The event – a women’s only kitesurfing, paddleboarding and wakesurfing event to empower and motivate women to overcome their fears and challenges and make new friends along the way – raise over $2000 for local charity, The Crisis Centre Cayman.

GRAND CAYMAN, CAYMAN ISLANDS, 15 December 2014 This past weekend 33 women came together for the 1st ever RIDE LIKE A GIRL event in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, a women’s only watersports event to empower and motivate women to overcome the fears and challenges whilst making new friends along the way. Whilst a majority of complete beginners made up the group and showed courage by trying new and intimidating sports, the more advanced girls had to push themselves and each other to new limits and try tricks that they had not attempted before under the supervision of local pro’s Maya Lewis, Amy Strzalko and Kiristen Cousins, the event’s founders.

The day started out a Barkers National Park with a warm up Yoga session before splitting the event’s participants between the two resident kite schools, Kitesurf Cayman and Hurricane kiteboarding. Beginners were introduced to the art of kite flying using trainer kites on the sand before advancing to full size inflatable kites in the waters shallows.

After 2 hours of group lessons at Barkers, the event moved over to Public Beach for an afternoon of paddle boarding and wakesurfing but not before another warm up and stretch.

Waterman shop manager and Coreban paddleboard team rider Kiristen Cousins led beginner paddleboarding classes as well as paddlefit demonstrations. She told us “I’d love for more ladies to enjoy the amazing water we have here and use the beach as a venue for getting fit. We should all be making the most of our incredible surroundings and paddle-fit is such a good way to do that. I’m so proud of the girls for facing their fears today – water sports are generally male dominated so they can be intimidating but

we’ve been able to create a welcoming and relaxed environment for participants to make friends and try something new at this event.”

In-between classes, participants were encouraged to work on their balance skills on a tight rope set up above the sand and enjoy snacks from Saucha, a local Vegan meal delivery company run by Britta Bush, also a keen kitesurfer.

The day wrapped up with a fast and furious couple of hours on board Wakeboard Cayman’s speedboat which took groups of girls out to try Wakesurfing – a relatively new sport to Cayman, which sees participants surfing a wave behind the boat.

To end the proceedings the group headed over to Calico Jacks for a beach bbq and prize giving. They also drew a raffle and announced that the day had raised over $2000 for The Crisis Centre. An incredible achievement for the first event of it’s kind.

Maya Lewis, on of Ride Like A Girl founders, says: “I am so thrilled to be part of this amazing and inspirational event. Our Ride Like A Girl women gather with the hope of trying something new. They left with huge smiles, new learned skills, new friends, a new community of women to ride with and tremendous satisfaction from raising funds for a wonderful local charity. The most satisfaction and joy for me personally comes from knowing that our participants, and all of our volunteers make a huge difference through our event’s charitable fundraising for our local community. We can’t thank everyone enough for their support.”

Amy Strzalko, another of the founders, added: “We are so stoked that the event was such a huge success. Our aim was to get more girls out on the water, bring people together and raise money for charity. Having achieved all of that makes me feel immensely proud to have been part of it. The fact that we had a waiting list for our first event speaks volumes for how much water sports are growing here in Cayman. I was touched at how much the community pulled together to inspire other girls to get involved and create what we hope will become a regular event.”

Many congratulations go out to the fundraising queen Shona Dors, the Most Stoked winner; Jessica Turnbull; Most Improved rider Kamilla Wolar; and Biggest Wipeout winner; Alice Narborough.

A huge thanks goes to the sponsors: Waterman Surf Company, Kitesurf Cayman, Hurricane Kiteboarding, Wakeboard Cayman, Evolving Island, Coreban, Slingshot, Best, Saucha, Miller Lite, Redbull, Peripheral and So-Chlo.

IMAGES:

Over 30 women came out for Ride Like A Girl on Sunday Dec 14th

Coreban rider Kiristen Cousins leads Paddlefit class at Ride Like A Girl.

Event Founders Maya Lewis, Kiristen Cousins & Amy Strzalko

Getting to grips with the trainer kite under the supervision of Maya Lewis, local team rider for Best Kiteboarding.

Pheobe Serpell enjoying the waves behind the Wakeboard Cayman boat

Yoga session led by Kate Hardcastle