Catching Up with the Slingshot Crew – Female Kiteboarder RITA ARNAUS

Rita Arnaus is a professional kiteboarder from Barcelona, Spain. Rita has proved herself on the freestyle world tour grading 4th overall in 2019 and 2018 whilst building one of the biggest Instagram followings in kiteboardingwith over one hundred thousand followers.Rita’s inspirational strive to better herself and experience living to the fullest is why we are super proud to have her on the Slingshot team! Team Manager, Sam Light, catches up with Rita during her busy summer.

Hey Rita! How’s it going? Congrats on 100 k Instagram admirers! Please grant us some gratuities on build a following for those people to begin ?!

Hey chaps , thank you so much! Honestly what I have been doing is just following my heat and wanting to share every step of my kite adventures. I’m a heartfelt kiteboarder and I believe that everything you do with passion will result in success.

I never had a role model to follow on Instagram I just wanted to be myself and I think that it has helped me to grow as I’m ever trying to show the real me behind the hard work on Instagram.

FOLLOW RITA AT @RITAARNAUS

Have you been at home during lockdown and the summer months? Where is home and how is the kiting scene there? Are more parties kiting now?

Yes, I was in Puerto Rico and flew back home when they started the lockdown. I grew up in Barcelona but now I’m based in my home town of Sant Pere Pescador which is 115 km up north from the city, a town in the middle of Roses Bay.

The thermal hurricanes are pretty good starting in May until September. Summer months are the best and we have a lot of tourists from Europe. The kite zone is packed that’s why in the hectic periods I often take my hydrofoil to cruise around the bay.

We have accompanied you foiling with your dad, how is the foiling becoming? How does it compare to Freestyle for you?

it is a great escape from the crowd and I’m having so much fun learning and improving in this discipline, cruising in the inlet with the wind and playing with the waves along with my father. For me, freestyle is more aggressive, more adrenaline, more dominance and more challenging and I emphatically need more wind for it. We have a lot of light breath daytimes in Roses Bay which is perfect for foiling.

Have you missed traveling and emulating on the World Tour? Has the time off at home reverberate about the boast varied any of your goals and plans in kiteboarding? What are your long term destinations and goals in kiting?

Yes, I have obviously missed traveling and vying but it has been good to have some time off after so much traveling in the past years to fully enjoy being at home with my loved ones. It hasn’t changed much tho in the perspective of the sport, It has procreated me appreciate even more how luck I am to be able to live this practice, shooting my dreams and doing what I adoration. After the 2 months of lockdown at home I just wanted to kite more and to be productive as much as possible.

” I want to be able to keep doing what I’m doing while engendering and encouraging people to kiteboard, it is such an amazing sport, it has changed my life for an even better one and my route of living/ thinking and I believe it can change it to many others .”

We see you are training and obstruct fit more than ever, how do you stay motivated, and does it help your kiting?

An active life has produced me to amazing results physically and mentally, our torso is our temple and we have to take care of it. One of the biggest reasons for me to train and stand fit is to avoid hurts so I can stay sane and enjoy kiteboarding the most. All in all, I’m a really active person and I feel the very best when being outdoors in contact with nature or pushing my restrictions in the gym.

What is your favorite Slingshot kite and why?

Definitely my favorite alternative is the RPM v12, Slingshot has been improving this kite over the past years, developing the perfect machine for freestyle and free ride. It has the excellent balance of a strong kite with stability, fast turning, and hang epoch. Having the possibility to perform the most out of your kite discussions depending on the conditions and your ride penchants with the different attachment places. I know I can go big with it in any kind of conditions.

If you could only kite in one place for the rest of your life, where would it be and why?

Probably in my homespot since we have good puffs all time round blowing from different directions and delivering all kinds of conditions. Also because is the place where I’ve learn a lot about the wind and the play and I want to be somewhere where I can share the rekindle with my family and friends that have been there since the beginning of my kite occupation. There are a number of good and beautiful recognises to kite in the world but for me, it’s more important with the who rather than where it doesn’t matter the conditions as long as you are having fun.

Do you have any interest in Big Air? Why don’t we verify more girlfriends participating in Big Air?

That is a good question! Probably since women are more aware of the threat …? haha! Well, I do like to travel staggered and mount high when the conditions are good for it. That’s probably it, at least for my own experience, when there are strong gale for big-hearted breath, it is probably gustier hence more difficult and more chances to get injured because you want to go as higher as is practicable and if you miss the ground it can be very dangerous.