Camilla Ringvold is one of the most impressive women we've ever met with an unbelievable list of kiting accomplishments! Find out more about this snowkite champion, arctic explorer, mother, and more in this exclusive Insight feature!

Camilla, it's great to feature you in this issue! You wrote a Travel Guide for us about Hardangervidda, Norway, but that barely scratches the surface of the incredible adventures you've had! Five-time Norwegian champion, 2014 winner of Red Bull Battle of the Sund, 2014 winner of Red Bull Ragnarok, leading expeditions across Greenland and even crossing the Atlantic by kite... I don't even know where to start, so let's take it from the beginning!  

Born and raised in Norway, snow sports and adventure must have been everyday activities in your household. What were your parents like? How did you spend your weekends?

Most Norwegians live an active lifestyle, and luckily - we were no different! Our weekends were spent skiing and our summers on the water. I started competing in skiing and sailing relatively young, which shaped the person I am today. 

How and when did you first get into kiteboarding and, more specifically, snowkiting? 

My sister and I initially started with windsurfing, but lugging around so much equipment on a tiny Ford Fiesta that we inherited from our grandparents was not ideal. On the other hand, seeing kiteboarders throw their equipment in the backseat looked so convenient! So that winter, I signed up for a snowkite course, and voila – here I am. 

I miss the days when we just had one kite! I remember I had an 11.8m Wipika Airblast 11.8 – and it nearly killed me at Pozo Beach on Canary Island! I eventually switched to a Cabrinha C02, and now, 23 years later, I'm still riding Cabrinha kites. 

You often share photos from Tarifa. How many months a year do you spend there? What is your favourite kite spot in the Tarifa area? 

I owned a condo on the beach in Tarifa a few years ago, but I still travel to Tarifa regularly even though I'm based in Norway. Depending on what time of the year you visit, Tarifa has its unique charm. As long as you never expect it to be "like last time", you'll always have a good time! 

I love Balneario sessions, especially when the pros show up. Their riding level is insane and motivational; I'm no longer close to their riding level! So these days, I enjoy a wave session at Canos de Mecca or just a sunset downwinder from Valdevaqueros to Campo de Futbol, slashing small beach breaks along the way and maybe stopping by Aqua for a drink or two!

What inspired you to start kiteboarding competitively? Which disciplines did you compete in?

It started more for the social scene, to begin with, everybody got involved, partied and had fun! I have competed in most disciplines, even Formula kite. Everyone was obsessed with their fins, and it got too much like the competitive sailing environment I experienced as a teen. The fun was gone because fewer people took part, and it got more serious. With snowkiting, most competitions are still based on a social experience – especially the long-distance ones. It's more about the journey than the result, which I like – even though I still try my best to win! 

You were the winner of the 2014 Red Bull Ragnarok, and you've claimed your spot on the podium many times. I can imagine how challenging it must be, especially if the wind is fickle or visibility isn't on your side. What do you enjoy most about racing in those conditions? 

I love tricky conditions; that's what I am best at. Despite this, I have never been the fastest racer in perfect conditions, and that's also not the kind of racing I enjoy. Very light wind or super stormy whiteouts is where experience and solid kite handling comes into play. Being able to handle all-mountain elements, make smart decisions in the terrain, both light and stormy winds, and kite on the edge of what's comfortable is thrilling. Red Bull Ragnarok in its original form was super fun, very social and an amazing way to experience Hardangervidda.

What is your favourite Red Bull Ragnarok story to share?

I do remember the very first edition of the race. It was quite a big deal for a place like Haugastøl to have pro kiteboarders visiting like Susi Mai, Ruben Lenten, and Aaron Hadlow. Out of 110 starters, only four finished. Most of the participants never even made it by the first rounding mark, kites flew everywhere, and several pros recognised the skill level of the local Norwegian riders conquering these conditions.

The best stories from the races and parties, primarily parties, are untold... but I'll be happy to share them with you over a beer in Tarifa one day!

On November 20th 2013, Filippo van Hellenberg Hubar, Max Blom, Eric Pequeno, Dennis Gijsbers, Ike Frans and yourself set off from the Canary Islands and arrived at Turks and Caicos, in the Caribbean, on December 17th - 7800km in the first-ever NON-STOP kiteboarding crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Please tell us all about it! 

What an adventure we had! One evening, I googled if anyone had kited across the Atlantic - and that's how it all began. My father had recently sailed across, and I was eager to attempt a similar journey, but with kites. I came across a WordPress blog by Filippo van Hellenberg Hubar, and he had the same dream. I sent him a message, and then the ball started to roll quite fast. He is genuinely a go-getter with an incredible entrepreneurial mind. We began to gather a team; we looked for sponsors, a boat, a skipper and a crew. The kite crew changed many times before our departure – only weeks before leaving. It was a big project made by dreams and dreamers. And our working title for the project, Enable Passion, was indeed the core of it all.

We had several training sessions, and the planning took a full year. We had to find a way to launch kites from the boat travelling at speed, change riders in the middle of the night, find the right equipment, food, boat crew, make a safety plan, etc. Today, I think we would have done a lot differently, but wow – what a learning experience it all was. 

When I look back at it, my favourite part of the whole trip was my night sessions. Big swells, the sea only lit up by the moon and stars, flying fish hitting you in the side, not knowing what hit you, and a dazzling bright green light after my tail fin from all the bioluminescence in the water. I have never felt so alone and free and still so safe because we had such a good crew with excellent skills, each with their speciality.

When we arrived in Turks and Caicos, we were welcomed like superstars. That was a fun party! I urge everyone to Google their dreams; who knows what might come from them. You might meet a Filippo out there.

 Congratulations on becoming a mom. Louie is adorable! Juggling motherhood and hobbies is no easy task; I totally understand! However, it's essential to keep doing what you love. What's your secret? 

Thanks! Wow, what a ride it is with these little ones. I love him to pieces. A long time ago, I had a chat with my childhood friend, kitesurfer Tuva Jansen, after she returned from Maui – I remember she told me that when she had her first kid, Aya, that travelling with her was just another bag to bring along. That stuck with me for a while, and I think as kitesurfers, we're used to handling all sorts of logistics and carrying loads of stuff – so we're pretty well prepared for a kite life with kids. But the secret? I have an amazing fiancé; we were supposed to get married in Tarifa in September 2020, but the pandemic hit – so it's still postponed. He loves to kite and travel as much as I do, maybe even more, and we give each other space to do the things we love. I don't do much less kiting, wingfoiling or skiing now than pre-kid, we just don't always do it together, but again, it's nice to have two super guys waiting for you at the beach. And yeah, grandparents – we love those too – luckily, at home, both our parents live within one hour from us, and as long as Louie is fortunate to have them around, he can enjoy their company with waffles and hugs as much as they want as well.

We all want to hear about your Greenland expedition; it sounds insane! Crossing miles of white horizons as far as the eye can see. Can you share with us what it's like snowkiting between Kangerlussuaq and Qaanaaq?

Crossing Greenland, whichever route one chooses, is a massive expedition. Both for the body and mind. Our most popular route goes from Kangerlussuaq to the most northern settlement in the world, Qaanaaq.

The planning for Greenland starts long before we even step on the ice. To be allowed to step onto the icecap, a lot of paperwork must be filed with the government. These include permit applications, SAR insurance, bank guarantees, radio licenses, and weapon licenses. If you decide to use a helicopter to reach the ice, more preparation is required.

After this, the fun stuff starts – route planning, safety plans, planning food for 30 days, medical kit and subscriptions, winter camping equipment, etc. Of course, the kites we use are just a fraction of our packing list, but again – they are our vehicle and are very important to have a smooth trip from south to north across the icecap. 

After a day or two of packing and prepping, we head up by 4x4 to the start of the Russell Glacier at around 660m above sea level. Crampons and willpower will help us get up through an ice maze for the next 3-5 days. I tend to think we're walking around in a marshmallow field – it is so beautiful and a great way to start an arctic kiting trip. The body gets started while temperatures are still nice, around freezing, and day by day, the team's winter camping routines get dialled. All just in time for when we get out of the maze around 1200m above sea level. From there on, winds are usually relatively light, and we loop our way up to a travelling height around 2000m above sea level. There are no more mountains in sight; the days are getting longer, and the nights lighter and lighter. This is when the real fun starts, and the vast beauty of Greenland truly comes to show. Arctic halo's, white horizons for days and midnight sun, all while travelling with great friends, old or new, snowkiting on top of the world. During the following weeks, one will experience storms, perfect conditions, sastrugi, broken equipment, laughter, fatigue and an incredible feeling of accomplishment and mastering the many aspects of winter camping and snowkiting.

The descent of the icecap is closing in after a few weeks. The first glimpse of a mountain in the distance is like a magnet pulling you towards a free beer! It's a bit more dangerous up north. We are entering the polar bear habitat the more we descend to the sea ice, and of course, bodies are tired, and equipment is tired or fixed along the way. During this part of the journey, I recommend taking it slow, soaking in the beauty of the ice fjords and mountains, and you might even hear a bird once in a while. That might sound weird for most, but when you haven't heard sounds of nature other than ice and snow for weeks, the sound of a bird is like a symphony. While watching out for crevasses and getting the team in one piece down to the sea ice, one can only think about how lucky we can be to experience this part of the world. You might think that once we're down to the sea ice, the trip is over – but no, while a spectacular journey with kites comes to an end, each kiter is picked up by a local Inuit hunter and his Greenland dog sled, and a two-day sled ride starts. On our way from the Bowdoin Fjord to Qaanaaq, we might stop to hunt seals, fish or whatever the hunters need to do to gather food for their families back home in Qaanaaq. It's like being in the middle of a National Geographic episode.

A beer and shower in Qaanaaq after this is quite amazing as well. One learns to appreciate the contrast between cold and the simple life and comfort and a hot shower. So even though I've tried to explain, I can say you have to experience it for yourself! 

What's your kite gear of choice for running these expeditions, and why? 

In super light winds going downwind for thousands of kilometres with 80-100kg in the pulk behind us, as we do on Greenland, there are not many kites that beat the Ozone Chrono EXP 15m with 50m lines when it comes to performance and safety. But, if I'm guiding a not so experienced client, he might be using a Chrono, and I am light, so I might fly a tube Ozone Edge with extensions, making me more manoeuvrable when I need help. You might think an Edge is an upwind machine, but the downward pull it has in the loop and its stability are fantastic. I've flown a Cabrinha up there as well; same great kite. In addition – a tube is an excellent shield from the wind during breaks, and – as a girl, it's a lot nicer to sit down and pee behind a tube kite than nothing at all in -25C (yes, we live in tents, so no toilets around) so it has its practical non-kite specs as well. I also think tubes are more fun and playful to manoeuvre. And I love to kite, using the kite – not just being pulled by a kite.

Can you share one of the most thrilling stories from your Greenland adventures?

I wish I could tell you a super exciting polar bear story right now, but I have yet to encounter one up there – only tracks so far. But my thrilling story was probably more compelling for one of my clients. For the rest of us, it was a spectacular sight.

When we kite on the icecap, we are often overpowered by choice – we are going downwind, pulling heavy pulks, so putting down a big kite isn't always very convenient if you need to use the 'toilet', in the case of one of my clients. So preparing to take a little pee break, kite in the air over his head and pants down– a little gust came in, or a bit out of focus maybe, anyways, there he flew, straight up and into a backroll with the pulks hanging behind him – with one hand on the bar, and one hand on you know what. He landed, though very smoothly, on his feet. I've never seen a trick like that again. But all of us on the trip can tell you that the saying "piss into the wind, wind piss back" has been confirmed true.

A for style, though, and laughter - essential on any journey! I can't wait to get back there for more icecap adventures!

Best of luck on your journey, Camilla! I'm so glad we were able to catch up before you left on your next Greenland expedition. We'll keep an eye on your Instagram page and follow your adventure!

By Jen Tyler
Italian/Egyptian Jen Tyler grew up on the sandy beaches of the Red Sea and has been on the IKSURFMAG & Tonic Mag team since 2017.

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