THE COOLEST JOB: KITESURF INSTRUCTOR

iko, Kite girl life, The instructor life

FOR WOMEN BY WOMEN

By Elena Buetto & Giorgia Matteazzi

GO FOR IT.

GET IN THE GAME.

IT’S AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED.

Ask many female kitesurf instructors what they think this job looks like and you’ll get many different answers with the same meaning: SIMPLY AMAZING

May be an image of 2 people, including Giorgia Matteazzi and people smiling — Kiteboarding Girl: Like a regular Girl but much cooler 😀

Most of them switched their life and decided to have the best office views in the world, good vibes surrounding, share their passion and face exciting challenges every day.

So, if you are considering the idea to turn kitesurfing into your job, this is our suggestions: Go for it! Get in the game! It’s an experience not to be missed and, if for any reason it doesn’t work, you can always come back and you’ll still have a cool story to tell.

We’ve all been in your shoes.

More and more women are getting closer to the extreme sports, we want to encouraged you and let you know that there are many other girls ready to welcome you and to share fun.

What I love most about this job is the opportunity it offers to travel and discover new places, coming into close contact with the local lifestyle and people. By teaching kitesurfing, you spend your days on the beach, enjoying the energy of the natural elements, practicing sports, having a healthy lifestyle and always meeting different and interesting people. What more could you want?
Martina

Together with @lagiokite, we interviewed some super girls teaching all around the best spots in the world and we got something you ought to know.

Kiteboarding is funny but it’s still an extreme sport.

Ladies (and men too), keep this in mind: no one is born knowing everything so, we all need to be (well) trained as knowledge empowers people.

IKO, the International Kiteboarding Organization, offers a worldwide professional training program.

IKO – International Kiteboarding Organization

All of us need to learn how to teach kiteboarding in the safest way in order to avoid that anybody could be exposed to danger.

No strength needed.

90% of people think that we need strong arms to “hold” a flying kite. I am sure that before approaching to kitesurf, you thought that this sport required a lot of upper body strength.

Girls, teaching kiteboarding is about passion, good knowledge and communication, empathy, and a lot of patience. These few qualities are essential to get the trust and the attention from your students.

Often men are stronger. But, as women, we can assure you that we learned how to compensate for any lack of physical strength using better technique.

Girls should have no doubts about being able to do this job for the simple reason that female instructors are exceptional because of our natural ability to multitask, something that men tend to lack. We are generally very sensitive and have an innate ability to listen and almost infinite patience (an essential characteristic in teaching).
We are precise, dynamic, tenacious and technical, everything you need to be a professional kitesurfing instructor!
Marica

For sure, as Sara said, we need to be active girls, athletic and ready to spend long hours walking on the beach (or in the water, if your spot is a lagoon). Giulia reminded us that it’s physically demanding, but Giorgia has not doubts on the fact that ladies are clever enough to find smart solutions to make it easier.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a big community to share tricks and suggestion?

Kite instructor or psychologist?

As Sara remind us, every person is different so we have to focus on the students’ needs. A good instructor must adapt the lesson according to circumstances: we are trained to help people to give their best.

Giulia loves seeing people going from zero to hero and she truly understand the ones that fight with determination as she neither was immediately successful when she approached the first times to kitesurfing.

We completely agree with Chloe that thinks that techniques and practice is just a less part of the work, as psychology plays a big role and our aim is to keep the student highly motivated, focused, with the right determination to go on.

All of this comes with the experience, but it is also the main part of the IKO training course.

And if something happens?

There are a lot of potential dangers involved in kitesurfing, and you will experiment/touch with hands some of them.

Look on the bright side and take it as an opportunity to become a more experienced instructor. Whatever seemed impossible before, will become your daily bread.

Remember when I said that you, as everybody, need to be well trained? This is what IKO trainers do: they teach you how to deal the unexpected.

I love this job for so many reasons, but mostly that I get to have the most beautiful office I could ever ask for and kiting almost every day, Also possibility of travelling to other stunning spots around the world. I found teaching to be very satisfying job as well. I get to meet many cool people and it’s always great to see my students progressing.
Basia

Shadowing

After the trainee course you might be required to have some shadowing hours in a IKO center, it means that you give lessons to real students supported by a more expert instructor. It is a unique chance to keep training and to get more field experience led by somebody that’s going to help and give you precious advises and suggestions.

Remember that we are part of an amazing community: kite surfers watch out for each other in and out the water, just think of the help in launching and landing the kite.

You will be an independent instructor; this doesn’t mean that you can’t ask for your colleagues’ opinions. Be humble and eager to learn from everybody.

It’s an amazing job! You will meet many other kiters and lovely persons from all over the world. But be aware, you must love teaching and stay & walk on the beach all day long. Plus, you’ve to be a pretty patient human being!
Sara

So, 100% Pro and NO cons?

We are used to be positive people, but we can’t lie and say that everything is perfect.

Surely there are not always Caribbean days at the beach: winter strong wind and cold water make everything much harder for both instructor and student. Also, hot sunny days with so warm wind are difficult to afford too.

This is why it’s very important to wear the right gears, protect our skin, drink a lot of water, use sunglasses and why not, ask for more suggestions to our instructors friends that can’t wait to share with you the old wives’ tale.

You should also know that during the windy hours you’ll probably have to teach, so you’ll miss the best wind and waves to enjoy. We always suggest to find the way to keep riding for yourself not to lose the passion as well as to recharge your batteries.

we love to teach girls.

Women are clearly under-represented in this sport.

We are so excited when our students are girls and women. It means we are contributing to make the kitesista community bigger. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t hesitate to become a kitegirl instructor and to inspire many other girls.

Don’t underestimate yourself.

Push your limits and give your best, be confident and trust in yourself. We got it, so you can get it too. Basia would say to anyone to just follow heart and dreams and not to forget that girls can do anything!!!!

Jump! Do it! And if you don’t like it after, you’ll always have a cool story to tell. Sharing your passion with others is a gift for ourselves too!
Giulia

Do you wanna read some funny stories? Keep on reading the experiences shared by the women kite instructors we interviewed:

Basia

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? Hi, my name is Basia and I’m 25 yo. I was born and raised in Gdansk, Poland. I’m IKO instructor level 2.

Funny story: This job never gets boring, and it’s another thing I love about it. I’m currently living and working in Kilifi, Kenia, which is not a very touristic place. So from time to time you get to see local people herding their livestock on the beach. One time during my lesson I had to escape into the ocean because the cow started running on to me, probably feeling threatened by the kite I was holding in my hands.

Insta: @basianiez

Giulia

What’s your name? How old are you? Your IKO level? My name is Giulia, I’m going to turn 30 in October 2021, IKO level 2, really close to level 3.

Funny story: One time I didn’t share with my students that we were connected via radio communication. She was setting up the lines downwind and she misplaced the bar. She was 20 meters from me and she couldn’t hear my feedback with the wind, so I activated the radio. She didn’t understand where the voice was coming from, got scared, jump up, and did a 360-degree pirouette, ending up with her bottom in the sand. We couldn’t stop laughing.

Insta: @lulytakites

Chloé

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? My name is Chloé Rodriguez, I am 30 years old and I come from Grenoble in France. I come from a city surrounded by high mountains and after spending more than 20 years on the ski slopes I decided to change my environment.

Funny story: I taught a student for 10 hours how to pilot the Kite, safety system, body drag, and come the day I show him the water start! super-enthusiastic, he goes away from the shore and tries his first water start. unfortunately, he loses his board and his reaction stunned me: he poses his kite on the water and disconnects completely from his Kite and he starts swimming to go get his board … I see the kite fly away far away and I have to quickly jump in a boat to get it. when I come back to him I ask him why he did that because before we had learned body drag and he replies “I thought it was going to be faster” that’s sure to finish this lesson it was quick.

Insta: @chloe_rapanui

Sara

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? I am Sara, a 33-years-old IKO Instructor from Italy. I am IKO level 1, teaching and kiting around since 2014. I’ve been teaching > 1500 hrs and > 200 students from all around the world.

Funny story: I have many many stories, I could have written a book/blog! A very funny story is back to Brazil 3 years ago. I was doing assistance for a medium-distance downwind trip. You might think, WOW. But many things happened on the way and I had somehow to fix everything… a kite bladder exploded, a board-strap too. A boogie almost stuck in a river mouth. Huge cuts on a customer’s feet…It’s a nice job but sometimes things are very challenging and funny!!

Insta:@starella Blog:www.lakitesurfista.com

Lucia

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? Hello, I’m Lucia Sciuto and I’m 29 years old, I’m Italian and I was born in Catania, in the beautiful Sicily. I’m an Instructor iko level 1.

Funny story: One of the funniest things that happened to me especially at the beginning was when I used the bb talking radios, often when I took back the kite and the board of my students upwind to the “waterstart” point I forgot that they could hear me and while I was kiting they heard me singing and having fun in the waves LOL.

Insta: @lucia__sciuto

Beatrice

What’s your name? How old are you? Your IKO level? Beatrice, 36, Italy, Instructor 1

Funny story: Funny things happen every day, that is what makes this job interesting, every student can surprise with absolute non-sense questions either acting super weird(like my last student trying to deflate the kite while lying on his belly with the kite under himself 😂)

Martina

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? My name is Martina. I am 30 years old. I am from Milan, Italy. I am an IKO Instructor and Assistant Trainer.

Funny story: My teaching experience is full of funny stories, little anecdotes that are the basis of sincere and lasting friendships. I remember a couple of beginners who asked my colleague and me to do a little challenge off the course. We were two teams (instructor + student) and at the end of 10 hours whoever had made the most progress had to take the other team out for a dinner. The atmosphere was not tense at all, we had fun and spent our lessons laughing and joking, involving others as well. How did it end? Offering dinner to two hungry men cost me and Lisa a little, but it was worth it!

Insta: @martina___brambilla

Megan

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? Megan Frey, Age 36, Originally I am from Orcas Island, Level 3 (just passed exam yesterday) 🌊🥂🐋

Funny story: + A funny story with kiting… Every day, humor is the best for learning… Sometimes I can be a complete goofball with my metaphors when teaching that my student can let down to make the necessary errors in order to learn while bypassing their inner critic. Sometimes if a student is too worried, asking many questions or judging themselves for not understanding at lightning speeds… before I answer them I’ll dance to put a new vibe in the air and then they laugh and then I answer and then they explore even more. And at the end of the day, they are way beyond where they were at the begging of the day.

Insta:@frey.wellness Blog: www.freywellness.com

Marica

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? I’m Marica, I’m 40 years old, and I’m an IKO Instructor Level 3.

Funny story: An adult office man on vacation with his children came to take a lesson with me starting from zero. He was a very sporty man, very tenacious, determined to learn how to kitesurf, and after struggling to make his first board, he looked at me with a face as enthusiastic as a child’s and said: “That was so cool, no chemical drug can do the same!”…we laughed till tears!

Insta: @marica.iko.instrutor Blog: www.senzalatte.org

Giorgia

What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Your IKO level? Giorgia, 34 (still 27 in my head), Italian, IKO Level 3 hopefully soon to be an Assistant Trainer ;P

Funny story: Once I had a student who weighed 120kg…just about double my weight WTF At a certain point of the lesson I had to take his kite and walk on the beach and I was flying away so he was holding me by the harness while walking sooo people didn’t know who was the instructor and who was the student anymore eheheheh

Insta:@lagiokite Blog: https://justkitesurf.com/

Thank you for reading! And if you want to know the process to become an IKO instructor please don’t hesitate to contact me either via instagram: @lagiokite or via email: matteazzi.giorgia@gmail.com

Ciao ciao!!!

LaGio

The life of a kitesurfer instructor: a few things to know when you start!

Kite girl life, The instructor life

Reading time: 9 minutes

Yesterday morning I woke up super tired, after a week of lessons, and on Saturday I spent all day at the beach teaching, thinking that it would have been the longest day ever as I had another full day at the beach… AND INSTEAD: what an incredible Sunday! I’ve had a combo of 3, not 1, but 3 very successful lessons where my students came out super happy and achieved all the goals of the lessons. These are the days I am really proud of!

So you might think that the life of a kitesurfing instructor is a piece of cake, wakes up, goes to the beach, enjoys the sun, she/he’s all tanned, chilled out at the beach for a few hours teaching the students, hangs loose, goes for a kite session and then goes for beers…living the good and easy life!

HAHAHAHA you wish!

No I mean, it’s generally like that but I choose to work in a very cool spot called El Médano where the conditions sometimes are not really your friend teaching-wise.. riding-wise instead it’s a lot of fun!!!

So if you are an instructor or you would like to become one here’s a few things to consider when selecting your first or next job 🙂

THE DRESS CODE

Since we were talking about this let’s start from here 😉 Depending on the spot, how you get ready for the class can be quite different.

Unless you teach on a tropical island in the Caribbean where the temperature is warm and the wind is warm, you have to wear the wetsuit all day long and in some cases a wind jacket so you get a super weird tan… On my legs, I have 3 marks of tan based on which wetsuit I use therefore I look ridiculous with shorts ahahah

When you work in a spot with strong and gusty wind, in a small space, with waves (seriously what a combo) the chances of falling kites arise so I use a helmet while working because I got a few kites dropping on my head and it wasn’t fun.

And generally speaking, when you work all day under the sun with flying sand your face and skin get a lot of damage, most of us in El Medano use a sort of scarf/neckwarmer to protect the face, sunglasses otherwise your eyes will get red and hat.

I ended up going to the beach like this:

And my colleagues as well!

Luca, Diego and Enmanuel getting ready to rock!

PROFESSIONALISM!

The most important thing I would like to clarify is that being a Kitesurfing instructor is a job, a very fun one but still a job, and like any other job there are responsibilities and you need to be professional also because you are teaching an extreme sport.

How can you do so? By learning a teaching method that will allow you to teach in the safest way possible all the steps to bring your student to zero to an independent rider.

Mind my words > independent rider and not simply to teach the student to ride. Because the world is already full of people that don’t understand the wind window and don’t know how to launch a kite or kiters who never walked on the beach before, never body dragged and don’t know how to get back to the board when they lose them, etc., etc., etc. At the end of the day kitesurfing it’s an extreme sport and we, the instructors, have the duty to prepare future kiters to be independent to avoid most of the injuries and accidents.

There are several international and national certifications. You can choose your certification depending if you stay in one country or if you travel around the world. For example, if you live in Tarifa you will need the FAV certification otherwise you won’t be able to work there. Instead, if you would like to travel around the world, working in a different spot I would recommend an international certification like IKO. Which has an incredible network of schools all over the world following the IKO standards always looking for new instructors and gives you a good carrier perspective if you want to grow into the teaching world of kitesurfing and becoming an instructors´ trainer or a coach. Click here to see when is the next IKO course!

THE CONDITIONS

There are several types of spots where you can work as a kite instructor.

Imagine a big lagoon or a long beach with shallow flat water, warm light stable wind, not a lot of kiters= heaven!

Imagine a narrow beach, choppy sea with a fun shore break, gusty strong wind, lots of kiters= nightmares

In between these two, there is a huge amount of different combinations that can make your job easier or harder.

Then you can work from the boat or from the beach and these are two completely different worlds… So in general when you’re about to choose a spot to work there, try to understand well how the spot works to avoid any incredible surprises.

For example, in the past days we had heavy conditions: strong gusty winds (the anemometer at the certain point was going crazy 24 avg 32 gust WHAT?!?!), high tie in the middle of the day which reduces the space of the beach by half, then a meter of shore break to make the entrance and exit of the students more difficult and rocks all over the place… Luckily we don’t have a lot of days like this, but these days my heartbeat is basically dancing the cha cha cha all the time.

THE DIFFERENT KITE LIVES

There is a lot of type of lives that you can do while being a kite instructor.

I’ve heard of instructors doing each season in a different place so that they can travel and discover new amazing spots every 4-6 months.

Some instructors have agreements with schools so that they go in the winter season in one place and in the summer season in another place (every year the same ones) and in between seasons they have amazing holidays somewhere windy and exotic.

Other instructors do a very intensive season in one place where is granted that you work a lot of hours (like the Garda lake) and then they take the rest of the year off to travel and have a long holiday.

Some instructors do this job part-time in the summer season for fun in their local spot.

Others live in a place where it’s windy all year long so they can work on the same spot without moving too much.

When I started my instructor life I wanted to do like the first ones on the list, discover all the kite spots of the world. Then covid came and I was lucky enough to be in El Médano where I was able to live out of kiting lessons all year long. Now that traveling is a bit of a challenge, it’s nice to be able to stay in a place like this and work 🙂

HOURS OF KITING

When you think about the kitesurf instructor job you might think that you´ll also become a pro in kiting, sounds cool no?! well…. It depends.

If you go to work in a spot where there are only 4-5 hours per day of wind in the season, let’s be clear, those 4-5 hours will be dedicated to teaching and not riding.

I’ve done a summer season once in a spot where I completely forgot how to kite as we were teaching all the windy hours and once the wind stopped we were done teaching.

Now living in Tenerife where we have about 250-300 days of wind a year and 8-10 hours of wind a day I can go kiting every day, some times I am too tired to kite but some of my colleagues never miss a day.

This is quite an important point that sometimes we miss when selecting the first kite jobs and then you learn 😛

AMOUNT OF SCHOOLS ON THE SPOT

There are places where the spot is full of schools sharing the same beach like here in El Médano, Tarifa, or Cabarete and then there are places where there is only one school at the spot.

When you work for the only school in the spot it’s a very chilled atmosphere when you have more than one school then problems could arise.

Surprisingly in El Médano, we are about 7 schools (average 4-5 instructors per school) plus some freelancers, the beach is 250meters so not a lot of space and we all live in peace respecting the rules. Actually, there is such a good vibe that’s quite nice to spend the day at the beach! Sometimes when we go back to work after a few days of no wind it almost feels like going back to the office after the Christmas holidays everybody is so happy to see each other again!

However, I’ve heard of places where the schools are not as friendly to each other and there is not such a cool atmosphere…

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: MONEY

Usually, the hourly pay is more or less similar around the world, it goes between 15 and 25 euros depending on the spot.

The salary is based on the spot cost of living but also on the number of hours that you could work. Meaning that if you are on a spot where you could potentially work 40 hours per week, most probably the hourly salary will be slightly less. If you work only 10 hours per week it could be higher.

Some schools will pay you hourly, others could have a fix + variable formula, and with some, you could get a % if you sell more courses, equipment, etc.

Other things that can make the difference in the salary:

Equipment > whether you can use the school material to go out and have fun. For example, in my school, we can use everything, from kite equipment to foil, wing foil, surf, sup.. It’s awesome! We also have a great discount when we buy material from the school.

Tips > Another thing that can make the difference is the tips there are places in the world (like schools in 5 starts hotels) where you have more chances to get tips and you’ll make more money with them than with your salary. Once for a 2 hours class where I got paid 50 dollars, I received a tip of 70 dollars isn’t it nice?!

Sleeping arrangement > some schools provide a room, others give you an allowance to cover a bit of the cost and others nothing.

WORKING VISAS AND INSURANCE

Unfortunately some times in this industry the instructors are contracted not in the most legal way. Always check with the school if they´ll give you a contract, if you are legally allowed to work in the country and mostly if the school has an insurance and if it would cover you in case of accident with a student.

To be 100% sure I´ve done my own insurance via IKO here you can see the different type of insurances that they offer https://www.ikointl.com/instructor-renewal

Am I missing something? Write it in the comments or send me a message 🙂

If you are interested in becoming an IKO instructor in PKS Tenerife we will host another IKO instructors course in November > https://www.pkskitesurftenerife.es/en/cursoinstructoriko/

For all the other locations you can check when are the next courses here: https://www.ikointl.com/it/corso/istruttore-livello-1

If you are not doing it already follow me on Instagram AKA lagiokite and if you come to Tenerife come to El Médano to say “hello” in the windy days I´ll be at the beach working as a kite instructor with the PKS Tenerife School!

Ciao Ciao

Lagiokite

#KiteGirlsMonday interview by @lulytakites

Features, Kite girl life

This world of Instragram is definitely a fascinating one!

Often, I get to know people I share passions with – like kitesurfing or travelling or skating – we connect as we start to follow each other on Instagram and interact with each other’s content. It’s a little bit crazy because some time it gives you the feeling you kind of know the other person even though you have never met him/her in real life. But the beauty of this is that otherwise I would never get to know them and I would definitely miss out big time.

Everything happens virtually of course but some time, since the world of kitesurfing is soo small I get to meet some of them in person later. There are beautiful collaborations coming out of these encounters and as you share the same passions and values it’s easy to connect and come up with cool ideas 🙂

One day I was chatting with the beautiful Giulia, AKA @lulytakites, and she was telling me about her initiative #kitegirlsmonday. As you might know, the world of lady kiters is still very small in fact IKO says that 85% of the kiters are man and only a 15% are women. Which is why there are several people and accounts in Instagram that push to promote the sport among the women audience. We want to share our stories, to inspire women to start their kitesurfing journey, or any other journey, and let the world know that we are proud and happy to be waterwomen no matter your riding level 🙂

So @lulytakites came up with the idea of #kitegirlsmonday, she wants to share the stories of different kite girls to inspire other women.This is how she described it:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Giulia CM Ricci (@lulytakites)

“One of my biggest desires has always been to empower other women. It’s been in my head for a while now that I had to do something to make this happen. My dream is to create a community of indipendent badass girls who are passionate about water sports and kitesurfing in particular. Therefore, Every Monday at 3pm I’ll be posting a picture/video of a fellow Kitesurfing Queen 🌠 that I admire and that has inspired my journey so far. My goal is to attract more and more girls to the sport and show the world what we’re capable of 😎 If you’d like to get featured and reposted in my profile please tag @lulytakites and use the hashtag #kitegirlsmonday 🔥 I’ll reach out to you then on DM to ask you some questions about your water days 💙 Love, G xxx “

My first reaction was “oh yeah, that’s an awesome idea!”, so you can imagine that as soon as I saw it I wanted to be one of the women she talked about eheheh and I reach out to her, we exchanged a few messages and there was immediately a click!

We organized a video call so she could ask me more questions about my story and see if I was a good fit for her initiative. As soon as we connected to the videocall we kind of knew we were similar souls and we had quite a lot in common. Giulia was investigating in my past and she managed to make me talk about something I don’t usually share, which is the main reason why I changed my life and started to be a kitesurf instructor. So here you go the outcome of that chat:

“Yaaaasss it’s #kitegirlsmonday 😍 And today I’d like to speak about a real badass 😎
Giorgia, pure Italian blood, class 1986. A contagious smile that comes from within, from that happiness that only a daily dose of salty water can provide. We see each other for the first time on videocall and we immediately connect. She takes the call from Medano, Tenerife, where she’s working with @pkstenerife as a kite instructor. Giorgia first approached the kitesurfing world 6 years ago, when she was working in Amsterdam.
“It was too cold in the Netherlands; I didn’t get hooked to the sport back then”. How can we blame her 😂
We soon find out that we studied in the same university in Milan and that she also has a business background. Giorgia used to work as a Project Manager in the tech world, which a few years ago led her to move to Puerto Rico. There, with crystal clear water and sunny days, she finally fell in love with the sport, so much that she decided to become a kite instructor and pursue this path part-time.
“Rising career, well-paid jobs, lots of traveling, not too much need to watch every penny. Seems like the perfect deal. Why did you decide to leave everything behind and dedicate your life to kitesurfing?”
“Something very heavy happened that changed my whole perspective, my whole life. My best friend suddenly died, she was the same age as me and we used to travel a lot together for kitesurfing. I had to re-evaluate all my priorities, all my values. I had to ask myself: “Is this really how you want to live your life?”.
It took me two years to make this decision. Now, it’s been a year that I’m completely dedicated to this, and I haven’t looked back”. “I truly believe everybody should follow their passions, at least try, once in their life. Nothing is permanent, and if you think you made a mistake, you can always change again, and move forward as an improved and grown version of yourself. We have to let go of prejudices and fears, only then we can find our own formula of success”.Ladies, if you’d like a chance to get featured in my page, remember to tag me in your pics and use the hashtag #kitegirlsmonday 🔥 See you next week! Love, G xxx”