5 Essential Questions You Should Ask a Female Professional Kiteboarder – Annelous Lammerts

Annelous, please can you tell us what do you think about riding with female orientated and specific designed gear and what do YOU look for in your choice of gear?

Annelous: Female orientated gear is great and I love to help with the development. Whether it is for wetsuits, harnesses or kiteboards. For a big part it is of course the look, because how good it is to ride with a set up that is not only riding good but also looking really good. But another part is the fit and other small adjustments to make the gear better and more suitable for the ladies. I want my gear to fit perfectly, I love to ride as much as possible and with gear that fits good the session can last way longer. I’m also really excited for the new Cabrinha XO collection, the design is just looking so good and the Switchblade XO is the perfect free ride kite if you want to enjoy all different disciplines.

As a freestyle orientated rider what kind of advice would you give to girl who is considering making the switch to riding boots?

Annelous: If you are already comfortable doing unhooked tricks, preferably already doings some blind landings I would really recommend that you give boots a try. The pop is just so much easier and you have way more control over the whole board. Also you will notice that hard landings will be way easier. On the other hand the crashes can be a bit harder, but when you get used to crashing with boots and when you put your board up when you crash to escape a back or front edge it is most of the time not that bad.

Do you think it is advisable to get into freestyle but stick with straps? Do you sometimes ride straps yourself?

Annelous: I don’t often ride straps myself anymore, just sometimes when I’m coaching or having a fun little session doing some board offs. I definitely think that for most people it helps to ride straps for a few years before riding with boots. But when you are really are into freestyle and you try boots once I am pretty sure that you don’t want to go back to doing freestyle with straps anymore.

What are your other passions you have outside of kiteboarding?

Annelous: Recently I have been really getting into surfing. I have never had much time or been in places where I could surf, but this year I ended up being at some really great surf spots and I just love the feeling when I catch a wave. I also love to wakeboard on windless days and snowboard in the winter, even though I haven’t really been doing that much the last 7 years.

Where can we find you on the water if we want to share a session with you at the moment?

Annelous: At the moment I am doing a little road trip, kiteboarding, surfing and wake boarding in France. I will finish in Leucate next week for the Modial du Vent, the big air competition that will take place from the 17th till 22nd of April. Hope to see you there for a session or for a croissant!

Published on: 11th April 2018