After a year and a half of designing, business plan writing, marketing, sourcing, web building, financial wrangling and much more, SENSI is off the ground. Thank you to everyone that has helped along the way and to everyone that continues to help on this journey of expansion, growth and the spreading of bikini love.

Please visit the website and let me know what you think. Also, feedback on the suits is greatly appreciated. Oh and order one!

All products are made in the USA in Portland, Oregon.  We manufacture, package and ship our products in the U.S. because not only does this help to support and promote the U.S. economy, but it is also beneficial to the environment. Conducting our business in the U.S. helps to keep jobs open, keep money circulating within the economy, and helps to keep domestic businesses open.  Working within the United States not only allows us to reduce our shipping costs, but it helps us to reduce our resource consumption and our carbon output contribution.  Because our products don’t need to be transported extremely long distances, fewer natural resources are used to produce the energy needed to ship the items from place to place.

Finally, the Sunset Swim Fashion Show will take place at REAL Watersports in Waves, NC for the second year running. If you weren’t there last year get ready for a night of lovely ladies, good food, fun music, hot fashion and supporting a great cause! All donations support Athletes 4 Cancer. Save the date June 7th, 2012. Sensi will debut the 2013 collection at the show. Don’t miss out!

www.sensibikinis.com

Overall the 2011 WONW saw a ton of progression. Paula Rosales and I were the only chicks on the scene. We need more girls to represent. Yet it’s super fun to ride with the guys. They progress so quickly and are doing such technical maneuvers that it really pushes my riding. Wait until you see my video!

This year we weren’t blessed with any wind. Instead we got a lot of rain. Regardless of the not so ideal conditions, we rode…a lot. The consistency of the cable really makes for getting on the water and nailing tricks quite a bit easier. No rigging, no timing, no wind lulls, the only thing you’re waiting on is the line.

I'm wearing about 2 inches of rubber...sexy

Another new kite spot. YESSS. The feeling you get when you rig up somewhere new is phenomenal (I can’t seem to stop using that word). My first day in Michigan and we made it out in the water. Couldn’t ask for much better. Despite not bringing any gear with me, for lack of wanting to haul my kite bag cross-country yet again, I had everything that I needed.

Photographer Bryan Elkus called Brandon Scheid and I as soon as we left the Detroit airport. “You want to go kiting tomorrow? I’m driving over in the morning.” The obvious and only answer was yes. He had gear for both of us. I had a full set up thanks to Bryan’s gf Mel.

We piled towels and loads of jackets into the truck and headed to Lake Michigan near Montague. It was weird to have to drive an hour and a half to get a session. Reminds me how spoiled we are in Cape Hatteras. Walking out on the pier, the wind was an icy breeze. The waves rolled in messy and choppy but had some nice sets came through every so often.

I set up my 9 meter then put on my 5/4, booties, 3 mm gloves and hood. It was freezing. Yet it felt so good to get back in the water. Soaring over the chop on Bryan’s Captain America surfboard was heaven. I later went back for Mel’s twin tip but the boots were open toe and my feet about froze off. Once again, reminds me how spoiled I am to kite in the tropical places that I do. I’m not made for the cold though. Our new found legion of Michigan kiters (all male of course) mentioned that they kite when it snows, right up until the ice bergs block their entrance to the water. Ice bergs!! No, thank you. I’ll be in Maui for the winter.

 The beach was littered with Liquid Force Kites. In fact, there was only one other brand in the air.  I always find it interesting that certain locales have strong ties to individual brands. New York boasts Best, on Maui you see Cabrinha and Naish, Hood River is home to Slingshot. The predominant brand in the area severely influences what the locals decide to ride. Small-scale marketing at its finest.

Where's my SUP?!

From the instant I started stand-up paddle boarding almost three years ago in the British Virgin Islands, I was hooked. “What’s this,” I thought “I don’t have to work half as hard and I can catch twice as many waves?!” I stayed out at the break in Anegada all afternoon, riding the crystal clear rights in as far as they would take me.

Since I do not own my own, personal SUP, sessioning has been somewhat limited. That, and the fact that I put all my time in the ocean into surfing, my stand up time has been limited.  So I was more than psyched when, in San Diego, kiteboarder buddy Dan Larsen invited me out for a session. We met at Tourmaline, where the sea harbored loads of beginners on longboards and a nice little peeling wave. Side note: They weren’t all beginners. There was this one middle-aged, wiry, blonde gentlemen who was surfing circles around me and had the smoothest nose rides I’ve seen in a long time. I almost hit him with my 10 ft Laird board more than once…nice guy.

Anyway, Dan and I had a great time, each catching a ton of waves and thoroughly enjoying the refreshing sting of the ice cold Pacific. Since I left Hatteras on October 3rd, I was expecting an extended period of time before I would be able to get a good ocean session and was pleasantly surprised by first the kiting and surfing in Ventura and then the suping in San Diego. Yet I was even more surprised to catch a session when I arrived home in Northern California.

My first sup, oh so many years ago.

My dad, brother and I headed out to the coast the day after I got home. Not having been on that long, super windy road in awhile, I was hesitant to leave so late in the afternoon, not knowing what I was in for. But boy am I glad we went. As we rounded the last turn, out of the towering redwood and sequoia trees, the sun shone magnificently upon the dark blue ocean. The rocky coastline jutted into the sea, which threw ripple after ripple upon it’s crumbling facade. Simply majestic.

We wound around the thin highway, hugging the shoreline and made our way down to the beach. And then the fun really started. We pulled our stand ups out and proceed to SUP until the sun went down. The water was choppy and the waves all over the place but they were decent size and came through quite often.

I will be suping as often as possible while I’m here! Mendocino coast here I come!