Inshallah, My Friend.

Tags

2013, Cabrinha, Egypt, El Gouna, kite safari, kitesafari, kitesurfing, lifestyle, pictures, Red Sea Zone, RedSeaZone, story

If living in Egypt teaches you one thing, it is patience. Being here often equals waiting: for things to happen, for people to do what they should, for conditions to be what you want them to be, for a stupid tricycle to come and pick you up when you’re already 20 minutes late. I’m one of those people who would want to have everything here and now, who would like to go and MAKE things happen, who would just try to take their dreams and force them to come to life… There’s still a big chunk of a city girl in me who blurts things out instead of thinking them through and power walks even when there’s enough time to take a lazy stroll… But it’s been almost two months and the things that were driving me crazy at the beginning don’t bother me now. I’m still a newbie here, but I guess the art of Inshallah (‘If Allah gives’) is a mistery to me no more. Whatever comes, comes and if it doesn’t then just chill and look for a positive somewhere else…

My instructor life here has been pretty uneventful lately, with a bit of wind, a bit of teaching and a bit of lazying around… A few days ago we took our clients for a 2-days long kitesafari and it was pretty cool It’s always fun to pack your kites and go teach in a remote location with clear blue water and no one to bother you. Students are always happy with it too, and if it gives them the motivation to practice harder, I’d say it’s the best thing ever!

Last week I had the opportunity to run my first IKO Assistant Instructor course and I must say I loved it! Showing other people how to teach and then observing as they put their newfound knowledge into practice gives such tremendous satisfaction! I was slightly nervous at the beginning about how it will all turn out, but in the end everything went great – my trainees were awesome, we managed to go through a lot of material and one of our guinea pigs during the course is now up on the board and riding! Now that is something I’m looking forward to organizing more such courses in the future!

Recently I’ve been invited to join a one-week kitesafari as a guest/rider… It starts this Sunday and I’m super stoked for it as it will give me a great opportunity to leave all the responsibilities behind and just film every (windy) day! I really need some ‘me’ time to focus and progress a bit, hopefully that’s gonna be it! Thank you Phil (the owner of the kitesafari boat) for sponsoring me with this awesome trip!

May wind be with you,
Suzana

All Girls Downwind and Evokaii Ad

Tags

2013, Cabrinha, downwind, Egypt, El Gouna, Evokaii, gallery, girl power, girls, kitesurfing, lifestyle, photo, photoshoot, Red Sea Zone, RedSeaZone

A few days ago we were a bit bored and so we decided to organize a downwind for all the RedSeaZone girls. We packed our things, took a bus and went all the way to El Gouna border, from where we kitesurfed back to RSZ. It was really a lot of fun to be just with my girl mates, I’m always doing everything with guys so it felt good to ride with women for a change! And we had so much fun just cruising downwind, doing tricks, high-fiving each other on the water and just being silly Hopefully we can do it again soon!

I’m very excited for tomorrow, because finally ALL MY KITE GEAR is gonna come here from Poland! This means my smokin’ hot new board and my 10m kite and some other cool things… I’m already getting ready to shred it hard on the water tomorrow – GoPro is charging, tripod is sitting ready next to my backpack and the camera is packed… I’ll film as soon as I get my hands on my things, I’ve been waiting SO LONG for this! So tomorrow’s gonna be a good day Hopefully some pictures will follow!

Stay tuned for more, and check out the little advert I did recently for my clothing sponsor Evokaii:

May wind be with you,
Suzana

Inner Peace

Tags

2013, Cabrinha, Egypt, El Gouna, gallery, kitesurfing, lifestyle, photo, Red Sea Zone

Sometimes you wake up in the morning and things are just right. The wind is blowing outside your window, the sun is shining like it wants to burn your eyes out and the salty smell is in the air, a mixture clearly announcing another good day in the Place Where You Should Be. As I am writing these words, I am seated on a comfy couch on the beach, hiding in just enough shade to see the laptop screen and trying to focus as our school dog pokes it’s nose into my side asking for some love and attention. Besides my very good friend who is getting on the water right now, there’s absolutely no one here. In half an hour everyone else will arrive, but for now this place is just mine. I like these moments of solitude.

It’s been windy all the time for the past two weeks so our beach life was the usual routine – work, ride, eat, sleep, check the tides, forget what day it is. It’s just so easy to sink into the life here. The atmosphere at school and the people that surround me are great, I’m pretty sure by now that this place will be one of my havens where I get back to charge my batteries. It’s always the same paradox – I couldn’t live here permanently, but then again I could not live anymore without this place either. Funny how you can have a home in so many places while not really having a home at all.

I haven’t been riding too much lately, because half of my gear is still in Poland and there’s just no way to bring it here at the moment. This is how you learn patience I suppose, because on one hand I am really dying to finally ride on my own things and start proper training, on the other hand I know there is no reason to frustrate and make it uncomfortable for others. So, patience. Inner peace. I don’t really believe that good things come to people who wait (in my world they come to people who actually fight for them) but I’m gonna wait all the same Sooner or later it’s all going to be okay, isn’t it?

It’s time to go now, students are coming soon. We’ll do a bit of filming today in the afternoon, just freestyling a bit for our friend who’s making this small local movie, but I’m looking forward to it. I always perform better when a camera is around, probably because the stress factor kicks in… otherwise laziness wins most of the time

Until next update, hopefully kicking ass on my new gear by then!

photo by Enfondo
http://www.facebook.com/enfondo.photography

May wind be with you,
Suzana

2nd in Spring Jamboree and Egypt Is My Home Again

Tags

2013, Cabrinha, competition, Egypt, El Gouna, Evokaii, jumping, kitesurfing, lifestyle, photo, pictures, Red Sea Zone, RedSeaZone, Spring Jamboree

After the whole 9 months long Greece-Egypt-Asia Chapter I was more than happy to visit Poland for a while – see old friends, spend some time with my family, finally take care of things that needed to be taken care of… it was all great and I’m glad that I did it, but the one thing that I realised while sitting in my old room is that the feeling of this place being mine, being my home base, being the place which I can mark as the starting X on the map… is gone. It is gone and it’s both extremely scary and very exciting, because it means that from now on there is no turning back, no safe haven where I can return if everything screws up. The path I was testing for the past nine months is now the only one I can take and I am fully intending to follow it and rock it while I’m at it! Every day new challenges appear, like my first small pro-camps (first one today – yikes!), events for girls, competitions… and all that while continuing to write, take pictures, make movies and never ever stopping focusing on what I love. It’s doable. And if I can do it, anyone can

I arrived in El Gouna almost a week ago and from that time on I’ve been either chilling out with friends or riding. I love my new kites!!! Switchblade Siren 8m is an IDEAL size for me for conditions 17knts+ and I’m sure it’s gonna be my main kite from now on… I already love it to bits, landing tricks is easy, comfortable, it responds well and has lots of small technical solutions incorporated in the bar that just make it so easy to handle! And yes, it’s pretty as well. All the people who have tested it so far like it a lot My board hopefully will arrive on Friday, can’t wait to have it in my hands! Cabrinha Poland, thank you soooooo much for making me so very happy!

fot. Piotr Camel Szlagowski

Yesterday there was a Freestyle Jam in RedSeaZone and I got 2nd place in ‘Women’ category It was a small competition where all of us went on water at the same time and had 30mins to do as many tricks as we can. You got different amount of points depending on the trick you did and they chose your five best tricks to get the final score. As I said, it was very small, but for the first time ever in any competition I did well, especially that I was overpowered and my board broke in the middle of the jam and I had to go back to the shore to fix it, thus wasting about 10mins from my time… I’m looking forward to any other comps in the future, it really is a lot of fun!

fot. karolina Małek

There’s not much more yet to write about my stay here, but hopefully at the end of the week we’ll do a small photosesh on my new gear… now that’s gonna be interesting and as of now, I want to invite ALL GIRLS to take part in FREE demo lessons every Sunday at 12:00. Come, try to fly a kite and I assure you you will get hooked to the sport!

May wind be with you,
Suzana

Asia wrap-up and I oficially GOT SPONSORED!

Tags

2013, 24surf.pl, adventure, Asia, Cabrinha, Evokaii, GoPro, kitesurfing, lifestyle, Mui Ne, sponsoring, Vietnam

Oh boy, oh boy, what a crazy week it has been. I landed back in my freezing motherland 9 days ago and from that moment on it’s been taking care of this, doing that, meeting up with friends, spending time with my family, signing contracts… crazy CRAZY but I find some kind of enjoyment in all the chaos unraveling around me

My 3 weeks in Mui Ne have gone extremely fast, but then again, if you’re surrounded by amazing people there is always not enough time to say what you want to say and do what you want to do. I started filming in Mui Ne a bit, but because of multiple reasons (the awesomest of them directly below ) there will be no Vietnam movie released… not this time, but I can always revisit next year Mui Ne was fun, I spent a lot of time lazying around with friends, did a bit of riding and in general just relaxed prepairing myself for the crazy two working-training months in Egypt ahead of me… thank you Liz and Jeff from c2sky kiteschool for once again becoming a part of my Mui Ne family – you made me feel at home even when my home was thousand miles away and if that’s not magic, then I don’t know what is And as far as some other amazing people go – this is NOT a good bye, just keep doing what you love and our paths will cross in the future for sure!

And now the time has come for the exciting news I have… I’VE BEEN SPONSORED by four amazing companies – Cabrinha Poland, 24surf.pl, GoPro Poland and Evokaii!!! You can check them out in the Sponsors tab at the top of the page This happened a while ago already, but only now back home I was able to meet with proper people, sign proper papers and make it all real and official I am extremely happy and I just can’t wait to get in the water again and ride ride RIDE like nothing else matters, especially that from now on I am not alone anymore, I can focus and do what I do without worrying about the technical part of things… I would like to kite-travel more, experience more, make more movies, take good pictures, write articles from places I have visited and help to develop women kitesurfing community around the globe! Getting more crazy, adventure-driven girls into the sport has always been one of my dreams and now, with all the help from my sponsors, I believe I really CAN make a difference! So, even though I’ve said it a thousand times already, from the bottom of my heart – THANK YOU for supporting me! You will not be disappointed!

I’m staying home only for 5 days more and then I’m off to El Gouna (Egypt) where I’m going to spend whole April and May. I’m going back to RedSeaZone and I’m planning to work hard and train even harder so that by the end of my stay I can land a few new tricks There will be a lot going on in the next two months over there, some local competitions, training camps and other interesting things… I will keep you posted!

You can follow me more closely on my FACEBOOK PAGE, all the daily updates, photos and other small things can be found over there!

Making my filming life A LOT easier…

…and making sure I’m warm and comfortable while filming and riding! Yes!!

May wind be with you,
Suzana

Rockin’ Bulabog edit and bye bye Philippines!

Tags

2013, Boracay, edit, kitesurfing, lifestyle, Mui Ne, Philippines, traveling, video, Vietnam

I’m a little late with this update, because exactly on the day of my second video’s release my computer and my tablet have simultaneously decided that they have lived long enough and that it’s time to die. And so, for the next three weeks I’ll be able to post online only when I borrow a computer from my friend…

I’ve left Philippines already and arrived today in the morning back in Mui Ne, Vietnam. I have already had one awesome session, looking forward to all the next ones! I can see my time spent on Boracay has not been for nothing, because my kiting is much better now (even though all the chop makes me feel really unsteady) than compared to two months ago I’m going to push it and learn something new in these 3 weeks I’ll be spending in Vietnam!

Below is my latest video edit, fully shot on Bulabog Beach on Boracay. It’s a great place and if you ever consider visiting Philippines to kitesurf, you definitely have to check it out! Big thanks go to Ocean Republic Kite Centre and to all my teammates and riding buddies – you are all a real inspiration to me!

may wind be with you,
Suzana

Seco Island, the land unknown

Tags

2013, desert island, gallery, jumping, kitesurfing, lifestyle, paradise, Philippines, photo, pictures, Seco Island, traveling, trip

Sun. Scorching sun. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to sit so that it does not touch my skin. Its rays burn my arms, my legs. My hair for sure will get even more golden highlights than before… but I don’t mind. How could I mind when I look around and all I can see is beautiful white sand, crystal clear blue water, crabs, birds, a few bushes, one little tree and nothing, NOTHING else? When you are in paradise, a few sunburns seem a fair price to pay.

Seco Island on Philippines is a small piece of land in the middle of the sea, about 3 hours boat ride from the mainland. It is just a sandbank really, about 400m long and maybe 100m wide, but the most amazing thing is that it’s completely wild, with no houses or any other traces of civilization whatsoever. A few kitesurfers who, just like us, have wandered into this desert place at some point have built small shelters, but they are just some palm leafs tied together and supported by two or three bamboo poles… on the island there is no electricity, no cell reception, nothing. The nuclear bomb could shred apart half of the world, a war could break out, aliens could land on Earth and conquer us all and you wouldn’t even know. This is amazing and I love it. I love the feeling of being independent, of being my own, of not having to care about anything besides food, water and… kitesurfing.

Seco Island is a perfect place to kitesurf, as over there you get consistent winds and flat water. On one side of the island, where you have offshore wind, the water is butterflat and on the other side you get small to medium kickers which can provide endless fun as well If you wish, you can kitesurf around the whole island in circles, it is just 400m wide after all… It’s a perfect place to progress and try new tricks and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing during our 3 days long stay there. I have a feeling I’ve learned a lot! In the mornings sometimes there are jellyfish on the onshore-wind side of the island, but as long as you stay on the butterflat side you will not get burned…

If you’re trying to learn you are meant to fall, but that’s OK!

If I wasn’t riding, I spent my time filming and the results you’ve seen already in the video Savages on Seco Island (and if you haven’t, go to my previous post and check it out NOW!) which received a very positive reception and has been published on all the major kiteportals online Makes me really happy to be able to share this amazing adventure with so many people!

Last look on Seco before we go home…

On a native Philippino boat in the middle of the sea, ready to set out on another adventure!

Seco Island trips can be organized through a few schools on Boracay, so if you ever wander into Philippines you just HAVE to go. If not, you will miss seeing a piece of paradise and let’s be honest – what could be more amazing than becoming a real Robinson Crusoe for a couple of days?

May wind be with you,
Suzana

PS. More pictures can be found on my FB Fanpage HERE

Savages on Seco Island EDIT from Philippines!

Tags

2013, edit, filming, kitesurfing, lifestyle, movie, nature, Philippines, Seco Island, wild island

Here it is, the edit I made after our 3-days-2-nights long trip to Seco Island on Philippines. A desert island with no one but fishermen around, three days of sun, wind, kitesurfing and having fun. It is easy to forget what kitesurfing is all about when you have to worry about work and money, but my stay there reminded me that NOTHING compares to what I feel while riding freely in beautiful wild waters with turtles and dolphins. Enjoy the video and soon I’ll post some pictures and an article about this magical place.

music: Jack Johnson – Upside Down
filming: Zuza 'Suzana' Czaplinska
additional filming: Benjamin Bernard Mettil, Valentin Lanoue, Oscar Werneman
editing: Zuza 'Suzana' Czaplinska
riders: Zuza 'Suzana' Czaplinska, Benjamin Bernard Mettil, Valentin Lanoue, Kevin Blavier, Marc Blavier

May wind be with you,
Suzana

Rockin’ Bulabog

Tags

2013, Boracay, gallery, kitesurfing, lifestyle, Philippines, photo, pictures, traveling, trip

Eat.Teach.Film.Kite.
Low tide.High tide.Low tide.High tide.
Eat.Teach.Film.Kite.
Party.Sleep.

The kitesurfing life can get very boring… haha, NOT. As always, we have sun and wind almost every day, and I don’t think I need to say anymore how happy it makes all of us. I’ve been kinda sick the past few days so I did not ride, but I don’t mind – I had a lot of time to film and I can safely say I have almost enough material for the whole Philippines edit Only some lifestyle bits here and there left to film and the only part that’s actually missing is ME riding, but I still have almost a month for that… so no stress Filming with the crew I hang out with here is super fun, they are all pretty good riders which makes me want to push myself a little bit more as well. And there’s still so much time to improve my skills…

Nights out with the crew are the best ones

Goproing on one of the sunny days

The day after tomorrow we’re all going on a 3 days 2 nights trip to Seco Island, which is supposed to be a wicked place for kitesurfing. I’m really excited for that! Expect lots of pictures and hopefully a Seco Island video as well by the end of the week

Filming with the boys:

May wind be with you,
Suzana

Sleep, kite, eat mangos… and teach in between.

Tags

2013, Boracay, gallery, kitesurfing, lifestyle, Philippines, pictures

Even though I’ve been through a pretty rough start with this island, Boracay has gradually grown on me over the past three weeks. I did not really enjoy my stay here at first, but now, after 23 days of getting to know this place step by step, I can honestly say that it’s good. The kite school is awesome, the weather is sunny again, the room where I stay is comfy and feels really ‘my own’ and the roasted bananas on a stick sold in the small shop on the corner are just the bomb! I like it here people. I like it a lot

Lately my days have been similar to one another: wake up, go to school, teach, kitesurf, eat way too much, sleep early so I have strenght to repeat the same the next day… I’ve also started filming already, hopefully by the end of my stay I will have A LOT of lifestyle and riding material to edit… to be honest it’s not hard at all, every day there’s something interesting going on and since I’m not occupied with other things all the time (like in Vietnam) I have actually time to walk down the beach and focus on playing with my camera Expect another I KITE IT VIDEO installment somewhere at the beginning of March

Lately it’s been windy almost every day, so I can teach and still get my everyday riding fix to keep me satisfied I’ve been trying some new things and managed to rip my kite in half in the process, but it’s all good – we have a really good kite doctor here, so the next day my kite was already repaired and ready to use

raley to blind gone wrong…

As of now, I’ve just finished a 3 hour lesson with my student so it’s time to relax, eat something and then hit the water! I love how in this school no one puts pressure on us instructors, we can pretty much do whatever we want… as long as we do a good job we’re free to ride or take a day off whenever we want. This is exactly the kind of working environment I work best in That would be all for now, signing off and until next time!

May wind be with you,
Suzana