Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels

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Island of the Gods

I’m stoked having contributed to this issue of IKSURF, the world’s No.1 online magazine, with my trip to Bali paradise in Indonesia as the cover-feature on seven double spread pages!

PULAU DEWATA – “Island of the Gods“ – as the Balinese call their country. Who wants to contradict them there? Coconut trees shade fine sandy beaches, snow-white in the south, volcano-black in the north, varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides; Bali is blessed with dream beaches, a fascinating culture, tropical climate and fauna and so much more … The gods must know best after all, where on earth they can live heavenly !

Me personally, I am very attached to this pearl in the Indian Ocean. By now nearly 10 years ago I did my first kite-course on Bali and therefore this island has a very special place in my heart. In 2002 I spent a week there as part of a business trip with my former employer “Action Asia” (the leading media group for adventure travel & extreme sports in Asia), back in the days when I was still ‘surfing the career-rail’ in Hong Kong, jetting all throughout Asia on assignments in a management position. In this respect Bali is where Kitegabi was conceived! It is the place in the world where I first had a kite bar in my hands and my feet in the straps of a board; it’s where I was shaken awake from the “brainwash” of the western world, where I got back in touch with my heart, which I had learnt to ignore as taught by society; it’s where my passion for the ocean that I had always felt inside me since I was a young girl and my childhood dream of learning to surf came back alive. I owe Bali and the Gods there a lot 🙂 !

For this article, I owe a lot to the amazing photographer Mark Thorpe of Liquidmotion Photography. Originally from the UK, he is now living with his lovely wife and kid on the Island of Gods. Check his work out on facebook!

Read the full story right here, scroll down and select to read online, to download or to print it out.  Alternatively if you would like to have a read through IKSURF issue 34 in the backissue-archive, feel free to do that too 🙂

Enjoy and check out the French version in Stance, the German version in Kiteboarding.eu or the Spanish version in Surf a Vela right here!