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by Jessica Valenzuela

Linn Svendsen Ocean Rodeo Pro-rider, photo by Jeremie Tronet

I’ve been meaning to get an interview with pro-kiteboarder Linn Svendsen months ago specially since we featured her other half pro-kiteboarder, Jeremie Tronet a few months after we launched Just Kite It. Time flies so fast when you are having fun! A belief that Linn shares, so here we are happy to feature yet another pro-rider from Ocean Rodeo. Seems like a great time to do so since I am currently in the Bay Area where majority of the kites flown at least at Third Avenue and Crissy are Ocean Rodeo kites.

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p> Q. Who influenced your decision to learn to kite?

A. It was a coincidence really, I was at a friends house when there happened to be kiting on TV. I told my friend that it looked fun, and that I wanted to do that, he was sure I would never get around to it. And he would probably have been right, except he dared me to take his phone and sign up for a course right away, which i did. So I would have to say the person who influenced me to start is my friend, Morten Njaa.

Q. Did you engage in other water sports or board sports prior?

A. Not at all! But I have always been active, before I started kiting I used to horseback ride a lot.

Q. How long have you been kiting?

A. Almost 7 years now! Time flies when you have fun!

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p> Q. When did you go pro?

A. About four years ago I met Jeremie and suddenly I was traveling the world with him. In the beginning I was just helping him film and take pictures, but he is always pushing me and training me, and suddenly I was on the OR team too. It was an almost invisible transition really.

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Linn Svendsen with her Ocean Rodeo Zen free-style board and Diablo kite, photo by Jeremie Tronet

Q. Favorite kite spot/s?

A. I have so many! But my top two are Cumbuco, Brazil and Union Island in the Grenadines, not quite sure which comes first, they are both so amazing. But I think the kite conditions in Cumbuco are the best.

Q. Where in the world are you now?

A. I am in Stavanger on the West coast of Norway right now, many people don’t know how good kite conditions we have here. We have long beaches and great wave spots as well as smooth flat water spots and lots of wind! The only downside is the cold, but no problem for me, I got the Predator Drysuit from Ocean Rodeo:)

Q. Sponsors?

Ocean Rodeo, Zeal Optics, Alpinestars and Blue Glue Bikinies

Q. Can you tell us more about your travel videos?

A. We always work very hard in the beginning of every trip to make sure we have enough footage, in case something happens that we didn’t plan. But it almost never does, and we end up with way to much footage every time and Jeremie has a lot of work going through it all:) My job is to help take pictures and film, but Jeremie is doing most, deciding angles and setting the camera. He is also doing all the editing and retouching. I write most of the travel stories, but I don’t even do half as much as Jeremie.

Q. Which is your favorite video so far?

A. The Grenadines video, which is the latest one: http://vimeo.com/12307993

Q. Where are you headed next?

A. We are going to Nice, France to see Jeremie’s family, which is always nice. His grandmother makes so good food I am also looking forward to it because we are getting the Ocean Rodeo 2011 gear sent there, it looks great! I can’t wait to try it! As soon as we get it we go somewhere nice to test it.

Q. What are your favorite kite brands?

Of course I love all the Ocean Rodeo gear, but there are really two items that are my favorite girl gear. It helped me a lot after I started riding Ocean Rodeo: 1) 6m Diablo, which is great for the wind conditions we are in most of the time. Before I was over powered so often, but now I have no problem with that anymore 2) is the Session harness, it is exactly the right size, staying in the right place all the time and very comfortable.

You can find out more about Linn and Jeremie’s travels @ Jeremie Tronet dot com. More really cool photos of Linn in our Flickr set.

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