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. 🪁

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

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 has since made the world her home.

This conversation goes well beyond the competition highlights. Nathalie opens up about the mental game behind Big Air — the journaling practice she's kept for over two years, working with a mental coach, and what it's like to simply enjoy the time in the water during a heat. We also talk about what it means to build an identity outside of kitesurfing, the beautiful community between women on the GKA tour, the walkie-talkies and banana strategy that gets her through competition heats, her sister's role as her most important support person, and why she travels everywhere with a teddy bear, a yoga mat, and a set of board games.

Grounded, honest, warm and genuinely fun — this one is a treat. 🪁

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 entering competitions these days, and why "free ride" categories might be the key to changing that.

They also dig into the role of yoga in kitesurfing recovery and injury prevention, how kite culture has shifted from "just kite more" to gym sessions and protein shakes, and what makes a destination like Akyaka so special — protected nature, zero high-rises, and a community vibe that's hard to find elsewhere. Things get especially fun toward the end, with talk of slalom races, kitesurfing challenges, and a half-serious pitch for a kitesurfing app.

A warm, funny and wide-ranging conversation between two people who clearly love this sport. 🪁

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 for you.

The conversation goes deep, in the best way. They cover the mythology behind sirens and mermaids and why the figure means so much more than the male gaze version of it, what cold water surfing in a thickest possible wetsuit actually feels like, and why the North Sea will teach you something about letting go of expectations. Lena walks through her holistic approach to surf coaching — always a mix of mental, physical and embodied work — and explains the "Surf Your Cycle" workshop she developed around hormones, energy levels, and what your body needs at different points in the month. There's also a brilliant thread on fear of deep water, the Blue Mind theory, surf therapy as a practice, and why sometimes the most radical thing you can do is just sit with a cup of tea and look at the sea for 20 minutes.

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 Henning have been working towards this for over a decade, including seven years just waiting for permits. Now the diggers are in, the groundwater is high, and the dream is finally taking shape.

The conversation covers everything: how Maria got into wakeboarding, why she co-founded Nordic Wake Girls back in 2014, the case for building a water sports community that feels like a second home, what it actually takes to build a cable park from scratch in Sweden, and why more girls in the sport starts with atmosphere, female staff, and making it genuinely okay to fail. There's also a great thread on the creative process — from Pinterest boards and aquarelle sketches to AI visualisation tools — and a peek at what Flip & Fun will eventually offer: a restaurant, a sauna, cabins, possibly a snowboarding hill, and year-round riding if they can swing it.

One to watch. Literally. 🌊

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 to connect, kite, and just breathe.

The conversation goes far beyond kitesurfing. We talk about what it means to enjoy the water without any ambition to compete or perform, the particular joy of finding treasure at a flea market, sustainability in kitesurfing (and why the industry still has a long way to go), and the very Eastern European experience of being "programmed" to chase the safe career, the house, the plan — and slowly unlearning all of it. There's also Ocean Pilgrims itself: a jewellery brand that started as a creative outlet and quietly became a whole philosophy about reclaiming beauty, self-expression, and connection to the ocean.

One of the most poetic and soul-felt episodes yet. 🌊

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 decision to pack up and move there for a year to learn properly — that's where it all started. From there she found Barbara, the founder of Big Blue Boards, the first kiteboard brand built specifically for women, and ended up as ambassador, co-owner, and eventually sole owner of the brand.

They dig into the gear side — why women were stuck riding boards that were too heavy, too stiff, and too big, why "shrink it and pink it" was never the answer, and how the industry has slowly started to catch up. They also talk about what actually builds confidence on the water, why kiting in imperfect conditions is more valuable than perfect flat water sessions, and how Pilates and strength training are quietly becoming every kiter's best kept secret.

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 of ground: how Su accidentally fell into product design, what it's like to design a kite with a specific person and brief in mind, and how that approach led to the Alpha V4 — the kite she rode to a 25-metre jump and a Woo Worlds win at 49 years old. The conversation also goes deep on a topic that doesn't get nearly enough airtime: the lack of gear designed for female bodies. From harnesses that ride up to your chin, to wetsuits that only come in one shape, to the first women's harness finally designed by a woman — Su breaks down why this gap exists and what it would take to fix it.

There's also a genuinely brilliant riff on why brands should stop trying to steal each other's customers and start thinking about who isn't kiting yet — and why that's where the real opportunity lies.

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 overcome fear in kitesurfing (both in the water and in your own head), the difference between coaching beginners and competitive riders, and why visualizing a trick before you ever get on the water might be the most underrated training tool out there. Athea also opens up about getting sponsored, what goes into producing tutorial content, and why a strong female kite community makes all the difference — whether you're at a world-class spot or a tiny windy town in the middle of nowhere.

A genuinely fun and inspiring episode for anyone who wants to progress their kiting — or just needs motivation to roll around on the floor practicing board offs until the wind comes back. 🌬️