about Kristin Boese 

Kristin Boese has been kitesurfing professionally since 2002 and won world championship titles in all different disciplines. She has been promoting the sport in many different ways and it has always been important to her to give back to the sport that has (and still is) given her so much.

When Kristin discovered kiteboarding in 2002 it was with the help of different jobs as a kite instructor that she was able to make the money she needed to go to the next competition and that she was able to spend time on the water to improve her kiting. While these times were not always easy for Kristin and she came close to giving up her dream a few times, it has given her one thing for sure: teaching experience and the ability to explain movements and tricks in an easy to understand way.

It was also then when she realized that girls have a different way of learning things (especially kiteboarding).

Over the years she has passed on her knowledge with passion and has written two instructional kiteboarding books (in cooperation with Sports professor Christian Spreckels) and published an instructional DVD. This way she was able to make the first steps on the board or new tricks easier for many kiteboarders out there.

Another big passion of Kristin however has always been to support and motivate female kiteboarders which she has actively done in girls clinics and camps since 2003. While the original idea of these events was to get more girls into the kiteboarding competitions (and still is a part of it today) it is just as important to Kristin to give female kiteboarders of all levels, ages and social groups a platform in the sport. She would like to be able to reach as many female kiters out there as possible as well as help to build or support local female kite communities. This is one of the reasons why Kristin has organized free of charge female clinic events since 2003.

the origins of KB4girls

At first Kristin only organized Girls-Camps in Germany but in her trips around the world she slowly realized how rapidly the demand for girls clinics was growing. More or less spontaneous she started organizing (or helping out in) girls events around the world and in 2009 she very successfully organized a total of 7 events.

This was when the idea of launching KB4girls, a professional clinic tour for female kiters, arose in Kristin and she launched the tour in December 2009. With a new name and image and with a less spontaneous and more professional approach the KB4girls events started to bring female kiteboarders around the world an amazing opportunity and with first partnerships with some of the world's biggest kite magazines, KB4girls managed to give female kiteboarding a bit more recognition and a platform in the sport. 

2010 - the first season

With 12 amazing events realized in 2010, more than 400 girls and women around the world involved in the program, 20 new girls brought into the sport, 155000 US$ raised for STEPS and victims of domestic violence in NY as well as donations raised for the Surfrider Foundation Europe, the KB4girls tour has been unbelievably successful in its first year.

Due to the amazing support of many other female kiters and local communities around the world Kristin then decided to take the next step with KB4girls and got together with Laurel Eastman (secretary) and Michelle Yamamoto (treasurer) as well as an amazing board of advisors to set KB4girls up as a non-profit-association.

2011 - all official now

In January 2011 KB4girls became the KB4girls foundation and the process of filing for the 501(c)3 was started. Just 3 months later the KB4girls foundation, registered in Oregon/USA, received the 501(c)3 tax exempt status and is eligible to apply for grants and receive donations for their programs. 

While applying for non-profit status and writing the foundation's official mission statement additional goals and tasks were added (please see mission and concept for further info) and the KB4girls foundation started to cooperate with other charitable organizations to support and reach out to even more females and children around the world. 

 In order to raise funds for these partner charities fundraising events were included into the global KB4girls clinic tour (following the example of the hugely successful Dream Extreme KB4girls event in NY in 2010).

In 2011 the KB4girls foundation ran 10 global events, put together the first female only kite competition in cooperation with the BKSA, donated 16,881 USD to partnering charities, helped raise 160,000 USD for Victims of Domestic Violence and Concern World Wide and reached out to hundreds of female kiteboarders (and these new to the sport) around the world.

On top of all that, the KB4girls board of directors decided to take the foundation yet a step further and released the KB4girls chapter program in November 2011, giving female kiteboarders the chance to join the team by creating (or continuing) female kite communities at their local spots and supporting girls and women on a more local than global level.

By the end of 2011 the first 11 KB4girls chapters have been officially registered and included in the program and more are in the process of being accredited. 

Striving to support females in the sport and to reach out to those in need through the power of kiteboarding, the KB4girls foundation will continue to move forward and is looking forward to earning female kiteboarding the respect it deserves.