Le site windfinder a eu le plaisir d'interviewer Susi Mai.
En voici un extrait:




Oliver: Tell us a little bit about your background. How come you live in the Dominican Republic? When did you move there? How did you get involved in kiteboarding?

Susi: My parents moved to the Dominican Republic in 1990 for windsurfing. They had always been seekers of the sun and when I was born they were running a windsurfing school in southern Italy where we spent half of each year. When I was 5 they decided to leave Europe behind completely and bought a place in Cabarete, which in those days was nothing more than a little fishing village with a couple of crazy gringos sailing around on windsurfers in the bay. I did elementary and high school there but went back frequently to visit my family in Germany. They made sure I wasn't losing all the German in me, hehe! If anything, at least I'm punctual and know about Mozart and stuff.
I first started to kite when a friend of mine, Gael, opened a school on Kitebeach and gave me some lessons. I remember I took one lesson back then and hated it. One year after that I got motivated again and decided I should give it another try. That was in spring 2002, but since I was still in high school I didn't get to go more than once or twice a week. I wasn't really into it back then, but when the PKRA [Kitesurf tour] event came to town in June I saw what it was really all about and suddenly I was hooked. It was also the first time I had seen girls riding and competing, and that was when I decided I really wanted to learn to kite. Of course back then I didn't think about competition or anything like that, I just wanted to be able to fly through the air and have fun.

Oliver: 10 years ago did you ever imagine or dream that you would be living a life as you do now? Were you lucky? Or do you think it's all about determination, commitment and passion?

Susi: I would have never ever guessed that I would be a pro kiteboarder. I was just a random teenager with no clue of what I wanted to do with my life, set in my way of going to university somewhere in the United States and taking random courses until I found out what I liked.
I think it was a combination of a lot of things together but I'm not gonna deny that luck played a big part in my becoming what I am today. I stumbled into a few things and it took me a while to realize what this lifestyle and this "job" was actually all about. The sport was so new back then that almost nobody really knew what he or she were doing. It didn't come with a handbook; there was nobody to look up to, no real guide. Of course there were other water sports to compare us to but kiteboarding was so different from everything else it was hard to figure out which way to go.


Pour voir la suite de l'interview: http://www.windfinder.com/news/2009/05/interview-with-pro-kiteboarder-2.html