Kitesurfing While Pregnant

Kitesurfing While Pregnant

A personal account and advice on kitesurfing while pregnant by Sofi Chevalier, because you can’t lock yourself up in a padded room for 9 months doing nothing.

Being pregnant is about one primary objective, …taking care of your unborn child to the best of your ability and protecting it as it grows inside you. However, unless you experience out of the norm complications then there is no way you are going to sit in bed or lock yourself up in a padded room for 9 months doing nothing.

So can you kite when you are pregnant? Well, before we focus on this question we should rephrase it, …can I continue to perform the regular sport to which myself and my body are very accustomed. Let’s get one thing straight, if you have never ever kite surfed before then your pregnancy is 100% not the time to decide to learn. It is also not the time to learn to ice-skate, play tennis,  train for a 10k when the most you have run previously is to the bathroom, or learn any new sporting activity, …well ok, maybe yoga, but even then, take it slowly.

 

Kiting Pregnant

The simple fact of the matter is that this has to be a personal choice. No one else can tell you what to do, and the very fact you have asked them obligates the response to be a no. However if you are confident in your ability to kite whilst pregnant then I am obligated to pass on my personal experiences in the hope that they might help you in your choices.

First of all be very very careful in the first three months. This is the time when everything is setting itself up inside you and the time when high impact exercise such as running, tennis and of course kiting can cause the most problems. I swam a lot in open water listening to my body all the time and only kited in my home flat water spot. I felt great, but paranoia was nibbling away and it was not worth taking the risk of going out in high winds or choppy water. I was having no negative signs often associated with early pregnancy and was physically in possibly the best condition of my life at the time.

Brittany Homespot

As I passed the 3 month period we headed out to Brazil for the Kite Camp Pro camp and I was starting to show a little bump but still felt great. However a surf session taught me that perhaps paddling whilst on my stomach was something that was now at an end, and really pushing myself swimming was something I would feel in my body afterwards. This translated to avoid long self rescues, no downwinders or heading far out. Common sense really. My riding changed as I stopped unhooking completely to not put any extra strain on my body, but I was still having fun and pulling the odd trick here and there.

As we headed for Zanzibar in the new year and I headed for 5 months I was really showing and very nervous about kiting. Not so much in my own abilities, but more in the potential lack of ability in those around me in what can be a busy spot. I kited a couple of times, always finding space and flat water far away from others and it made me feel fantastic, but then as I reached the end of the 5th month I decided enough was enough. I still spent another month in the water coaching all day and was in great form, but as most pregnant women will tell you, there comes a moment when you realise you are ‘really’ pregnant (that moment often coincides with losing sight of your feet).

Sofi Chevalier in Zanzibar

In this time I received both a lot of support and a lot of criticism, but then I realise this is just part of parenthood it it spans more than just kiting whilst pregnant (actually it spans everything – we all have opinions and sometimes those opinions are not always the same). Everyone has their thoughts and ways of doing things but you have to make your own educated choices and know like any mother that your child and their safety will always be the most important thing in the world to you.

My daughter was born healthy and happy on the 29th April and I cant wait to get back into the water again in good time. However it will be just that, in good time, with a slow gradual reintroduction through walking, swimming, yoga and then finally the kite.

Little Family

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