For the longest time I’ve wanted to do a girls beach day, to cater for all of the people who regularly tell me they’re going to take kitesurfing lessons and then never do. No disrespect to them – I totally understand all of the barriers to entry for kitesurfing. It’s scary and looks dangerous, it looks like you need to be super strong, it’s expensive and the beach is full of people who look like they know what they’re doing. Being a beginner at any sport is intimidating.
When I floated my idea with Kiristen from Waterman and Amy they loved it and we decided then to take it a step further – why stop at kitesurfing? Why not introduce women to wakeboarding and paddleboarding too? And so Ride Like a Girl was born. We spoke to the local schools, put together a flier, made a website and started advertising. Our aim was to get 20 girls signed up. We ordered rash guards and crossed our fingers. So we were BLOWN AWAY when after only a week we had 22 girls registered. 7 days before the day the event sold out and we started a waiting list. The response was overwhelming and we could barely contain our excitement. Not only was there interest in our little idea but we were set to make a significant sum of money for our chosen charity, the Crisis Centre as well.
The day itself was incredible. We were up early emptying the contents of the Waterman store, lugging benches, beanbags, banners and tents to the beach to set up for the event before 35 excited participants arrived to take part in kitesurfing, wake boarding, yoga, paddle boarding and tight rope walking fun!
The buzz amongst the girls was pure positive excitement and everyone seemed to love their tasters of all of the sports.
For the first event of it’s kind everything ran smoothly and we can’t thank our hard working volunteers enough. Most importantly we made $2000 for the Crisis Centre! The response from everyone including the press has been incredible and we can’t wait to do it again! Watch this space and follow us on Facebook as we'll be announcing the date of the next Ride Like a Girl event very soon!
