DATE OF BIRTH: 07/10/1999
COUNTRY: NETHERLANDS
LOCAL KITE SPOT: STRAND HORST, NETHERLANDS
SPONSORS: NAISH
KM: What motivates you on the water?
Stig Hoefnagel: Kiting new locations always motivates me a lot. Because I spend so many hours on the water it’s hard to keep motivation sometimes, but exploring new spots with my kite is still something that fascinates me about kiting. Whenever I have the opportunity to kite a spot I’ve never kited the motivation usually follows shortly after. Or getting super close to landing a new trick helps as well. Whenever I get close to landing something new I try to do absolutely everything to land it no matter the conditions.
KM: What is your off-the-water training like?
SH: I spend a lot of time in the gym when I don’t have much time to get a workout in. But I like to do other sports that help me stay fit. My favourite sport to do next to kiting is mountain biking. It’s a good mix of training endurance, focus and conditioning. When I go to the gym I usually train balancing exercises in combination with strength and endurance; the goal is to get strong and fit and not too big and heavy.
KM: Any recommendations for learning new tricks?
SH: Learning new tricks is always scary, it takes time, skill and courage to do so. You don’t want to get injured but at the same time you also don’t want to be stuck at the same level. I struggle a lot with this because I want to train for competitions but at the same time not get injured. It’s a fine line between both. I usually visualize my tricks over and over again. It takes some time and skill to understand but as soon as you can visualize your tricks well enough you can make almost everything happen–as long as your foundation is good.
KM: What would you say to anyone wanting to learn to kite?
SH: Just do it. Take an introduction lesson to see if you like it. I have been a teacher myself for quite a few years and a lot of people start the lesson very skeptical thinking they won’t be able to do much. But almost everyone is super stoked and happy after their lesson and can’t wait for their second.
KM: What inspires you?
SH: I get inspired and find inspiration in a lot of things. I watch a lot of other board sports. I find creative people very inspiring and they usually push me to make a new movie and motivate me to make something that nobody has done in a particular way. KM: What do you like about big air competition?
SH: I usually get super competitive; there is something about competing that motivates me a lot. The feeling of being on the podium is something magical and that’s usually the reason I want to do well. I enjoy competing in big air so much because you know the conditions are going to be sick while giving all the people watching on the beach a show.
KM: How did you get to where you are today?
SH: You need a lot of passion and love for the sport. Without this I think it’s almost impossible to keep on pushing and enjoying yourself. I sometimes lose a bit of motivation doing big air. Personally switching to a different discipline within the sport works for me. Getting my mind off big air by doing something else really motivates me to go back to big air.
