06/08/2021
IKO Instructor of the week, MIKA!
Congratulations Michaela Pilkenton on being this week's featured IKO Instructor! Keep up your amazing work 🤙
Qualification: Instructor Level 2
IKO Center: Action Sports Maui
From Katrina Vaillancourt
I have had 5 kite-boarding private lessons prior to these sessions with Mika (Michaela Pilkenton) at Action Sports Maui. I am super grateful to have happened upon her. Mika’s enthusiasm, engagement and understanding of how to teach and build upon skills was WAY beyond the previous experiences I’ve had. I now understand all the basic skills necessary - kite, board & body - to get up on the board and ride upwind. I hardly ever lost my board because she taught me how to rise with my board angle, feet and weight in the correct position, pause, and sit back in the water and change direction, so I was FAR less likely to rise and crash as I did in previous lessons with other instructors (where these foundational bits of wisdom were not near as clearly explained and practiced prior to entering the water.) It was a joy to do a lot more riding and refining my skills and a lot less crashing or drifting. Mika is attentive to kite size and gear adjustments appropriate to my level of learning - finding a great balance of power - not too much power, which was fabulous because being thrown around by wind is not fun, but also not under-powered like I’ve had in another previously frustrating session I had a year ago (different kite school - not in Maui) which created a lot of sitting in the water with my kite flailing on the surface while I simply drifted down wind frustrated in many failed efforts to get the kite back up in the air and with eventually how thoroughly the lines had gotten twisted up creating a necessity to practice my self-rescue skills... if you are on the path of learning, I am sure you can appreciate how relieving it is to experience less drifting, crashing and losing your board, lol!! I’m thrilled with these sessions! So much progress made in each one! and I look forward to continuing to learn and refine my skills with this instructor :)
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