You have just had the pleasure of seeing the latest video release from Liquid Force team mates Malin Amle, Kristiin Oja and Sensi Graves and their time in Brazil. The unavoidable aesthetic of this video presents these three unique riders in such a positive light with their passion and commitment being seen directly through their eyes and the expressions on their faces, captured and edited brilliantly by Vincent Bergeron.
We caught up with the girls to find out a little but more about their input into the video and how they felt the final cut turned out.
KSm: Girls, first of all congratulations of a video that really represents female kiteboarding in such a positive light. Can you tell us a little but more about how this project came to be?
Malin: Thank you! All the three of us were in Brazil during the autumn. While Kristiin and I were in Uruau, Sensi asked us to join in on a project together with Vincent up in Taiba. We figured it would be really cool to make a pure girls video for Liquid Force!
Kristiin: I joined the Liquid Force team just recently, in September 2015. I was super stoked, cause me and Malin love to shred together and now that we were team mates and both planned to go to Brazil, we just had to make LF girl power video. At the same time we got in contact with Sensi with the video idea, who was also in Brazil and stoked with the idea. We kind of got lucky cause Vinny had one week free to shoot us. I loved the videos from him, so we were in straight away.
Sensi: Thank you! It was so fun to collaborate with Malin and Kristiin. They are both such strong riders. I love making videos with other women-the environment is usually very supportive and energetic. At LF, we’ve been wanting to do a branded all female riding video for awhile now and when I found out Malin and Kristiin would be in Brazil at the same time as me, I reached out asking if they wanted to do something together. All the pieces fell together pretty quickly and easily on this one.
KSm: Coming from very different corners of the globe is this the first time the three of you have met up and ridden together and how did you find each others styles and personalities on the water?
Malin: This was the first time all the three of us have been riding together. I have been traveling a fair bit with Kristiin and I’m really happy she has also joined the LF team! Kristiin is a freestyle machine and I love to practice tricks together with her. Sensi is a very versatile rider and it was inspiring to see how she is pushing it in freestyle, on rails and in the waves. I must say she opened my eyes to new sides of the sport, as I have usually been pretty focused on freestyle. It was really fun to shred all three of us together in Taiba with our matching LF gear. Always happy when there are a lot of LF kiters around.
Kristiin: I met Sensi years ago in Philippines, in CWC wakepark. I really admired her style on sliders and kickers, so it was so awesome to see her again, ride in same team and shoot together. With Malin I also met in Asia, competing in KTA tour in Thailand. We met up again to do some of PKRA stops in France and Egypt. We definitely have lot of fun in and out of the water and super good connection, so we always keep in touch. I really admire both of these ladies, Sensi is killing it on kickers and sliders and Malin has really nice powered moves. Such a great team to ride with and push each other.
Sensi: I’ve met both Kristiin (in the Philippines) and Malin (in Brazil) before but hadn’t ridden with either of them in a few years. It was awesome to see how much they’ve progressed. They’re both strong, consistent riders and perform tricks with energy, height, and power. But what impressed me the most was their willingness to go for it. Malin always had a smile on her face and said yes to everything we proposed and Kristiin is really laid-back and super easy to work with and she was throwing down some really hard tricks.
KSm: We know that Sensi works a lot with Vincent Bergeron, but how did you find working with him on this video with the pressures that come with filming in Brazil such as time, light and crowds in the lagoon?
Malin: Working with Vincent is great! He is very passionate about what he is doing and wants to make every edit unique, which is a hard task as he is working with a lot of the riders during the autumn in Brazil. I think the result turned out great and that we got a video that is original, fun and representing a high level of female riding. We were mostly shooting in the rocky lagoon behind the normal Taiba lagoon to get a different kind of scenery without the crowd. The lagoon is really smelly, hence the description quick and dirty sessions ;)
Kristiin: I really enjoyed shooting with Vincent, he already had his vision and knew what to do, but at the same time he is not stressing you out on the water, but rather cheering you up with his cute french accent :) Our video is not mainly filmed in the “pro pool”, so we can’t really complain about the space. Also we had one week with pretty decent wind, makes planning easier!
Sensi: We were pretty time constrained on this project but Vinny is always a really hard worker and with the girls willingness to go for it, we were able to get everything we needed. And it turned out great!
KSm: The final edit has a really great look and feel to it. How much or an input did you have into the style and final cut?
Malin: To be honest I already loved the first draft of the edit, so I will give all that credit to Vince! We hope people will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed shooting it.
Kristiin: Thanks, on this one we trusted Vincent and the final result is just amazing.
Sensi: Very little. Vinny was able to nail down what we wanted on almost the first try. We wanted the edit to be energetic, powerful and feminine. We wanted to highlight our strengths and that we’re women without it being too sexy, cheesy or repetitive. So many videos have come out of Brazil, it’s a challenge keeping them fresh, but Vinny did an excellent job.
KSm: What are you up to in the coming months?
Malin: Right now I’m in the Philippines riding in CWC to progress on features. I really got into that after the Blue Open Event in Palawan and I would love to master more sides of the sport. I have got lots of new motivation now, as there are so many things I want to learn and progress within. I really love how versatile this sport is and my new passion is to explore more of that!
Kristiin: At the moment I’m enjoying proper winter at home in Estonia, doing some snowkiting and snowboarding. I also started with my own kiteschool, so that will take part of my time. At the moment I haven’t really planned my year, I would love to be on the world tour this year again.
Sensi: I’m heading to Maui for some bikini trunk shows and then off to Argentina for a photoshoot. And promoting the launch of the 2016 Sensi Bikinis Collection!
Thank you so much for your time girls and thank you again for bringing us this great video.
