Traveling the World with Kristin Boese: from Australia to Hawaii to Florida to Texas

While getting paid to kite and travel around the world may sound like The Life, it's also a lot of work: it's being on the road practically 365 day out of the year. It's not having a place that you can really call home. It's living out of your golf bags and your suitcases. It's staying upbeat and positive and being nice to everyone you meet, even when you might not feel like it. It's carting all of your stuff around on your back, everywhere you go, and it's sitting around in airplanes waiting for your next flight. It's not always easy being the Current World Champion, but you wouldn't know that from talking to Kristin ...

Posted Monday May 21st 2007

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Words by Kristin Boese

April 4 - 13, 2007: Meeting up with the R&D guys

Before I left Australia, I went up to Geraldton again and met up with the Best R&D team. It was very interesting to talk about new boards, kites and so on and to also see some of it. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to show any of the pictures ... top secret ... maybe I can at least show you Thomas ... he is taking care of all of our boards:

Peter, Thomas and Jeff spend a few months in Geraldton, Western Australia, this winter to develop and test new equipment. With the great work and the quality of the 3 guys and the great and consistent conditions in Geraldton, you can be sure the new equipment is going to be amazing! Here is the point in Geraldton ... one of the beaches were the testing went on:

April 16 - May 8, 2007: Hawaii and shooting with Stephen Whitesell

After Australia, I went to Hawaii to get ready for the season and to practice in some strong winds for just a few days. I got lucky, and even though at this time of the year there are normally no waves around, I got two swells and got to ride some waves. And I must say I really love to ride waves.

Me and my surfboard on Oahu:

But most of the time I freestyled in strong wind conditions (with my 5 meter Waroo which I really, really like!) on Maui and we even got 2 days with a little lighter wind so I could also try my new Yarga 9 meter.

I also got really lucky and got to shoot with Stephen Whitesell which is great fun. He really likes to shoot out of the water and is really motivating, always smiling and just a real good photographer. I hope you can see some of those pics in the magazines soon. Unfortunately I don't have any of those pictures yet, but might be able to show you some of them soon!

May 10, 2007: Girl's Day in Florida

On my way from Hawaii to the Velocity Games in Texas, I finally got to visit the guys in the office in Delray. I was really surprised to see how big the office is and how many people work to make the company as professional as it is. It was nice to meet everybody and to get an idea of how everything works.

But of course, I could not just disturb the people in the office all day and so Stacey (my lovely team manager) took me away from the office and onto the cable park close by. The result of that: a nice little clip of our Girl's Day ... right click here (and open in a new window).

May 11 - 13th : 2007 Velocity Games, Texas

Even thought they changed the name of the event at the last minute and it was called "Wind and Water Open," it was still the good old Velocity Games - a really well organized competition with real nice people around. It was the first time ever that I competed in a competition in the USA and realized that I did not know any of the American competitors. So I got to meet a lot of new people which I really enjoyed!

(Sorry, Kristin ... that was a really bad picture you sent in of me and I had to change it. It pays to be in charge of putting these things up ... I get to control how I look :) - S)

Even better though: Best sponsored the competition and so we went there with a whole bunch of people and a Best tent and a lot of giveaways. Stacey (my team manager) came to compete herself, Keri and Sean came to promote Best at the event and also brought 2 Best girls along that turned the heads of all the guys.

Everything was just perfect ... the spot was super nice, the water incredibly warm, the people nice ... but one thing was missing: the wind. Unfortunately, we did not get any wind at all and could not compete at all at the Velocity Games 2007. Anyway, I would definitely like to come back next year!

To read more about Kristin, right click here (and open in a new window).