting into the prone foiling in the south foiling and between those three there's no time

[00:07:31] to do anything else it's always on either way dangerous. It's pretty awesome that you're able to find it how did you get into kind of was that your first you said that was your first time

[00:07:42] getting into waters like wind sports and yeah yeah so I know it was kind of weird it was I've always been into my sports and I always loved activities I did a lot of surf life saving

[00:07:55] down here where we kind of were in the water a lot and you compete in everything but as soon as I found wing foiling I just felt like it gave me a purpose and I love always love my

[00:08:07] surfing and then I think being a female in the sport as well you got a lot of kind of fade back and attention and people wanted to help you and it was really fun because everywhere I went

[00:08:19] people were giving me advice and helping me out and you always said something to chat about and I think you'd know as well in the community it's just a really cool thing to do because

[00:08:29] talking to other cool people and it's just a really cool community so you get kind of hooked. Yeah we've talked about that quite a few times on the show a bit of a difference between

[00:08:39] even the surf community and kind of this community it's a little bit more inclusive because it's less competitive for waves there's a pretty cool aspect of it yeah we talked to Kieran

[00:08:52] also yeah so we had him on the show twice and sick buddy of ours and yeah he mentioned that big time and yeah so Kieran yeah he's been a bit of a good role model for me because he's writing with

[00:09:06] papy says well and I got to meet him as about November when our winces and picked up we went up to a spot called Mourambula and they had a bit of a competition sort of thing up there and

[00:09:19] he was giving me a few tips and stuff he's got some good stories but definitely he was a into the surfing everything and same thing down here it's just so much less competitive

[00:09:30] the surf down here gets pretty intense with people in car parks and yeah so it's good to it's kind of good to be doing some different for sure yeah that's what he mentioned his story is

[00:09:42] pretty cool coming from surfing and then transitioning into then then competing like how did you get started with let's say ppcr sub like what was your story to get your story? I love my social

[00:09:57] made as I studied my degrees and media comms of business and I was just posting a lot on Instagram and I like to create content and stuff and Sam from papacy kind of noticed that and he's like oh

[00:10:10] she seems like she's loving this sport and would be a good person to help promote and he reached out and I owe him so much it's been great to have someone that's given me gear and help me out

[00:10:22] and got me into a few races and everything but we don't have much down here unfortunately yeah in between him and in subfoil is just really helped me out with geo because as a young person

[00:10:35] it's really hard to get away around geo and get out there and yeah that's just sort of how it built with them and I guess all my social media stuff is really it's just that's kind of my way of doing it

[00:10:50] I'm less into the competing and more into the sort of lifestyle side of foiling and wing foiling and just want to do it for the travels and the adventures and everything. Oh that's cool yeah

[00:11:02] X I saw some you have some really good content up there and it's always fun and playful with all your different friends and all that kind of thing it really puts like the image of what it is

[00:11:13] that we're kind of doing out there so I can see why they would have really trying to bring the whole sort of lifestyle thing into it like it's such a cool sport and so many cool people in it and I just

[00:11:22] want to share that with everyone and trying it at a little bit bigger especially with the females because I know it's intimidating when you look at it. Yeah how do you find being like a female athlete in

[00:11:34] today's kind of culture and society and kind of thing like how do you find that within what you're trying to do? It's interesting like a lot of people complain about it and say you know women

[00:11:46] aren't treated equally I find in this sport it's been pretty amazing because everyone's tried to help me like I have not sent found one person who's degraded me or devalued me they just

[00:11:57] they all want to give me advice and help me out which I love especially down here on the surface we have some really really cool people who have helped me out and I think it's interesting for me

[00:12:11] because I haven't really gotten into the competition side of things yet I really do want to so I haven't sort of seen that side of things and how it goes there but I know from what I've seen it

[00:12:22] looks pretty good and especially all of Australia like we're all following each other on Instagram all the foil is chat and we have a we have a really good community down here and no I

[00:12:33] wouldn't even feel like that's women and men it's just all the same really. Oh that's nice yeah that's good to hear yeah which kind of in competition if let's say when you enter you're thinking

[00:12:48] in surf freestyle pure wave racing what do you think would be your kind of favorite go to? I think go to I'm just obsessed with the way so I think it'll be pure wave first if I was

[00:13:00] going to do something I am trying to look at hopefully getting over to one of those eventually because yeah we get some really good swell here so practicing turns on waves and everything is

[00:13:13] really easy for us to learn we don't have great conditions to do freestyle it really is dependent because we need a South East to be able to jump off waves and down here we get mainly South

[00:13:26] West-Lies so it's okay but definitely think I need a bit more practice in the freestyle area to get into that but I think wave freestyle it'll be pretty fun. So hopefully one of those too.

[00:13:37] Okay yeah because now waves you can do whatever tricks that you want as long as you're holding like that leading edge handle. Yeah so what are you practicing in the way? Well at this stage it's

[00:13:49] still just the turns and really nailing those and where all kind of trying to transition boards at the moment so similar to everyone we're going from the kind of boxy strapped boards to more downwind a style and no straps which is interesting because then you

[00:14:06] can't jump but it feels like you really learn the flow of the wave and how to turn really well doing that and so just trying to really lock in those and see I go and then probably put the

[00:14:17] straps back on and get it more of a freestyle board and do some jumps. Oh that's cool so how long the board let's hear you're riding in waves and right now. So at the moment I'm on a torpedo

[00:14:30] sub-photo torpedo so it's 90 litres and it's 6-1 so it's kind of that mid length sort of size and it's really narrow I think it's 19 inches wide and it just the flow of it is so much better like you can

[00:14:46] really turn it over and lean it over and that narrowness keeps it from hitting the edge and you just the flow of it looks so nice and some of the other guys down here on those and they just

[00:14:56] it looks incredible when you do turns on the waves it's just really draws it out and and makes it look kind of I sort of put it like with the shortboards and the longer boards is

[00:15:07] like longboarding surfing and shortboard surfing like it looks sort of like that when you compare it. Okay do you find your turns or snappy or you just said they were more drawn out?

[00:15:17] So yeah yeah okay okay. Yeah it's it's fun and we kind of practice sort of the real loopy drawing out waves right to the top of the lip of the wave if you can and back down

[00:15:30] whereas when I'm on my shortboard and different foil it's those real snappy kind of jolti turns that you do and sometimes I feel like when I'm doing those I'm cutting myself short

[00:15:41] and I'm not really getting the full turn out of there. I don't know everyone's sort of different so we're figuring that out and you can see it changing so quickly it's hard to know what's right

[00:15:52] and what's wrong but I think everyone's trying to know everyone's finding their own style which is cool. So you're seeing a big transition then towards that given this whole new progression of longer narrower yeah yeah we've seen in the past three months down here

[00:16:11] everyone's gone from that short boxy shape to a mid-length. It was like I saw one of the beach and then the next day another person had one world chatty about it and now it's just everyone

[00:16:22] I think there's like two people left with a boxy board so it's funny it's really changed I think that has a lot to do with each person sort of location as well like because we all

[00:16:34] chat and kind of do what each other do down here but then you see other people in other places do different things so it's interesting. It's cool concept for I guess if you're going to

[00:16:44] head into competition it's kind of cool right to practice longer drawn out turns so you can get kind of that feel and if you jump to a boxy board to do some tricks on the wave like maybe this

[00:16:55] will be just being another skill set that you bring to the table right? That's sort of what I'm thinking I'm just trying to branch out and do it all rather than really fix it on one thing and

[00:17:05] learn one thing that everyone's doing I think if you're practicing other other moves and other tricks you've got a lot more obviously if you're going to go into competition and your styles

[00:17:17] different like especially with these long boards it's a lot more you tend to learn to relax more and really just feel the flow of the wave and where you are on the wave and I think that's going

[00:17:27] to really help going back to my shorter board and other foil practicing tricks because you going to know exactly where you need to be and how much power you get from that bottom turn and everything.

[00:17:39] Yeah that makes sense how big of a waves are you used to playing and over there? I think we usually get about down at the point we practice on it's probably two to three

[00:17:52] foot so they're pretty small and then occasionally get the big swell which can be up to six foot but it's never too critical where we are so where you're foiling, wing foiling that kind of

[00:18:06] that six foot swell will be on the angle that just sort of rolls through so you're kind of just practicing on big lumps which is cool but this is the time of the year we really get the bigger waves

[00:18:17] coming in and the offshore wind so that'll be the this will be the good time to practice and proper it more critical stuff I think. Just care for it. Yeah I love it I love the big waves

[00:18:29] on my every noise is down here like you're always out the back like what are you doing at there? It's so fun. Do you wait for my bomb? Yep yeah always searching for the biggest waves

[00:18:39] before anyone else can get them it's funny we're pretty lucky you as well you can always find something. Yeah no I don't know yeah I've heard good things it's on my list to get out there.

[00:18:52] Eventually hit that up in New Zealand as well I think we're pretty amazing. Take a look check out and now with how easy it is to travel with foil gear it's so much easier than well it's similar

[00:19:03] to kidding I guess just as easy in surfing probably just as easy relative life. It's so good now and because it's kind of grow and you know people in different places you can always have someone to

[00:19:14] help you out if you're missing something yeah New Zealand meant to be pretty epic for waves too that's where a paper sees base so trying to get over there and get a foil in but I think

[00:19:27] they're winning seeds and there's sort of stop now too so it's more of the toe ends and in pruning. That's good practice though yeah good practice. What do you like the most out of because I know

[00:19:38] Sam's got some new gear coming out what do you like the most about his wings and and set up in same thing with Sab as well. Yeah so the most amazing thing about Paveces is his M1 wings

[00:19:51] are seriously incredible like I don't even know I had to explain it but this thing is just it's like the perfect wing and it just the way you can go up when with it it points pretty much into

[00:20:04] the wind if you're trying because the dynamic leading edges so strong and it pumps up to 12 13 pairs are like really strong and it just points straight into the wind and if you hold it up

[00:20:16] it will just sit wherever you want it to sit does not flutter it's incredible I think I can safely say that those wings whether things that made me progress from my Kia Kia because they just allowed

[00:20:29] me to do all the maneuvers all the turns quickly and and efficiently um it's just scary taking them in the waves so don't want to lose it so you're kind of you trying to hold on for deal life and

[00:20:43] sometimes I feel like I'm holding back a bit in the waves because I don't I don't want to get tumbled with the M1 because you will just you just read them instantly um unfortunately down here

[00:20:53] if you're in that spot it's just not not going to be good. That's like what water that's that's reef. Yes. Yeah it's instantly we're kind of actually talking now about how

[00:21:06] how to combat that like the quick releases trying just just get rid of the wing and pick that up later um because you know now the wings are getting more expensive and they're way better but it's

[00:21:17] also something you don't want to shred because you need it so trying to think of ways to sort of to deal with that but um yeah the M1's incredible wings and he's sort of

[00:21:30] pulling with more ideas on how to make him more so far-intended and more rates are intended so I think he's just come out with the M1R which is the race wing even lighter carbon handles everything so

[00:21:43] all the races are super excited about that. I haven't really gone in the direction of racing so I stick to the more basic ones but incredible wings. Okay definitely it's good to hear. It's a

[00:21:56] great pumping they stay kind of exactly what you want. All right it's a different style of pumping with them so they I find with those they generate a lot instead of that big scoop kind of

[00:22:07] pump movement you just flood out of the back of it and you pick up speed and you just off you go it's incredible. No way like it's it's really different and I think my favorite one is my

[00:22:17] four meter I've had it for about seven months now used it every day through someone and it's still perfectly the canopy is tight it hasn't bagged out at all just I'm even on like what the heck this

[00:22:29] is crazy. It's so good. Isn't that awesome without having some? Oh yeah I'm like I don't have to get another wing this is great and that's been that's yeah I've been rattled too so it's pretty good.

[00:22:43] That's cool yeah I was talking to Keira I'm gonna try one of those out eventually probably I'm supposed to be in Hood River in September for a WSI so it would be sweet to try

[00:22:53] out some more other stuff and if not then maybe I might get a few sent out or something to do some damage but I heard that was progressing. What do you think about sad then?

[00:23:03] Sad is great too there yes there my foil's mainly and I love their foils like they have my two go to's are their medusa which is their freestyle they're jumping wing and then their razor

[00:23:17] is their sort of downwind surfing so that's what I use in all the big waves and I mean I thought thing handles waves incredibly I was on I think it was back to the start of summer we had

[00:23:27] some big sort of six foot swell and we were I was the biggest while I'd been out in yet and it was kind of the first few times I've been using the razor pro and it says six 30

[00:23:39] square centimeter front wing and I was just at the top of the way like there's no way I'm gonna make it down this and I was like terrified and it just drops down nicely you can do your turns

[00:23:50] and it does not even falter and it goes through white water like easily just doesn't even it's crazy it was everything so well yeah. So then you're doing some some good little foil slides

[00:24:03] and stuff and I'll work around those too. Yeah working on some down here we call them finnas but I don't know what everyone sort of does yeah but get into trouble with it yeah so that's sort

[00:24:16] of it's funny everyone has their own little names but yeah doing some finnas and getting the foil out of the water and they the other thing about the razor is that breaches really well so

[00:24:26] the recovery on that's super easy which is nice so yeah practicing that trying the other things we're doing I've just started the journey of 360s with the midu sir and in our freestyle wind

[00:24:41] and that's taking its time but it's fun it's good always have to go out there it's have to sign a practice otherwise I just get bored. Good ovening yeah definitely no next year I was

[00:24:53] thinking smaller board and I wanted to throw some straps on and there's how it feels like in the swell and in the waves and see if you get little jumps and little stuff like that and

[00:25:05] I got to get different foil though one that breaches a bit better but that's my problem now is I'm like I have these two completely different setups and I'm standing there like all right I could

[00:25:15] either take out my mid length board with my surf foil and just surf the waves and I could tell I'm a show board with the straps and the midu sir and practice jumps and you're always tossing

[00:25:26] up between the two it's hard it's a problem you have to pick two yeah so I'm going to swap part of where I'm like alright we'll do some jumps now that's fun yeah what's growing up

[00:25:39] growing up there like what are some of the super fun adventures that you've gotten into in this board or in surfing culture that would like give out to people to let them know because there

[00:25:52] must have been some pretty fun little adventures at there yeah down here is it's pretty amazing as I said I grew up in in WA so we had some pretty fun adventures there and it's a shame I was so

[00:26:05] young though because the wind is meant to be epic they actually they call it the doctor so every every single afternoon they have this wind come through and it's like 20 to 30 knots just

[00:26:15] huge wind and big swell and that's why winds surfing so big there because it's really windy and there's some incredible beaches there with really good waves so that's meant to be pretty epic

[00:26:28] and I'm hoping to get back over there to give it a go but down here where there's just it's honestly endless adventures through summer we're out there every day doing something different and we

[00:26:41] kind of this I'm just discovered the downwinders as everyone has gone crazy for but we have some pretty epic adventures where we kind of launch from one point and it's about 30 kilometers down that's

[00:26:56] the furthest we've done so far because it's all along a cliff face so you kind of have never been fair off you go out and yeah you gotta make it back otherwise you're paddling pretty far but

[00:27:08] the event that side of things I love like the adventure the journey it's my favorite thing to do and we have some pretty rugged coastline along here so it's really it's cool to see

[00:27:20] from that angle when you're out in the water and looking back in you're like I've never seen it like this before it's amazing oh that's awesome and that's like we ain't and stand up yeah so mainly

[00:27:32] just for me we're just swinging um a few of the other guys down here have gotten into the stand up downwinding and we usually go as a little group um and that's my next summer thing is to do that

[00:27:43] but I'm still sort of practicing the paddle ups and stuff with that so a little bit of a way to go to get there but the wing downwinding here is pretty epic yeah I love the wind yeah downwinding

[00:27:56] with that because then you could at least if you want 30 k that would take you a little while to climb back up wind yeah do you actually come back a wind we will get someone to drop us off at

[00:28:07] the end of the noise we're always running a peaceful I can you drop us a 30 k how'd you feel impressed it's crazy so we meet all the um we meet everyone down at one point get all the cars there

[00:28:19] and then we'll either just drive one car up with everyone loaded in the van or uh or uh oh get someone to drop us up there if we're gonna do that and then and then you don't have to

[00:28:28] worry about it you just downwind and you've got all your stuff at the end and it's great yeah that makes all of a sense yeah love a ton of you can kind of come back up like 5k

[00:28:37] it's not terrible yeah but 30 k how many do yeah 30 would take forever it's huge I think the biggest upwind downwind I've done it was probably about 10 k and it's still that upwind

[00:28:54] took like an hour and a half it was a long time hmm yeah yeah yeah have you gotten the opportunity to travel to different places and see some different spots around the world? Definitely yeah so

[00:29:07] I mean I saw a love in tana I haven't winged there but I got to go and check it out and then maybe this win just yeah yeah I'm hoping so I'm trying to think about what to do this win

[00:29:16] to because there's so many options it's crazy um that's cool but last year we got to go to Fiji which was so epic so epic it was honestly a surprise how good that was um so we we had a friend over there

[00:29:31] who had a boat and we got to go and stay with him and basically followed the trade winds up the Yasuo Islands so you kind of we would plan it based on what the weather was gonna do and you can

[00:29:44] find these spots where the trade winds filter through and you just get the most amazing conditions and the clearest water it's just it was incredible that really took my skills to another level

[00:29:56] doing that oh no way yeah that's pretty easy is it um waves there obviously phenomenal so good so we didn't really get into the waves when we were there last year we more um followed the flat water

[00:30:12] definitely around no matter to and stuff the the wave winging and everything there is incredible and swimming pools and stuff so hopefully I'm gonna think about heading over there again this year

[00:30:25] because it's really close for us it's only about four hours away um super easy to get to same sort of time zone so it's a good spot yeah it's a good spot it's crazy I think

[00:30:39] that you can have conversations like this with people around the world it's pretty cool oh my no it's nuts we're for us to get over to the US it's so far we'll make it go something yes definitely

[00:30:50] I think it's 17 or so hour flight for us Canadians and people to get over there so worth it though I'd love to get started by seven ton of deadly creatures in one day I think that'd be a blast

[00:31:01] yep well we are talking about going up north to sort of port Douglas area and I'm like do I really want to go there there's crocodiles the sharks is whales there's the stingers

[00:31:12] everything like you do not want to fall in the water up there you're full be scary Jordan D had on yeah and just call it you get really good because you're just like

[00:31:25] now I'm not getting off this boat I'm staying on but yeah the damage is meant to be epic the first time I went to Maui that's like I was just inquiring about sharks and different things

[00:31:36] and everybody and just said just don't fall bro just don't fall and I'm like no it's just been any protocols to follow just don't fall so it's pretty much like god it's funny though

[00:31:48] because you talk to the locals at any of these spots and they're also used to it that it's not even a problem but for us we're like I don't want to go near that I have the turtles in Maui

[00:31:58] are a problem because they're everywhere yes yeah I've seen yeah I've seen a couple of them and they come like I was just surfing but they would breach up right beside you which is pretty cool

[00:32:09] massive yeah it's super cool to see but they're terrible it scares you that if you're not you see a little bit of shock or is it still yeah the things you see in your wing for early

[00:32:21] it's it's I talked to my friends who aren't into any of this stuff and they just don't understand I'm like it's just incredible things you say and get to do it's pretty cool are you kind of converting any surfers into this?

[00:32:36] so far not yet especially the females are really scared it like down here it's really hard to get them to do it because they're just I don't know it's it's intimidating and it's something new

[00:32:50] and a lot of the surfers are kind of looking at it like no I would I do that when I can surf every day like there's still that big surfing stigma and people aren't moving from it which in my

[00:33:01] opinion is good because I like how small it is still down here but I do want to get a few more people into it and and get them to realize because you know as soon as they do it they will love it

[00:33:13] but it's that transition of getting them away from surfing because I haven't touched my surfboard in like a year now yeah that but I guess I make sense I think I win surf three times and in

[00:33:24] 11 times I was like 90% wing foil it's just so crazy I know it's just whatever you want to do and that's the same down here it was a huge wing foot when surfing scene and now you just don't see any

[00:33:39] everyone's changed hmm what's the each demographic where you're sailing over there is it younger or is it all over the map or I'm the youngest so I'm 23 and the youngest down here it's definitely

[00:33:52] older there's a few others around my age probably about four or five of us and where kind of the ones that do the downwind isn't stuff and then between us from 25 to 30 there's it jumps up to like

[00:34:04] 40 50 um my kind of my dad's age he's 60 and that's a real big group because they're the ones who can afford it down here and everything and have the time so yeah all the young people down here are

[00:34:16] still surfing and you can't you just can't convince them otherwise which they're lost to say well whatever it's more more time and space for yeah for you guys to do it I think in time they'll

[00:34:33] get into it because we have a pretty cool point down here where you can sort of foil a really long wave and the surfers sit there and kind of watch you and I'm like I think soon they'll start to

[00:34:44] realize that they could be doing that we'll get bigger that was the craziest feeling I think when we all kind of go into it is that yeah that cruzy kind of surfing feel which takes your do you

[00:34:56] find like the acceleration everything's just much crazier right like it's so much faster a smaller wave feels bigger yeah definitely and that's why I love it because I'm like we could have

[00:35:07] complete on short day on short winds it's horrible and you'll still find a wave to foil like even if it's one foot you can still do it and it honestly becomes like a playground because you're jumping

[00:35:17] between waves and you're trying different things and and you just need to get one turn and it feels great whereas surfing you just can't do that you can't even get out there on on the

[00:35:27] day like that so everyone complains down you and it's on short winds and we're all like this is great no one else is there let's go awesome have you developed any tricks to get through white water

[00:35:39] to get through some good like breaking stuff unsure like what are your kind of yeah so getting in and out wise it's kind of just things you don't even think about you just sort of do but white

[00:35:53] water I just my thing is just a stay calm because if you stay calm and you stay standing you're going to be fine um think that the thing there with people is they get in the white water it's

[00:36:03] start shaking and you freak out so you just sort of fall off and then you're in the impact zone so I usually I try to stay away from the white water if you can but if you're going to go through it

[00:36:12] just sort of stay calm and cruise and I think that's a testament to my foils they're really the handle it's so well like they will just sit there and go and then sort of dismantle stuff

[00:36:26] it gets tricky for us because there are a few spots where the shorebreak really kicks up um so you kind of have to ride the wave you look at the one behind you and you you jump off the one that's

[00:36:37] breaking and then hopefully you're in the spot where this one's broken behind you too and you kind of follow that through so it's a little bit of a game to play otherwise you get tumbled pretty good

[00:36:49] but I think the thing to think about there is you're going to get tumbled and it's usually fine you'll be okay that's cool yeah so competition what do you think and next year

[00:36:58] I think next year I think next year um I'm in a time it's a tricky time my life right now because you know I've finished my degree everyone sort of telling me to work um which I don't want to do yet

[00:37:11] I do work but like I don't want to get into full time yet um and I really want to wait before a lot more so I think focusing on a competition will be really good because it'll it'll give me something to

[00:37:23] do um because I always need something to do and if you travel is enough it's just tricky for us because Europe and in the US are so far away so getting over to those competitions it's cost a lot

[00:37:36] and yeah that's a lot of time but I think next year hopefully we'll get something over there so what do you do out there then to stay kind of tip-top shaped you have gym routine yoga routine

[00:37:50] all that kind of thing or absolutely um yeah my friends think it would be crazy but if we're not in the water we're gonna go to the so it's kind of pretty much every day we're doing

[00:38:01] stuff whether it's a paddle or a or a foil or a wing foil and it's usually two to three hour sessions it sometimes twice a day like it's not the amount that we get out there um and if we're not

[00:38:13] foiling we're gonna go to the gym and I've got my sort of leg on back day that I rotate between just to keep yourself moving um and then I'm huge on the sauna as I feel like recovery with a

[00:38:28] sauna is awesome so I'll try and sit in that for half an hour to earn out on my stay's just to really recover your muscles otherwise you just get too fatigued and then yeah foods a big thing

[00:38:41] just a a lot and eight as clean and healthy as I can and I need a lot of sleep it's like a lot yeah yep well that makes sense so it's long satisfaction oh it's just you just get more

[00:38:54] now sometimes it's like 12 hours back to normal but um yeah it's kind of it's good it's become a good routine to do the foiling activity and then you do recovery that is stretching eat well

[00:39:07] and you're pretty right to go um but it is time consuming it's a lot of time yeah have you tried ice baths and all that kind of thing yeah I need to get into that next so

[00:39:18] I will do it in the ocean like in some mornings I'll go for a cold dip but I haven't done an actual ice bath yet I usually go the sauna and then the cold shower and do that

[00:39:28] sort of um that makes sense too yeah yeah just good but the ice bath is next um yeah because yeah we once the water gets cold if you're doing those it really helps

[00:39:39] again the cold water yeah we did those a few times on and Vancouver Island there at in Canada and we pop ocean ocean to sauna ocean to sauna and then it just yeah same principle

[00:39:51] like cold shower or whatever ice bath it's all kind of the same because of water that is pretty cold but definitely found some good benefits yeah good benefits from that and then

[00:40:01] content continuous gym too like a lot of people think that they might not need but if had some friends pop shoulders different things for just not continuously kind of strengthening and

[00:40:12] ligaments and sockets and all that kind of thing yeah so that's always a good idea yeah we always sit down here you don't always kind of the the surface thing to say but you don't always

[00:40:23] serve to train you have to train to serve as well like you gotta get in the gym and make sure everything's moving right um when you're pushing yourself that hard for sure that's very okay

[00:40:33] so we got competition dreams coming up any kind of cool trips you mentioned Fiji you're thinking this here again yeah thinking Fiji I did really want to get over to Hood River um there's a few

[00:40:44] few people going over there this year which would be epic to see but that might be an extra thing I think um to feed you's on the cards for sure New Zealand's on the cards because they get some good

[00:40:56] swell um and what do be other ones that we want to do we actually what we're discussing because we have down here in the surf course we're about five hours away from our mountains which gets

[00:41:08] some good snow so we go skiing and winter as well and there's a lake on one of the mountains and we really want to plan a trip where we kind of go up skiing and hopefully we can foil

[00:41:19] in the lake which would be freezing but fun something cool. So does it freeze up obviously or it does I think we have to look into this mooges is definitely just an idea we sort of threw in

[00:41:31] there but we want to really give it a go we like this is cool um do you have skates yeah yeah no I don't have skates so I think they do a little bit of ice skating but it's definitely

[00:41:42] compared to Canada when what has begin to the skating and oh for sure and it makes sense yeah we got beautiful beaches and we get a lot of snow but like swing skating is if you get the

[00:41:55] chance it's super fun because you can rip on those things if you're if you're used to skating you'd be scary almost you get pretty quick oh yeah it is it's as quick but us who are

[00:42:06] on skates like two and a half years old we're like kind of kind of used to it so you're just ripping around and bombing but snowboard wingings pretty yeah I guess the skiing and yeah my preference is

[00:42:20] skates I was if you can if you can do it yeah that's so cool I do want to try the the wing with the skates as well and see how that goes but have you fun yeah you've got a few things to try

[00:42:33] yeah exactly I because I mean we get some pretty windy days up there the weather isn't fabulous when we go skiing you know so you get you get some good wind which is cool.

[00:42:44] So is the rest of your family like I know you mentioned your dad was into wind surfing and stuff any siblings or other relatives and stuff that aren't it too?

[00:42:53] No it's just kind of between dad and I but he's he's huge and everything like we used to mountain boat together and we did kumps with that and everything so mountain biking was our big thing

[00:43:06] and I think that got us into the adventure of everything so between mountain biking skiing wing foiling it's just we love the adventure and he's always kind of in my role model for that

[00:43:17] so I think it's usually just him and I that that compete against each other and try and do all the things I do have a brother but he's he's not into foiling at all and hates when I talk about it he's like I'm here this again to it.

[00:43:36] Fair enough what's his go to kind of hobby or activity that he likes to eat yeah so he is still an adventure but as he loves his hiking so we go hiking a lot together which is really fun

[00:43:48] which is kind of a nice kind of crazy thing for me to do but yeah he's riding a hiking yeah yeah and um just begin to the gym and stuff and he loves all the outdoor things I'm

[00:44:01] I'm really trying hard to get him to foiling because I know who I love it but he's he's resisting because I'm better than him I think and he doesn't want to be worse than me. Just make a little wager or something I don't know.

[00:44:13] Yeah and just he happened to like to follow a lot that day and he he succeeds maybe that'll work a little bit. True yeah but my problem is I'm competitive so I want to be better you know

[00:44:25] you've got to brother so yeah it would uh it's funny you really can pay with each other. You can just fake it till about two thirds of the way and then turn it on at the end right?

[00:44:35] One taste hooked yeah and then you don't even need like this to cry. Definitely I think I'm gonna have to get him into it because yeah it's awesome. Nice. Well is there anything else you want to touch on any other kind of cool

[00:44:49] stories you want to share with the people about ours or a better spot to be into? I think that's pretty much it. I was gonna touch on one of the stories about downwinders we

[00:44:59] I mean the first downwinded was we had out the back it was like six foot swell and then it was a really windy afternoon and I'd never done one before and all my friends were like you'll be fine

[00:45:10] it's all good you know in a wing for you we have all good and don't want you out different downwinding is compared to just wing foiling and you're out there and they're like looking up at

[00:45:18] these ways and I was so intimidated it was it was pretty crazy but I think finishing that major kind of think oh you can do anything now um and how good it felt to actually walk on land

[00:45:32] after that was pretty cool um so after that there we go we got so hooked and anytime we had our south Wesley win that we created a bump we would go like it was like clockwork we were um

[00:45:45] would be out and this one day we were like all right let's go do one it was a little bit light um the sun was sort of setting it was getting dark and we're like we can fit one run in it takes

[00:45:55] us about an hour and so we drove up there we had a friend with us who had traveled down here and so he wasn't like he wasn't really ready he was on different gear and we were waiting

[00:46:07] around for him to get ready before he set off and I could sort of see the wind dropping out that this is gonna be good um we're really gonna have to race to the end and so it ended up just

[00:46:16] being three of us so like all right we got to go before the wind drops and we got halfway between these two spots and the wind just completely switched off like you could not you could not pump

[00:46:27] up you couldn't get going so we'd a paddling and I think we had like an hour and a half walk under the cliffs um with all like yeah back to the car and it was like pitch black by the time

[00:46:38] we got back but oh that's um that's not the right thing to do I got got in a bit of trouble by the parents for sure yeah I guess they were like driving around trying to find us and yeah

[00:46:50] it was it was not good but well that's a good for like there's a lot of little things I that you need to consider and think about especially when you're at the ocean and do you wear

[00:47:00] like any safety stuff or like watch or any of that kind of thing GPS trackers or whatever? Yeah so after that it got a bit more real real like right we really need to get our safety sorted

[00:47:11] so most of us have an Apple walked with GPS in it that we can call or text from and then we've got our PDF this we use Vi-Cobi and they've got all the safety stuff in them

[00:47:24] and I actually bring my phone with me in like a waterproof case so you've kind of got everything on you if something goes wrong you have to come in under the cliffs or something you can

[00:47:33] bring someone to pick you up now which is good okay just services and greater around there but yeah it works. We're sort of trying to think about a way you could yeah create like an apple

[00:47:45] or something that can track like find my friends but for downwining I don't know what sort of thinking about something we could do. I wasn't sure if Surf for App was building some of that

[00:47:55] functionality yeah they're coming up soon and he had a I think he was thinking of something like that I'd be so I'll have to look into it because I did hear a few people were thinking about sort of

[00:48:06] creating something like that which is necessary for sure. Like either local GPS or at least then you can have an idea. But yeah I think New South Wales has done something where they can do

[00:48:20] if they're really big into their downwinding but I just don't think it works down here so it's interesting yeah. Okay. I have to have a look. Well adventures coming up so that's pretty fun. Yeah

[00:48:32] I'm going to be great yeah and hopefully one day get over to Canada or something and just want to travel to all the spots I made everyone and talk about Win40 all day.

[00:48:41] You're not going to be so proud. Yeah you go to my my car one day and there was like a wet suit on the floor and like he's like oh yeah I'm proud exactly what I wanted. That's amazing. I've got the

[00:48:56] opportunity to like talk to Kylie a bit of and a couple other like female athletes and pros and their stories about them training with her dads is really awesome like it's cool to see

[00:49:06] yeah that's a thing. It's really interesting to me to see that a lot of us in common have that kind of father figure or someone who's gotten us into the adventure sports and show

[00:49:17] you why you should love it. I think if you're at a point where your my age and you've never been showing that it's hard to get into it. But yeah a lot of us and even the guys as well a lot of us

[00:49:27] we just brought up sort of doing it and our dads are really good at it and really into it and it helped immensely. I'm so so grateful that he showed me everything he has and just his love for

[00:49:39] it really like it was never about competition or competing or being the best. He was just like this is awesome here in nature and how cool is it? That's pretty sad. Yeah definitely yeah powered by

[00:49:50] nature and now with Win you can sit out there kind of surfaced style and just take the out and which I think is some of the one of the coolest things you can do. It is so cool. The other

[00:49:59] sports don't really allow you to as much I guess. Yeah like Win surfing your own sort of switched on. You can't just relax and yeah I think you're right, Winfling's I think that's why everyone's so

[00:50:10] hooked it's just seems really special really different to everything. So yeah let's do that. Any idea of where it's going for we right away. We talk about this all the time we're like what is going

[00:50:23] to be next because you see how much it's changed. You see how much cutting changed. Like it kind of came out and nowhere. I will like what could be next and I just have no idea what could happen.

[00:50:34] Like the boards have changed a lot for one and I think they'll keep going through that cycle of this is better and that's better but in terms of where it'll go it's it's hard to say

[00:50:44] and I feel like at the moment it's hit a point where it's slowed down a little bit and everyone's sort of like not much as changing as drastically as it was but it'll definitely take off again

[00:50:57] to something who knows. Any tips and tricks or the ladies to convince them to get out there because it's such a fun sport? Yeah I just I like I want to tell everyone just to do it like it's

[00:51:09] it's seems intimidating but it's not and if you can I think now it's great because there's a lot more information out there there's a lot of more women and other people that are willing to teach you

[00:51:19] and I think as a women myself I'd say just get out there and ask questions because everyone will help you if you're keen they will help you and just get on a big board a big wing and a big foil

[00:51:31] and just start to learn how to how to get up and that's where wing-fl things good because it's pretty crazy at the start until you really want to get into it you can you're not going to

[00:51:41] hurt yourself you're going to do it's going to be pretty crazy for you. That's true well hey thanks for coming on thanks for sharing the story thanks for having me it's been fun to talk about it

[00:51:54] yeah glad you enjoyed it. I love talking about other spots as well like Canada and and Mexico and everything is cool to just hear that everyone has different stories. Yeah like when we were talking to balls and stuff and he was on Switzerland and all these different

[00:52:07] athletes on all these different places and everybody has their home spots now which I think are opening up more because we can have fun on like you can have like even some of our lakes on Vancouver

[00:52:18] and that have really good wind but you'll have one foot two foot wind chop. You can still have a little fun you can still snap some turns and do some stuff and practice like up downwind 360s

[00:52:30] and all these kind of flatwater whatever things and it's in the exploration aspect is kind of phenomenal or you can go sightseeing so my next thing is I'll be sightseeing with a picnic and take a break and come back

[00:52:42] I think that's a good idea like adventures yeah yeah that's great that's one of my favorite and that's why hiking and all that sort of stuff it's like the adventure of it is the coolest thing

[00:52:52] like going to point to point oh yeah that's sick hmm well so can we get a really good surfer impression from you because you're in the land of us before we go. I mean it's actually funny

[00:53:07] because down here we always look at the US and we're like you know you hit the lip and you're like what power would that you like we're sitting in the water and just get angry each other so I don't even

[00:53:18] know what we'd say that's so funny we do have one of the guys down here it's pretty funny like we'll be surfing you'll hear him in the back and he's like he's literally in his mind and out loud

[00:53:29] he's like wow we're gonna hit this little one what are you doing we're a bit crazy but it's good that's it okay thanks for taking the time thanks Larry yeah and I hope everybody enjoyed our chat today

[00:53:46] and but yeah we'll have to talk soon definitely definitely came to say some of your other stories and who else is on here oh yeah for sure next awesome