Play time led to this. Sicily shoot - Photo: Lukas Stiller / Duotone

Eyes - Photo: Svetlana Romantsova / GKA Kite World Tour

Roughly every decade or so an athlete will appear who is so talented and successful compared to their peers, that the element of competition for them almost diminishes, allowing them to utterly dominate their chosen sport. This is a reality for the freestyle kitesurfing sensation, Mikaili Sol. Over the 20 years since Kiteworld began, we’ve enjoyed watching several riders ride to iconic status in the sport for various reasons. As we bow out with our final issue, Holly Keenan profiles the most dominant competitive kiter in the sport today.

Play time led to this. Sicily shoot

Photo: Lukas Stiller / Duotone

Eyes - Photo: Svetlana Romantsova / GKA Kite World Tour

Roughly every decade or so an athlete will appear who is so talented and successful compared to their peers, that the element of competition for them almost diminishes, allowing them to utterly dominate their chosen sport. This is a reality for the freestyle kitesurfing sensation, Mikaili Sol. Over the 20 years since Kiteworld began, we’ve enjoyed watching several riders ride to iconic status in the sport for various reasons. As we bow out with our final issue, Holly Keenan profiles the most dominant competitive kiter in the sport today.

WORDS: Holly Keenan

At just 17 years old Mikaili Sol has taken the freestyle kitesurfing scene by storm, having collected all four consecutive GKA Freestyle world titles available in the last three years. It is not, however, the number of world titles that makes Mika so profound. Rather it is the pace at which she has managed to monopolize the field of women’s freestyle kitesurfing, setting herself a rather large lacuna from her fellow competitors. At the final event of the 2021 GKA Freestyle world tour in Cumbuco, Mika became the first female to land a double handle-pass in competition. After seeing her attempt at countless double handle-passes in the flesh, there is no doubt in my mind that she will soon be on par with some of the top male freestyle kitesurfers. Mika was lucky enough to grow up in Preá, Brazil with parents who were already kitesurfing fanatics. Far from the perfect kite spot, Preá has strong winds and choppy waters, which makes training freestyle tricks a challenge. Yet with daily winds and a range of conditions on offer, Mika’s home village is the perfect breeding ground for a World Champion kitesurfer.

Full female fire. Competing alongside Rita Arnaus and Pippa van Iersel, who along with Mika are collectively pushing women’s freestyle riding harder and harder Photo: Svetlana Romantsova / GKA Kite World Tour

Mika started kitesurfing when she was just eight-years-old. “My parents told me I had to wait until I was nine before I could learn, but I convinced them to let me start when I was eight-and-a-half.” Mika explains, before adding more softly, “My dad had been in a pretty horrific kitesurfing accident not long before I started. He smashed straight into a buggy and broke part of his back. My mum had to drive to the hospital on her motorbike which took six or seven hours and, when she got there, he was still lying in his harness. My dad was traumatized after the incident and, when I first started kitesurfing, he couldn’t even come to the beach to watch.” Mika was undeterred by the accident and her freestyle progression was exponential. By the age of 13 she’d started competing and won her first world title at 14. “I won the GKA Air Games and the GKA Freestyle World Tour in that same year; 2018. I was on such a high!” she remembers. Throughout 2018, Mika’s consistency and power in her tricks meant she was comfortably winning over her fellow competitors. Come 2019, her winning streak was brought to an unexpected halt, though.

Big air mode, Tarifa 2020 Photo: Samuel Cardenas / GKA Kite World Tour

“Imagine you have just finished a season having won everything and not lost a single heat. Then, the next season kicks off, in probably the most challenging conditions you could ever kite in. Leucate on the southeast coast of France is notorious for its gusty 40-knot winds and rough seas. I was putting so much pressure on myself as my expectations were high. Unfortunately, I couldn’t handle it and cracked. I lost in the finals and had to settle for second.” Looking back now as a truly well trained athlete, Mikaili has processed her failure. “At that point my mental game was not strong enough. As the year proceeded I lost again in Fuerteventura and burst my eardrum during the semi-finals. I decided to change my mental tactics after that event by easing the pressure on myself and trying not to overthink things. I would just go and do what I knew I could do. However, this did not work out either and I nearly lost in Mauritius, crashing four tricks in a row during the semi-finals. “After the first crash in the heat, I thought to myself, ‘Okay, no pressure, I still have six attempts left. I crashed again. ‘No worries, it doesn’t matter.’ Third trick attempt: crashed. After I crashed the fourth trick I came to the beach and my coach Fabio asked me if I was stressed. “No, I’m fine.” I replied. “Mika I think it’s about time for you to get stressed.” he said. “This was the wake-up call I needed which kicked me into action. I went on to score a nine, another nine and then an eight, which allowed me to pass in second position through to the final”.

Raw talent, ever increasing power and an improved mindset should see Mikaili chase down titles for years to come

No matter how much raw talent an athlete has, having a strong mentality in competition is a necessary ingredient to winning consistently. Once Mika had discovered the perfect balance between too much pressure and too little, she proved unstoppable, taking the 2019 title, without losing a single heat from then on that season. Another goal on Mika’s radar was to be the first-ever female to land a double handle-pass in competition. At the GKA Freestyle World Cup in Cumbuco, she stole the show once again, materialising her goal by landing a 317 in the semi-finals and then again in the finals.

“Landing the double was the highlight of the competition for me. No woman has ever done this before and to be the first to do so felt very special. This was without a doubt one of the biggest highlights of my career so far.”

To the outsider, Mika’s life appears pretty epic. She kitesurfs every day, travels to some of the most picturesque locations and has endless kite gear at her disposal. It’s the fairy tale every kitesurfer dreams of, right? Becoming a four time World Champion does not come without tremendous sacrifice, though. “I think given the opportunity, most teenagers would jump at the idea of living my life and I am very lucky to be where I am today. However, one of the biggest sacrifices for me was missing out on a sense of normality. I never went to a normal school and I haven’t lived a normal teenage life. I missed out on having those deep, solid friendships that you form in high school. My day consists of waking up, training in the gym for two hours, going to the beach, doing online school and maybe, if I’m lucky, talking to friends for an hour in the evening. I don’t have much free time. Some days I would love to go and just chill with friends or do nothing for a day, but to be a World Champion you have to be willing to make sacrifices and constantly have your goals in the back of your mind.”

Nature’s gift

In her own image

Another aspect of Mika’s life that sways far from the conventional notions of ‘normal teenage life’ is the fact that she has been earning an adult salary since the age of 14. This had me curious. How did it feel to be earning a salary like this at such a young age? “I feel like I had a false perception of money at 14. I was never without it so I had no concept of its value. Earning money at a young age was never this thing of, ‘Oh I worked so hard to earn this.’ I don’t think I understood that I was working to earn money. My job was kitesurfing every day, which I would have done anyway. However, growing up, finishing high school and recently doing college applications, I’ve started to realize the true value of money and how hard it can be to earn.” As Mika’s kitesurfing career has grown, so has her public image and she was recently involved in a new commercial with Porsche, Brazil. “I found it cool intertwining kitesurfing with Porsche. It’s so different from doing a shoot with a wetsuit or kite brand. At first, I was thinking, ‘How the hell are we going to manage to cross kitesurfing with a car brand?’ But in the end my expectations were far exceeded and it turned out pretty awesome.” One might argue that Mika does not fit the conventional female kitesurfer image that we see displayed on our daily Instagram feeds. With her split bleached hair and nonchalant attitude towards life, Mika has not let brands or societal expectations change who she is, having remained unapologetically herself throughout her short but astonishingly bright kitesurfing career.

Strapless event winner at home in Preá, 2019 Photo: Svetlana Romantsova / GKA Kite World Tour

“I used to feel more pressure to act in a certain way to fit a brand’s image. Now I think if they don’t like me for who I am, then I won’t do it. I don’t want to pretend to be someone I’m not as that gets tiring. I’m not going to change myself to fit your profile image even if you are a great brand. I want to be real with everyone.” Four World Championships in the bag and Mika’s perennial love for kitesurfing means she continues to stay motivated and continues pushing the boundaries of women’s freestyle.

“My aim for the coming years is to show that women can be just as good as men. There is no barrier between men and women landing the same tricks. All these elements that people say matter, such as height, strength, body weight, actually don’t factor into the equation. What is important is the technique, commitment and not being afraid to push harder!

Turn up and take it. After just a couple of month’s training, Mikaili’s sickening level of natural talent helped her take the win at the GKA Kite Surf World Cup strapless freestyle event in 2019... which she only entered as it was taking place on her doorstep. Needless to say she’d just won the freestyle event and World Championship days earlier Photo: Svetlana Romantsova / GKA Kite World Tour

“So for the foreseeable future, I will be pushing my freestyle level, going for more doubles and adding in some different grabs! “I also hope to inspire more girls to start competing in freestyle. I think many females are unmotivated to compete because of the lack of prize money. They know that if they compete they’re going to be losing money each time and won’t be able to make it to all the events. Yes, the women’s field is only half as big and we don’t want to be taking anything away from the men. So I think on the women’s side, the prize money doesn’t need to go as deep, but first, second and third placed finishers should have equal prize money to men. “I hope to see a change for future competitions as women train just as hard and we are sacrificing just as much.”