Mermaid Mode

Sasha Bondareva

Mermaid Mode is a podcast for women who feel most alive in, on, or near water. It’s a space for athletes, water-sports professionals, cold-water swimmers, and women who use water as a tool for recovery — physically, mentally, emotionally. Each episode explores the stories, rituals, and mindsets of women who have answered the call of water in their own way. Not all mermaids are the same.But they all know how to dive deep. Get in your Mermaid Mode. Dive deep. Stay wild.

  1. Sep 28

    EP 16 I Michaela Pilkenton - kiting in US, female empowerment & body image

    Michaela Pilkenton, a Hood River-based kitesurfer and Slingshot rider, was recently voted AWSI Female Wind Sport Athlete of the Year, in the first year the award combined every wind discipline. In this episode she looks at how the US kite scene differs from Europe's, from weekend-warrior culture to the "micro spots" scattered across the country. She recounts going from ski mountaineering to a handwritten map to Floras Lake, and from chasing free gear to landing kite loops and a place on the international Big Air circuit.She discusses the cost of competing abroad, and how witnessing a friend's serious kite loop crash affected her mindset and her riding. She explains how she rebuilt her confidence with a mental coach and why she teaches riders to learn to crash before they learn to jump. She also covers her free women's clinics in Cape Town and Argentina, building a local rider community in the Gorge, and how she responded when women were left out of a brand video shot in her home spot. The conversation closes on body image, online backlash, and her "can't care, pick ease" mindset, plus her upcoming Big Air competition in Taiwan. CHAPTERS00:00 Welcome: AWSI Female Wind Sport Athlete of the Year02:17 The US kite scene: weekend warriors, Hood River, and micro spots11:03 Discovering kitesurfing: a handwritten map to Floras Lake14:47 Kite loops, Reed Brady, and landing her first sponsorship19:56 Role models, media coverage, and the rise of social media24:58 Competing internationally: cost, GoFundMe, and Lords of Tramontana32:24 Rebuilding after a traumatic crash: mental coaching and pushing again36:38 Learning to crash: why you should kick your board off38:21 Free women's clinics: Cape Town and Argentina46:23 Building community: the Gorge WhatsApp group and Wind Socials50:25 The Slingshot video and getting women seen by brands54:46 Body image, "can't care," and "picking ease"1:01:36 Trial reels, online backlash, and who she's really reaching1:09:50 Female athletes taking up space1:14:26 Strength and embracing an athletic body1:18:41 What's next: Big Air in Taiwan and wrap-up

    EP 16 I Michaela Pilkenton - kiting in US, female empowerment & body image

  2. Sep 16

    EP 15 I Girls Wake Camp - Copenhagen Cable Park

    This one is different. Instead of an online interview, this episode was recorded live at Copenhagen Cable Park during the Girls Wake Camp — a sold-out two-day wakeboarding event for women, organised by Frederikke and Louise, two local riders who wanted to bring back the magic they'd experienced at the girls' camp in Aarhus the year before.Just about thirty women showed up. Beginners who had never touched a kicker. Riders coming back from major injuries. Mothers on maternity leave taking two days for themselves. Women who drove four hours from Aarhus just to support the movement. What unfolds across this episode is something harder to describe than a regular interview — it's the sound of a community being built in real time. Frederikke and Louise open the episode with a conversation about commitment, taking space, jam sessions, the metal fence story, and why 90% of any trick is mental. Then Sasha moves around the camp talking to the women who showed up: Maria from Girls Who Wake Aarhus, who drove four hours to be there and dreams of connecting female riders across every cable in Denmark; Carolina from Portugal, who came back after injury with a completely new relationship to falling; Karen from Norway, in her first wakeboarding season, who left with a jump start, new obstacles, switch riding and a huge smile; Renuka, who moved from the US back to Denmark and found the culture of support was the same on both sides of the Atlantic; and Mathilde, on maternity leave, who spent two days doing something just for herself — and found a group of fellow wakeboarding mothers to ride with going forward.A warm, funny and genuinely moving episode about what happens when women make space for each other in a sport that doesn't always do it for them. 🌊Follow Girls Who Wake: https://www.instagram.com/girlswhowake/Follow Mermaid Mode: https://www.instagram.com/mermaidmode.pod/Visit Copenhagen Cablepark: https://ccp.dk/Chapters:00:00 Introduction — live from Copenhagen Cable Park01:42 Behind the scenes from the edit — how the day actually went04:07 Meet the organisers — Frederikke and Louise08:30 Why they brought the girls camp to Copenhagen12:00 What it feels like to be a girl at a male-dominated cable park15:20 The jam session and why you don't have to land the trick19:00 The metal fence story — the switch raley that started everything22:30 Michaela's transfer attempt — four crashes and one tap that changed everything25:00 Taking space — and why every level struggles with this28:00 Friendly competition and hyping each other on the dock34:32 Meet Maria — Girls Who Wake Aarhus38:00 Why girls don't travel between cables — and how to change that43:00 Girls Who Wake — the Instagram, the memes and the dream45:58 Meet Carolina — coming back after injury49:00 Falling as progress — a new relationship with failure52:31 Meet Renuka — from the US back to Denmark56:00 Danish reservedness vs. extreme sport culture58:12 Meet Mathilde — two days on maternity leave, just for herself1:03:00 Finding other wakeboarding mothers at the camp1:05:00 Taking space — the wider conversation1:08:00 Closing thoughts from the dock

    EP 15 I Girls Wake Camp - Copenhagen Cable Park

  3. Aug 25

    EP 14 I Sarah Sadek - big air kitesurfing, sustainability & competition

    Sarah Sadek is the first and only female Egyptian professional kitesurfer (for now), a Harlem Kite team rider, GKA Big Air competitor, and the woman who went kitesurfing on the morning of her own wedding — in Dahab, where she lives and trains year-round. Half Egyptian, half German, she competes under the Egyptian flag by choice, and that choice says something important about who she is. This episode covers a lot of ground. It opens with sustainability — Sarah had just come from a beach cleanup when the recording started — and digs into why kitesurfing has a much worse relationship with sustainability than surfing, what brands like Harlem are doing right, and why chasing the wind means an industry full of flights, plastic packaging and kites replaced before they're worn out. From there they go into the Egyptian kite scene — the Cairo weekenders who go to Ras Sudr, the Bedouin kiters of Dahab and why there are no Bedouin women among them, and Sarah's half-serious dream of starting a women's only kite camp for the girls on the beach who think she's slightly mad for being in the sun all day. Warm, funny, thoughtful and full of unexpected turns. 🌊 Chapters:00:00 Introduction01:10 Welcome Sarah — straight from a beach cleanup in Dahab02:34 Sustainability in Egypt — education, trash and the Sustainable Network Egypt05:31 Sustainability and kitesurfing — flying, plastic packaging and gear cycles08:06 What Harlem is doing right and what the industry still needs to change12:08 Making kitesurfing a more global sport — the GKA tour's Eurocentrism15:05 Sustainability hacks that depend on where you live20:17 Could sustainability become part of Sarah's career?21:44 The Egyptian kite scene — Cairo, Ras Sudr and where the locals actually go26:27 The Bedouin kiters of Dahab — and why there are no Bedouin women28:00 A dream: a women's only kite camp for Bedouin girls37:41 Could Leilani's Rise with the Wind model work in Egypt?40:01 The wedding — sneaking out at 6am, forgetting the pump, arriving late46:49 Why going kiting was important before the wedding49:48 The honeymoon kite tour — Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Estonia53:41 What Sarah loves about Estonia (and why Egypt has 120 million people)56:42 Dual identity — German punctuality at an Egyptian wedding59:03 Why she always competes under the Egyptian flag1:00:30 The case for diversifying kitesurfing beyond Europe1:05:24 Algorithms, sponsorship and the visibility gap for non-European riders1:08:05 Wings of Sinai — the first women's division, and competing against the guys1:11:24 What changes mentally when you compete against men vs women1:15:41 Closing thoughts and what competition Sarah is most looking forward to

    EP 14 I Sarah Sadek - big air kitesurfing, sustainability & competition

  4. Aug 18

    EP 13 | Zara Hoogenraad - kitesurfing, building community and being open online

    Zara Hoogenraad is one of the most recognised names in Big Air kitesurfing — a GKA tour competitor, two-time King of the Air runner-up, world champion, Capital.com and Mystic team rider, and one of the only women in the sport building a genuinely engaged community around the reality of being a female professional athlete. She started kitesurfing at 23, partying her way between sessions in Tarifa from a converted camper van. Seven years later she was world champion. This is a wide-ranging, honest and deeply personal conversation. They cover Zara's origin story and the turning point that took her from festivals to full-time training, how she spiralled into negative self-talk and isolation early in her career and what therapy and journaling changed for her, the shock of being dropped by Core after five years and how she processed it, and why she genuinely believes performance alone is no longer enough to sustain a career in professional kitesurfing. There's also an excellent thread on strength training and why lifting changed her riding, her plans for a women's coaching boat trip and girls' day, the algorithm and bikinis debate, what it's actually like to edit YouTube videos in CapCut when it keeps crashing, and why her biggest goal right now is still to win King of the Air. Raw, funny and refreshingly grounded. 🌊 Chapters:00:00 Introduction01:21 From party girl to professional athlete — Zara's origin story05:33 Therapy, journaling and the mindset shift07:15 Starting late and becoming world champion10:13 Aging as an athlete — fear, injury and changing how you train13:33 What the party years taught her17:51 Journaling methods and the Mind Journal21:30 Training alone with the guys and feeling isolated24:36 Opening up to her boyfriend and her community28:44 The Diary of a Kitesurf Girl — building a female YouTube community31:10 Being dropped by Core — processing it and moving forward35:09 Adapting to new kites and rebuilding confidence39:00 Teaching girls to kite loop — and why understanding beats just going for it41:36 Plans for a women's coaching boat trip43:42 The mental side of coaching girls — fear, comparison, confidence47:03 Social media, likes, the algorithm and bikinis52:00 What content creation actually costs — time, editing, boundaries55:41 Morning routines, dog walks and brainstorming with AI58:22 Filming angles, gear quality and content creativity1:07:00 Cold Hawaii, injury, and getting back on the water1:09:00 Becoming world champion — the setbacks, the proof, the moment1:11:42 Goals, King of the Air and how to handle not reaching them1:16:02 Focus on what you can contro1:19:18 How Zara's workout posts got Sasha lifting1:20:32 Strength training for kitesurfers — why it matters more than you think1:24:05 A secret Mystic design?1:25:23 Closing thoughts

    EP 13 | Zara Hoogenraad - kitesurfing, building community and being open online

  5. Aug 11

    EP 12 || Alessa Sophia Mensch - female hormones, mental health & Big Air kitesurfing

    Alessa Sophia Mensch is a professional Big Air kitesurfer, GKA tour competitor, Brunotti and Naish team rider, and the co-founder of a women's health app currently in development and launching in December. She's also one of the most thoughtful people in the sport when it comes to the intersection of female health, performance, and mental wellbeing — and this episode goes deep on all of it. The conversation covers a huge amount of ground. They talk about what it took for Alessa to learn to rest — really rest — after years of training alongside male athletes on their schedule, eating like them, sleeping like them, and wondering why it wasn't working the same. They get into endometriosis, hormonal cycles and what the research actually says about how the female brain-body connection affects energy, fear and performance across the month. Alessa shares how she restructured her own training to stop fighting her cycle and start working with it — and why that changed everything. Then there's the app: a female athlete health tracker she's building with her co-founder Julia, designed to help women understand and optimise for their cycle without selling their data. There's also a long thread on the mental side of competing — comparing yourself to others, performing in front of male peers without feeling judged, what it means to crash like a kook in front of pros and do it anyway, and why the most important comparison you can make is only ever with yourself. Plus Brunotti, the Naish House movie, learning to jump on your weak side, and a very honest conversation about why she doesn't share more of the difficult stuff on social media. One of the longest and most substantial episodes of Mermaid Mode. Worth every minute. 🌊 Find Alessa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_alessasophia/ Follow Alessa's app development: https://www.instagram.com/herphase.app/ 00:00 Intro 01:41 Meet Alessa — rest, recovery & recharging 08:09 Training with guys: FOMO, guilt & what's actually in our heads 13:24 The hormonal cycle no one talks about in kitesurfing 14:38 Living with endometriosis as a pro athlete 22:28 What's missing in women's medical research 28:01 Introducing Her Phase — the app Alessa is building 39:09 Atomic Habits, overthinking & the mindset shift 45:16 Choosing kiting over a degree — going all in 51:21 Finding your people: the mom, the instructor, the Cape Town call 1:00:48 Brunotti & Nash — what a great sponsor actually looks like 1:08:44 The Antidote to Chaos film project & creative freedom 1:09:41 Being a couple in the same sport — Jason, Luca & the crew 1:16:12 Competition culture & why the women's fleet is special 1:24:32 Weak side training, right foot forward & the language analogy 1:31:58 You can tell a good kitesurfer by the way they crash 1:37:52 Kitesurfing with flow — style, basics & feminine riding 1:40:25 How fast can you actually progress? The truth about pros 1:46:30 What the highlights don't show — injuries, vulnerability & social media 1:52:08 Wrapping up

    EP 12 || Alessa Sophia Mensch - female hormones, mental health & Big Air kitesurfing

  6. Aug 4

    EP 11 | Lana Herman - Big Air Competitive Kitesurfer

    Lana Herman is a professional Big Air kitesurfer from Slovenia, a Harlem Kite team rider, and a GKA tour competitor currently based between Brazil, Cape Town and wherever the next competition takes her. Before turning professional, she was a finance consultant. She quit to risk it for the biscuit — her words — and hasn't looked back. In this episode, recorded on a rest day in Brazil where Lana is training with her coach ahead of a packed competition season, the conversation goes everywhere. They cover the mental side of learning high-risk tricks — the meditation, the visualisation, the step-by-step process of not getting injured — and the story of how Harlem rejected her sponsorship application, then came back and offered her a spot on the team after her profile started getting attention from other brands. There's also a great thread on the Slovenian and Slavic identity, collective suffering as a cultural value system ("my mother grew up thinking if you suffer in life you are doing good"), pre-competition Balkan yugorock pump-up playlists, and the social media post where she asked ChatGPT to make her look rich. The life philosophy holding it all together: "Life sucks and then you die." It makes more sense in context, we promise. A warm, funny and surprisingly deep episode — Lana is exactly as good company as she looks on the water. 🪁

    EP 11 | Lana Herman - Big Air Competitive Kitesurfer

  7. Jul 17

    EP 10 | Leilani - Rise with the Wind - female empowerment

    Leilani is a French engineer turned barefoot entrepreneur, kitesurfing instructor and the founder of Rise with the Wind — an organisation helping women from underprivileged backgrounds gain IKO certification, learn English, and build a livelihood through kitesurfing, all within a single year. In just a year and a half, the programme has launched in Brazil, Zanzibar, Morocco and Mexico, with a second Brazil location on the way. The conversation starts with Leilani's own story: a high-performing corporate career in France and Australia, a decision to leave it all behind with six months of savings and a freshly earned IKO cert, and a broken fibula two weeks into her new life that turned out to be one of the most important moments of her journey. From there it opens into something much bigger. They talk about the women in the programme — the girl in Zanzibar who prays five times a day, collects seaweed, and is now a kitesurfing instructor; the woman who left her husband because he didn't want her to study; the group of girls in Brazil who passed their IKO and went on to work at a Duotone centre. They discuss what it means to enter a culture with humility and curiosity rather than assumptions, why kitesurfing can change a woman's relationship to fear and failure, and what it might look like to create Muslim-friendly kite schools. And then, towards the end, a thread on passion burnout, golden cages, and why identity is just a dress you can change. Episode 10. One to sit with. 🌊 Support Rise with the Wind: https://www.rwtw.surf/ Photos in the episode by: https://www.instagram.com/sam.vox

    EP 10 | Leilani - Rise with the Wind - female empowerment

  8. Jul 3

    EP 9 | Nathalie Lambrecht - competitive Big Air kitesurfer

    Nathalie Lambrecht is one of the most exciting kitesurfers in the world right now — a professional Big Air athlete, North and Mystic team rider, GKA competitor, and reigning Red Bull King of the Air Women's Devision champion. She grew up in El Gouna, Egypt, started kitesurfing at eleven after her babysitter came home glowing from a lesson, studied in Stockholm from fourteen to nineteen, and has since made the world her home. This conversation goes well beyond the competition highlights. Nathalie opens up about the mental game behind Big Air — the journaling practice she's kept for over two years, working with a mental coach, and what it's like to simply enjoy the time in the water during a heat. We also talk about what it means to build an identity outside of kitesurfing, the beautiful community between women on the GKA tour, the walkie-talkies and banana strategy that gets her through competition heats, her sister's role as her most important support person, and why she travels everywhere with a teddy bear, a yoga mat, and a set of board games. Grounded, honest, warm and genuinely fun — this one is a treat. 🪁

    EP 9 | Nathalie Lambrecht - competitive Big Air kitesurfer
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About

Mermaid Mode is a podcast for women who feel most alive in, on, or near water. It’s a space for athletes, water-sports professionals, cold-water swimmers, and women who use water as a tool for recovery — physically, mentally, emotionally. Each episode explores the stories, rituals, and mindsets of women who have answered the call of water in their own way. Not all mermaids are the same.But they all know how to dive deep. Get in your Mermaid Mode. Dive deep. Stay wild.

Information

  • Creator
    Sasha Bondareva
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sasha Bondareva
  • Show Website
    Mermaid Mode