2007 Girl's Camp, Wustrow/Baltic Sea

Weekend of Aug 11th/12th

Posted Tuesday August 28th 2007

By Kristin Boese

Coming back from the KPWT in Morocco, I met my mum at the Airport in Berlin. She brought me my van and some clothes so I could go to Wustrow, 3 hours north of Berlin, to meet up with 20 girls the next morning. It was time again for my Girl's Camp! Five years ago, when I still used to compete in the national competitions, I really wanted to do something to motivate girls to take part in the kiteboarding competitions here in Germany, as we were only 4-5 girls competing back then. So I just invited all German "kite-chicks" to a free-of-charge girl's camp. We had a great time, and everybody was super-excited just to kite with girls for a change – but the most amazing thing: just kiting together, the girls motivated each other so much that EVERY SINGLE GIRL learned something new... if it was a back flip or a surface handle pass, it did not matter ... we all were so stoked. After that first camp we all went to the Germany "Kitesurf Trophy" in Rostock the weekend after and we had 18 girls competing! I still cannot believe that when I think back. Well, anyways, since I just had so much fun organizing that camp every year and just watching the girls improving so much and having fun together that it was now the 5th time we all met up and had a great time together.

Unfortunately, this year's camp was the first ever one with no wind at all. Also the weather was really bad and it just kept raining and raining. So we had to come up with things and ended up going to the "Koerks" cable park every day, were it did not matter if it rained or not as we got wet wakeboarding anyways.

Some of the girls had never been wakeboarding before, so I helped them to get on the board, explained sitting and jumping starts and everybody got on the board on the first day.

Other girls learned jump starts or surface handle passes and some just had fun riding around and training the muscles for the next kite session.

In the evenings we went for dinners together and had some drinks in the Surf Center Wustrow (our host, big thanks to them!), in the mornings we all had breakfast together and just did things without the guys! Actually, well, we had 2 TV crews showing up (of course all guys) and also our photographer Thomi was not a girl, but well, it is for the media and for the best of the sport, so we dealt with that :)

On Saturday afternoon, we all went to Zingst, to the beach were Silke Gorldt died 5 years ago. It was very moving for me to be at this spot the first time again after the accident and our ceremony was very hard for me. It was so great though to have all the girls there to remember Silke's great spirit and to think of her all together. We threw flowers into the water and sat there talking and thinking about what a great person she was and it really felt as if she was with us. I really wish she could have really been with us.

And for her and with her spirit, I would love to mention the Silke Gorldt Foundation that supports people that suffer from kite surfing accidents and organize kite camps for kids. Thanks to everybody that still remembers and puts in so much effort with volunteering.

And of course also thanks a lot for all the girls for coming to Wustrow and for having so much fun and enjoying the time together once more!

For all previous news on Kristin Boese, click here.