Duotone News ᐅ "Wave of Life" with Gabi Steindl

One of Duotone’s longest standing team-riders Gabi Steindl has just dropped her brand-new film “Wave of Life”.

Born and bred landlocked in the capital of Austria, Gabi had been dreaming of windsurfing, surfing and living with the rhythms of the ocean ever since she was a little girl. When kitesurfing came along, she broke free from of a highly successful business career in Hong Kong and London and committed herself 100% to the then new sport. After several years in the Kite World Cup (2003-2007), Gabi stopped competitive riding and embarked on her journey as a Globetrotting Freerider, Adventurer & Travel Writer.

Duotone Kiteboarding Wave of Life Gabi Steindl

Virgin waves and untouched kite spots are the ultimate destination for this dedicated adventurer who roams the planet searching for new kiting destinations typically on solo missions. On such an explorer-mission, Gabi came to Western Australia, where she fell in love with the waves and the people — and has been living there for over 12 years now. Sharing her travels in articles for leading magazines worldwide, Gabi lives and breathes for her time on the water and her adventures to the most remote corners of our planet.

Currently self-isolating at her house in the Aussie bush in Margaret River, surrounded by kangaroos, we caught up with her via email:

Hi Gabi, what inspired you to put together this film:

Like everyone else, life as I knew it has currently been put on halt. I had to cancel future projects, which is heart-wrenching as I often work on my projects for over a year in advance. But our health is everything and I’m blessed living in a pretty safe place here in Western Australia. For now, I can only hope that it won’t take too long until we will regain our freedom: Freedom to travel, to live our passions, to be able to jump on an aeroplane and to kick-off a new explorer-mission.
So I thought, I’d put together this film for everyone who loves travel, adventure and kitesurfing as much as I do — to dream and to start planning new adventures when we all will be free to do so.

What does “Wave of Life” mean to you:

Well, it’s a few things combined. It’s a play on words given my way of life is dictated by the swell and the wind. But then it’s more than that too: I reckon that life in general is like the ocean with its daunting depths, ebbs and flows and abrupt changes in weather. Waves represent sudden challenges, but also opportunities that life throws at us. Just like in surfing or wavekiting, when an ocean swell builds in front of us what we have to do is jump on the opportunity, fully commit, decide on the perfect line down the wave face and go for it — and hopefully we’ll be having the ride of our life. Yet, if we fall and get washed hard, that’s ok too! Regardless, we just have to relaunch our kite, get out of the impact zone, make our way out the back and soon enough we will be riding the peak again.

You’re fully focused on wave riding these days, yeah?

Ohhhh yes, ever since standing on a kite waveboard for the very first time, in 2005 in Tarifa, I’ve been totally hooked on wave riding.

Give us a brief rundown on your pro kiting career, you’ve been in the industry a fair while:

Yeah, I have and I’m so grateful for it. I started competing in the World Cup in 2003 that’s when Duotone (previously under a different brand name) picked me up as a team-rider. Things went well, I was in the top 3-5 most of the time and won a number of World Cup events, yet, competition life never really resonated with me.

So eventually I followed my heart, quit comps, started my explorer trips and began to write about my adventures. The feedback of the magazines and the readers from my first trips and articles was fantastic and encouraged me to dedicate my pro career to this path. I never looked back.

How has kiting changed your life:

Wow, I could write a book about this question, but to keep it short: It changed my life into a journey on which I’ve been seeing more dreams come true than I ever could have wished for. A journey that confirmed to me that no matter what you dream of, you can achieve it as long as you fully commit, don’t accept no for an answer, don’t listen to others, work extremely hard and follow your heart, because only YOU know what makes you happy and what you want out of life.

Let Gabi show you her “Wave of Life” in this film that she produced herself.