RED BULL Kite Surfing Legend Susi Mai rides the Waves of Kalptiya

Kalpitiya, 14th August 2011- Red Bull Kite Surfer, Susi Mai, conducted a workshop for the students of Kite Kuda on Sunday. This was the first time the students had experienced a workshop of this nature.

Susi was born to parents who were both windsurfers who were living part time in Germany and part time in southern Italy where they ran a windsurfing school. For the first 6 years of her life she would spend the summer season down in Italy living in a trailer on the beach and return to Germany in the winters where her dad shaped windsurf boards for the next season.

Susi says that she grew up living the carefree life of a beach girl. She had attended an American bilingual private Elementary and High-school, and graduated in 2002. At that point, kiteboarding was only a past time for her during the winter of 02/03. After only 8 months of practicing it, to everyone’s surprise, She was placed 2nd in her first international PKRA competition. From that point on, things just snowballed and she found support from a kite company to do the whole world tour and placed 5th overall. Another big moment for Susi had been winning the first King of the Air in Maui which was considered one of the most prestigious events in kiteboarding.
Before long, She started to gain support from Red Bull and Cabrinha as her main sponsors and decided to put her original plan of going to university on hold and dedicate herself fully to the sport..

Susi, en-route from an event in Maldives, interacted with the students at Kite Kuda and exchanged some valuable tips. The German legend enjoyed her first visit to Sri Lanka and particularly enjoyed the wind in Kalpitiya in the West Coast of the Island of Sri Lanka. She has sworn to return to the island and spend more time kite surfing.