Karine Nativel

Kitesurfer, Coach, Technique Editor, UK & Portugal

Karine’s passion for board sports ignited with snowboarding during her teenage years. Always an active and inquisitive child who blossomed in water, her motivation to give all eventually lead to her teaching French and satisfying her then love of windsurfing in numerous interesting places around the world. Never one to sit still, a chance encounter in the warm waters of Margarita introduced Karine to the thrills and excitement of kitesurfing. Originally from France, Karine obviously loves food, cheese, Baudelaire, wine, rugby and surfing. Although not one to sit still, Karine is fond of hammocks! Karine now works as the better looking half of CK Performance Clinics, along with Christian Harris, mixing and evolving their subtle blend of coaching experience, teaching knowledge, along with their obvious male/female differences and formidable Anglo-Franco alliance. Together they have become the leading authority on intermediate and advanced kitesurf coaching. Since 2003 they offer their guests a truly unique style and complete method of learning and improving during their clinics at various windy spots throughout the year and around the globe. They have a growing bible of “homework” with over 150 tricks and variations of moves, regularly nudging kiters along with their popular technique articles in www.iksurfmag.com. So if you fancy a full on week of energy, enthusiasm, knowledge, coaching, progression and fun, whilst squeezing in a year’s worth of learning amongst a killer group of motivated people – indulge yourself in one of their unique clinics.

I spend most of my time outdoors in the wind, water, rain and sometimes the cold. As a result I’ve experienced a plethora of earaches, infections and discomfort. This summer was a bit of a wake up call, as my partner in crime, Christian, experienced a blocked ear for a couple of months, a bad infection, loss of hearing and balance, which was both scary and painful, and the tone of his voice changed too. This really motivated us to take the health of our ears and more importantly the longevity of our hearing seriously. After some research we discovered SURFEARS, and I’ve been using them since. They’re very practical in that they allow you to hear whilst keeping the water, wind and sand out, which is just perfect for work as a coach and for personal fun time in the water. I find them comfortable and nonintrusive, you can custom size them out of the box, they stay put during surfing and kiting. Although I always have a quick check after a good wipe-out just to make sure that they’re still snug. At the end of the day you can’t put a price on your hearing!

Other sponsors: Cabrinha kites & NP surf