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IKO female Instructors - different women, different ways
08 Mar 2017
Women present their way to work as an IKO female Instructor.
What would have happened if Sabine Krossing had chosen the life in Germany as IT adviser in a big software company? Then probably the nice IKO Affiliated Center named “Tornadosurf” in Safaga, Egypt wouldn’t exist.
But Sabine decided to get new experience and gather impressions. While on her backpacking world trip in 2002, she got her first kite experience. Full of motivation from this impression, she booked a trip to Egypt to learn kiteboarding.
While on another world trip in 2009 she did the IKO Instructor Training Course (ITC) in Boracay, Philippines with her husband. “It was just curiosity,” explained the 51 year old woman. They did a trip to Boracay for kiting and the ITC course still had two places available.
“This decision has changed our life!”
After three years traveling and working as an IKO Instructor, they opened an IKO Center in Egypt that they had planned to keep only for 3 or 4 Years.
Now they have been enjoying their life there for seven years! “Of course Egypt is a male-dominated country, but if you bring respect to the Egyptians
and you adapt to the conditions, you will get respect in return .”
Sabine made her dreams come true and lives in Egypt with her own kite school. “Kitesurfing changed my life substantially. It was always my wish to
work outside and now kitesurfing is my job. Yes that sounds not only good, I have a wonderful life!”
She attaches importance primarily to giving other female Instructors a job and to offering them a perspective as an Instructor. At the moment, they are running an ITC with a 18 year old female candidate: she is inspired by Sabine and wants also to finance traveling while working as a kite Instructor. “I want to gain practical experience in kitesurfing and also in teaching. And what I decide after my traveling still written in the stars.“
More and more women think about an alternative to their office job. Why shouldn’t you use your skills and spend your energy on your dream?
Caroline Dickenson, 29 Years old, grew up in Venezuela, and has chosen a project for her step into self-employment. The project named ‘Kitesirens’ was formed by Carolina and two colleagues, Andrea Rabasa and Kelly Brown. All these women share the same passion.
“We wanted to reach an audience and get more girls involved in the kiteboarding sport.”
‘Kitesirens’ was developed through ideas from each of them. The vision was to use kiteboarding as a tool to help girls develop self-confidence and become
involved in an active lifestyle. They started teaching younger girls in Barbados, and they saw how happy and proud they were while learning kitesurfing.
“We got a lot of positive feedback and great sponsoring for our project, for example from IKO,” reported Carolina. She decided to become IKO certified
Instructor to have all of the necessary skills to teach kiteboarding. With their creativity, Carolina and her two friends found a way to turn their hobby into a job.
For the question “what gives you motivation?”, we got an inspired answer:
“Feeling demotivated motivates me to get in the water. I know how much I love the sport so it helps me to press the reset button. But my biggest motivation is when I see the point, while teaching kiteboarding, when there is a ‘click’. Your students overcome a mental block and transform their fear into enjoyment. They release their tension, relax and sink into the sport. It’s magical!”
These are just a few women and their different ways to work and live with kiteboarding.
Sabine Krossing and her student, Carolina Dickenson, Andrea Rabasa and Kelly Brown want to motivate other girls with their experience.