We’ve always suspected that moms who kiteboard are cool — but in honor of Mother’s Day, we set forth to prove it. We asked Colorado kiteboarder (and mom) Amy Ward to talk with us about motherhood and kiting. The result? 10 reasons kiteboarding moms rule.
1) They make every second spent kiting count.
Dawdling on the beach? Forget about it. Long conversations about what kite to rig? Oh, please. The babysitter’s time is ticking and they’re charging a fortune. Kite moms make strategic strikes. They ride hard and never take time on the water for granted.
2) They have better things to do than lay on the beach, catching up on trashy novels.
Kite moms are a motivated bunch. When they do have free time, most would rather be up and active than lounging around drinking Mai Tai’s. (Though, Mai Tai’s apres kite aren’t ever a bad idea).
3) They meet their girlfriends for downwinders instead of coffee.
Coffee is good, but kiting is better. Gabbing is the thing you do in the car on the way. A little less conversation, a little more action please — before the kids need another feeding.
4) They’ve been through childbirth and nothing is scary after that.
Try a new trick? Why not. Worried about your first self-rescue? Get over it. Kite moms may have stronger instincts for self-preservation as a result of their responsibility to offspring, but they also have a fierce capability to push their own limits — having discovered through delivery, just how capable they really are.
5) They’re brave enough to wear bikinis.
Vanity-schmanity. If a body works and it’s working well — that’s what’s important. Kite moms have their priorities straight.
6) They fly kites with mad skills.
While flying a kite, kite moms will also be seen handing off a baby, kissing a spouse, pointing to lunch in the cooler, and telling the dog to stay — just so they can get off the beach for a fix.
7) They expose their kids to different cultures by dragging them to exotic, windy locales.
This deserves serious high-fives. It’s a global world, people — and kite moms know that getting kids with the program early through sport is just plain smart.
8) They don’t wait all day for the wind to be just right.
You won’t see kite moms hemming and hawing, or making excuses for reasons not to ride. They get out there. They go. They don’t have the luxury of waiting for “perfect conditions”, and they know that perfection is over-rated anyway.
9) Their kids think they’re cool.
It’s not likely that knitting or scrap-booking is something a kid will boast about amongst their friends, but kiteboarding? Now, that’s cool.
10) They are raising the next generation of kiteboarders.
If moms are kiting, kids notice. If moms are talking about kiting, kids hear it. The future of kiteboarding will change significantly as more and more young people are exposed to kiting at a very young age. Kite moms are teaching their children well, and for that, we’re grateful.
photo by Christina White
Amy Ward lives in a house in the woods in Ophir, Colorado with her furniture-building husband and their two beautiful kids. Her first attempts at kiting were in 2000 on a traction kite sewn by a friend in the cabin next door. After getting dragged around on the snow for a few years, she decided it would be more fun to practice at the beach and her obsession with kiteboarding truly began.