Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the Edge, a podcast by Tag Hoyer. Our guest this time is professional kitesurfing athlete, world champion, and multiple competition winner Liam Whaley. In this episode, we speak to Liam about the event that transformed his career, the Red Bull king of Air in 2018. We also talk about moments that shaped him, how he overcomes obstacles like injuries, his perception of success, and a whole lot more. I'm your host, Naomi Schiffe, and this is the Edge, a podcast by Tag Hoyer.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Well, Liam, a big welcome to the Edge podcast. I'm really glad to have you on today, and I can't wait to get into your story a little bit more so that our audience can hear all about some of the fantastic things that you have been up to in your career. But first and foremost, I'd love to ask you, where in the world are you right now?
[00:00:56] Speaker C: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me, Naomi. Very nice to meet you, virtually.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Me too.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: I'm currently in Tarifa, my hometown.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Okay, awesome. So, Tarifa, now, I know you say it's your hometown, but everything that I've been reading, it says that your family were traveling all over the world. I don't know if I'm wrong, but I consider myself a little bit of an accent guru, and there's a hint of south African in there somewhere. And I could be wrong, but could you clarify what all this world travelling is all about? And is there a hint of south african in your accent?
[00:01:26] Speaker C: Yeah, actually, a lot of people tell me that I have a bit of a south african accent. I can't really figure out why, but I'm definitely quite international.
My mother is from Holland, my dad's English, and I was born and raised in Spain, in Ibiza. And, yeah, we moved to Tarifa about ten years ago. But I do travel to Cape Town quite often. There's a competition there every year. The Red Bull, king of the air. And I spend about a month and a half to two months. So that's why there could be a little bit of a south african twang in my accent.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Damn it. There goes my accent. Guru of accents title. I will continue to work on it. I just heard some yas in there, but then that would be the dutch part, so I'm not that upset with myself. So, anyway, let's move on. I would love to know where your love from kitesurfing comes from.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: Yeah. So my love from kitesurfing started at a very, very young age.
I would always go to the beach and see kites in the sky, even though I was living in Ibiza, which is not the windiest place in the world. It is an island, and it has kind of beaches all around it. So depending on the wind direction, you can kind of always find somewhere to kite. But besides that, my dad is a very avid windsurfer and water sports person in general. And, yeah, he got me into kitesurfing from a very young age, and I would always go down to the beach and see him kitesurfing with his friends. And I was always too young to do it because you need to be. You need to have a certain weight to be able to get on the water. But I was flying kites on the beach from a super young age, I think from, like, three or four years old, when I could hardly walk. So my love from kite surfing definitely comes from my father.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Did you always know, like, at which point did you feel that that was something you were going to do professionally or really take seriously into your adult life?
[00:03:13] Speaker C: I've always loved it. I've always been very much into different sports and always kind of alternative sports. I was very into skateboarding as a kid. I thought I was going to be, like, a world champion skateboarder, and I would obsess over the sport. Just hours, endless hours, trying tricks, trying tricks, watching videos, and wanting to be a pro skateboarder. And then, yes, I slowly started getting into kite surfing, and I slowly started being more attracted to that than skateboarding. And, yeah, that's when it kind of started. I'd say around the age of eight is when I took my first lesson, and I really, really enjoyed it. And then from maybe 1212 onwards, I kind of knew that I wanted to be a professional.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Okay. So always been very competitive and always been driven to be perfect in a certain sport. So you ended up in kite surfing. Now, I want to go back to January 2018, and I want to know what inspired you to sign up for the rebel king of Air that event that year, and especially when, I mean, since you were 100% dedicated to freestyle at that point in time.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: Yeah. So in kite surfing, we have various different disciplines, and I had fully dedicated my life to the freestyle discipline, and that's basically what was the biggest. That was the trending discipline at the time. That's where the world tour was at. That's where all the pros were doing. So I looked up to all these guys and I wanted to do that. And, yeah, I did that for many, many years, and I was quite successful in it.
But in 2018, I decided to sign up for a completely new discipline, which is, you know, there's many aspects of the freestyle discipline which you can kind of take over into big air, but they are very different. And it's almost like learning a new sport. But I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to try something different, so I signed up for that event. And the way you sign up is kind of through a video entry, so they qualify you depending on how good your video is. And unfortunately, I didn't make it into the event because I wasn't very, very good at that discipline at the time. But I was put on the reserve list, which basically means if someone doesn't show up or if a rider gets injured just before the competition, their spot is taken and you get into the event. So, yeah, I was in Brazil at the time, like, on the other side of the world, training, training, freestyle, preparing for the upcoming season. And about four or five days before the event, I get a call from Red Bull and they're like, do you want to participate in the Red Bull? King of the air?
Somebody got injured. Nick Jacobson was his name. He was, like a very good competitor at the time. And I didn't know how to react in the moment because I was like, thinking, how am I going to get to the other side in the world? I haven't trained for this at all, but I just said yes. I took a flight the next day. I couldn't even go straight from Brazil to Cape Town, which was where the event, I had to stop in Spain first to pick up my kitesurfing equipment, which is different kitesurfing equipment than the freestyle one. So I flew to Spain the next day, laid over there for, like, one day, prepared my gear, then flew to Cape Town and, yeah, signed up, started that competition with absolutely no experience whatsoever. And, yeah, it was the craziest event of my life.
I was learning new tricks in every single heat. Heat is like each round. Within each round, we have the heats and they're like ten minute heats. And basically you have to do as many tricks as possible, which are scored from one to ten.
And, yeah, I had zero experience, and I was just absorbing as much as I could, asking every single athlete from the competition that had more experience than me, how do you do this trick? How do you do that trick? And I started to advance throughout the day. One, one heat, one, two heats, won three heats, and there was a crazy amount of support on the beach. There was this spanish crew that had spanish flags, and they just all started supporting me and supporting me. And the energy that I felt from the crowd. It just really helped me get through that day, and I ended up making it all the way to the finals and coming second, almost winning the event with zero experience whatsoever. So that was definitely the craziest event in my life, for sure.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Now. I mean, that sounds incredible, but I want to go back to when you were in Brazil and you received that call. I mean, you had, like you said, you had to travel via, via to get to Cape Town. What was the thought process that was going through your mind at that point? I mean, surely nerves were setting in. You were preparing for something completely different at the time. So, yeah, what were you going through mentally at that point?
[00:07:49] Speaker C: I almost didn't have time to think, to be honest. I just said yes, and then it was just all action, action. Book your flights. Get to the airport, which was like 4 hours away. Travel all the way to Spain, which is not a direct flight, takes you like 20 hours or something. Pack all my bags and have four or 5 hours of sleep, and then get on the plane again the next day. So, yeah, there was not much time to think about anything, to be honest.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Okay. For sure. Now, what about when you landed in Cape Town? Can you describe what the mood or the atmosphere was around you at that time?
[00:08:21] Speaker C: Yeah. So coming from freestyle, where the events are not really big, it's a world tour, so the level is extremely high, but the amount of media attention is nowhere near the size as the red bull of the air. So this event, there's so much anticipation, there's so much hype, there's so much media around it. It's a completely different type of competition. And I was definitely not used to all of that. So, yeah, that was extremely cool.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: So a lot of untread territory when you got there in terms of not just the nature of the event, but also the discipline that you were participating in. It's completely different as well. How does one prepare for all of those changes? Or what did you do to prepare your mindset for that event?
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Yeah, it was hard. It was just kind of be as present as possible. But also, I did a lot of studying online, watching a lot of other athletes compete, and really analyzing the way that I was going to do it without even practicing it. Also a lot of visualization, because there were a lot of tricks that I haven't even tried yet, so I had to try them for the first time during the competition. The moments that I remember most vividly are just landing tricks that I'd never landed before. And just having like a. The crowd on the beach screaming my name, and I almost felt like they were my.
I don't know, my angels protecting me. And I felt kind of invincible because this discipline, there's so much adrenaline. It's so extreme, it's so scary. But when you're in a competition and you've got all that adrenaline running through your veins and you've got a massive crowd on the beach screaming, it makes you kind of into a superhero in some ways. I would never have tried a lot of the things that I tried on a normal day, just training. But seeing as I was in that environment, I did things that I never thought I was capable of doing. And that was just an amazing feeling, just really feeding off of the crowd and the energy on the beach.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Now, what about any hurdles or obstacles or challenges? Do you have any that you remember vividly as well?
[00:10:25] Speaker C: Yes, I actually got to that event, and I got super sick the day before.
I had a really high fever during this event as well. So I woke up in the morning and I did not feel good at all. And I'm like, how am I gonna do this? I have absolutely no experience. I don't know what to do. And on top of that, I'm sick. So I went into the hospital, and I went to the doctor. He literally gave me, like, what he could. He gave me, like, some asthma spray to help with my lungs. Even though I'm not asthmatic at all.
He gave me, like, painkillers. And I. Whatever he had. I mean, it was just, like, a bit of a dodgy hospital in Cape Town. And, yeah, I just did what I had to do, and somehow it all worked out. I really don't know how, but I think when you compete, sometimes you forget about how your body is feeling. I've had loads of days that I don't sleep the day before a competition. And somehow you find energy from where you never thought you had it. That was definitely a struggle.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: I tell you what, it was probably those hours and hours in the plane that got you down. Too much air con in the plane is never good for anybody.
But now back onto the more positive stuff. Can you describe the moment where you realized that you came second against all the odds? What was going through your mind in that very moment?
[00:11:45] Speaker C: Honestly, it was a bit of a weird one, because I was so excited throughout the whole day. Like, every heat that I advanced through, I was so hyped up and so excited and so surprised.
But when they announced that I got second, I was kind of disappointed, because, to be honest, I thought I had won the heat I'd literally given my heart out and, like, done everything possible to win that, that heat. And I'd watched the other competitors and I thought I'd done better. So I was disappointed for a second.
But then, of course, you know, afterwards, reflecting back on the event, I'm like, how could I possibly be disappointed coming second against the best guys in the world and never having competed in that event? So, yeah, I'm super proud today.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Well, that's the true competitor in you coming out there, and I think you wouldn't be the successful athlete that you are if you didn't have that, you know, winning mentality that you clearly have.
How did it feel different from any of your other victories or successes?
And was it a turning point for you?
[00:12:50] Speaker C: It just felt different in the way that there was so much hype around the competition and so much. I got so much media attention out of it. Like, the videos went crazy on the Internet, and I had a lot of different people approach me after that, like brands and stuff.
And, yeah, just the energy on the beach felt different. Freestyle is very technical, but the adrenaline is not quite the same as being in big air. We're literally flying, like 25 meters up in the air, 100 km/hour through the sky. We're crashing, and every time you crash, it feels like you're in a car crash, pretty much. So it's just like it's a whole different ballgame.
So, yeah, that's what felt really different about it. It was just something completely new for me. And I'd say it was a bit of a pivoting point in my career because I realized, wow, I can actually be good at this. If I can come second in an event without even training, then imagine if I trained for it. So that's when I kind of started shifting a bit and I started getting more involved in big air and actually ordering kites from my kite brand, which were made for big air, and training both disciplines simultaneously. And, yeah, I did that for a few years. I was competing both in freestyle, both in big air, and I was doing pretty well in both of them. But at one point, I came to a crossroad and I was like, if I want to be the best at one of them, I have to fully dedicate all of my time to one.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: And how tough was it to make that decision? I mean, leaving freestyle, which is something that you'd been doing for so many years since you were a young kid, was that a tough decision to make and what pushed you to go towards big air?
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it was definitely a very tough decision to make, but it kind of almost happened naturally. And for me, it was also something very exciting and new. It gave me a very fresh perspective on the sports. I'd been doing freestyle for or competing in freestyle for over ten years. So at some point, it was becoming a bit repetitive. It's also extremely tough on your body. And I just decided that, like, I was having a lot of fun on the water doing this new discipline, and that's what it's all about, you know, the more fun you have, the faster you progress. So I was like, I'm gonna. And also, in our sports, that discipline was getting a lot more attention and media at the time because it's so spectacular to watch, like, someone who doesn't understand kite surfing can come to the beach and see a guy flying, like, 20 meters in the sky, and they're immediately hooked and watching. So, yeah, it was just getting a lot more attention. I was having fun, and I was like, let's go for it.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: It's always great to see when athletes, or people in general, they go down a path and they dedicate all their time to one thing. But at some points in life, you get to a crossroads. You decide to change paths, and sometimes that path is the better one to be on. So it's great to hear that you are loving that decision that you made. I just wanna ask you if there was maybe one favorite memory from that event back in 2018 that really stands out, and it could be anything from the doctor who gave you the dodgy meds or on the water. Just what was the one moment that, like, really stands out as one of your favorite memories?
[00:16:01] Speaker C: So I think during the actual heats, like, coming onto the beach in between my tricks, literally landing a trick and having so much speed that I can't stop myself before hitting the beach. And I would, like, slide up onto the beach, and there would just be, like, a mob of people around me with spanish flags, like, singing my name and going, mucho Liam. Mucho liam. Hey. Hey. And it was just the crazy, craziest energy that I've ever felt during a competition, and it made me feel, like, so alive and so safe. It almost made me feel like I wasn't in this by myself. Like I had a whole team around me that was supporting me. So, yeah, that was definitely my favorite moment, and that gave me the energy to go out there and do all of these crazy tricks fearlessly.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Sounds like a great memory and the power that a crowd can really give an athlete. Now, you've obviously participated in so many events throughout your career, are there any vivid career defining memories that you have? Any moments that potentially shaped who you are today as an athlete?
[00:17:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I think there's so many different moments that I couldn't really, really pinpoint one. I think everything that I've been through over the last 15 years has really shaped me into who I am. You know, all the injuries that I've had, that's definitely like, as much as the good times are amazing, I think the hard and the down times are the ones that shape you the most. So coming back from injuries has really given me a lot of confidence and knowing that I'm able to hurt myself and be completely disabled and then be able to fight back and win another championship that really shapes you and that really makes you super mentally strong. And then moments, of course, like winning a world title and. Yeah, just there's so many, so many things have happened through my career. I couldn't really say one.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: Now, for those who maybe don't know, myself included, I've obviously seen kite surfing when I've gone to the beach, but I've never tried it. Tell me what you guys are putting your bodies through when you out there on the water. Kitesurfing. And how injury prone can you guys be out there?
[00:18:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So first of all, I'd always like to mention that it's very different when it's at a competitive level and especially in the discipline that I'm doing, which is very hard on the body. I always compare kite surfing to skiing. You can kind of take it to the level that you want, so anybody can do it. There's 80, 90 year olds, people doing it, little girl, little seven year old girls doing it. So it's not as crazy and dangerous as it seems as long as you take the right safety protocols and if you just want to take it easy and kite up and down and do small jumps, but as soon as you take.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: Stay within your own boundaries, basically.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: Exactly. And there's a lot of families that do this sports and people absolutely love it. And it's not as physical and as hard as people think. It's actually just more technical and it's really, really easy once you've got it. But of course, taking it to the level that we take it, it's extremely hard on the body. People think it's soft because we're kiting on water. But as I said, we're doing 25 meters jumps, we're flying 100 km/hour through the sky. And if you don't manage to control your kite before you land, you're essentially landing on your board, which is a massive surface area onto the water. Everybody knows, like, if you jump off a high rock into the water and you land on your back, it hurts a lot. Water can be extremely hard. So imagine having a board on your feet and landing at I don't know how many kilometres per hour, but super hard. You can potentially break your legs or, you know, extremely hurt yourself. So, yeah, we go through many injuries myself. You know, I've had surgeries on both knees, on my ankle. I've currently got a back injury at the moment, which has been going on for way too long.
But we keep going, we keep getting back and we keep learning from our mistakes and do everything possible to prevent injuries. By working hard off the water as well and just learning how to crash really well, that becomes like a talent, like learning how to crash and not hurt yourself.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: So you described it earlier as the equivalent of every time you hit the water. It's something like a car crash. And I used to race cars, obviously, and it's so true. I mean, learning to crash is a thing. You have to learn to do those things in a way that are. That minimize damage. Right. Whether that's to your body or to your car or to your equipment or to others as well. I want to ask you, though, because obviously your injuries are more physical than in racing. It's a lot of car damage and sometimes it can be more than that. But how difficult is it to bounce back from those kinds of injuries? And have you had injuries that maybe were harder to bounce back from, not just physically, but mentally as well?
[00:20:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it's definitely always a massive challenge to come back from an injury. And I think, you know, you would talk to any athletes and. And they'll tell you that injuries are the hardest thing of the world for an athlete to go through because you dedicate your life to something. Your life completely revolves around doing that thing and working on getting to that goal every single day. And then when you get injured, everything is taken away from you and you're not able to express yourself in the way you always express yourself. And that can be super debilitating for an athlete, having to, especially at the beginning when imagine you hurt your knee and for the first few weeks, you can't even get off your bed or off the hospital bed. That really sucks. But as soon as you can start getting back into physical therapy, seeing the physios, doing little exercises, I think it just becomes like mission, you know, and you set yourself little goals every day and when you start to see the progress, it's almost exciting and challenging at the same time. And I think every athlete loves a challenge. So for me, I always set myself goals when I'm injured. Like, okay, tomorrow I'm gonna be able to bend my knee 2020 degrees further this day. I'm gonna be able to run like 5 next day six the next day seven. And just setting yourself those small goals and managing to achieve them every day gives you confidence. And before you know it, you're back, back on the water and kiting again, you know, and some injuries take longer than others, but I think it's really important when you hurt yourself is to, like, focus on the small goals and celebrate the little victories every day.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: And from a sense of fear, does that ever set in? I mean, knowing that every time you go out there, it is, you are putting yourself in a risky situation if you are pushing those boundaries and those limits.
[00:22:44] Speaker C: Yeah, but you have to learn to kind of disconnect that fear. And I think it's more of a fear when you're training and you're preparing because you're kind of thinking about it and you don't want to injure yourself leading up to the event. So you're doing everything a little bit more cautiously. But once you're in the competition and once that green flag goes up, it's just go, go, go, and you kind of have to switch your brain off.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally get it now. How do you face and overcome performance pressure?
[00:23:16] Speaker C: I don't think you ever overcome performance pressure. I just think that you kind of learn to handle it better and better the more experience you have. So, yeah, at the beginning, when I started competing, I would get way more nervous than how nervous I get now. And I think that's just from putting myself into that high pressure situation so many times in a row, over and over again, and being uncomfortable so many times. And then you learn to be comfortable within the uncomfortable. I mean, you never don't feel any pressure at all, but it definitely gets better over the years with the more. The more you put yourself in that situation, the easier it gets.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: What about a ritual when you're going into an event or a competition? I know athletes a lot of the time can be very superstitious and have their little routines that they have to go through before they go out there and do their thing. Do you have a ritual that helps you just before a competition, like music or maybe the Edge podcast? I don't know what it is, but.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: Can you tell us the Edge podcast every day.
I'm not superstitious, but there are little things that I do. One of the things that I do is I really try to get down to the beach very early, seeing as this sport, there's so many different variables. We depend on the wind, on the waves, on so many different things that can happen. So for me, getting down to the beach early and really analyzing the conditions and seeing what they're going to do on that particular day helps me a lot. And then I try to set up all of my kites really early before everyone, and just make sure that the gear is all perfect, every line is attached perfectly, the kites are pumped up to the right pressure, and that gives you a lot of. It gives you a lot of security and confidence just knowing that your gear is not going to fail on you. And then, yeah, it's all in your hands after that. So those are little things. And also, you know, listening to music, especially when it's a big air event and the conditions are scary out there. I put, like, I pumped some very heavy tunes before going out of the water just to get the adrenaline going and to get super hyped up. And, yeah, that's pretty much.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: I really like the idea of going and making sure all your equipment is set up the way it needs to be. I mean, they do say that success is born where opportunity and preparation meet. So even though for you, it's a little ritual that calms you down, it also is part of preparation, isn't it? Like, you know, that your equipment's not going to fail you out there. So that's. That's really cool. Now, on your website, you say that kitesurfing guides you every day to become a better person. Can you expand on that a little bit? How does kite surfing make you a better person?
[00:25:58] Speaker C: Yeah, just my whole life has revolved around kitesurfing, and it's given me so many opportunities that I wouldn't have had if I wouldn't have started this sport from such a young age. I think a big one is kind of leaving school and having the opportunity to travel from such a young age. So I didn't get the traditional education, going to school and university, but I was able to travel the world, meet so many different people, different culture, different people from speaking different languages, different races.
And I think this has given me a very open mind in a sense that, yeah, when I have conversations with people, I'm not too quick to judge them because I've met so many different kinds of people, and I know that everybody has their own life experience, their own perspective on the world. And I think if I wouldn't have traveled as much, I wouldn't speak to people in the same way. So now I just listen to people very open heartedly because I don't know their life story. Their perspective on life is very different to mine. So I think that allows me to learn and absorb so much more from people than if I would have maybe always stayed in the same country, in the same town, and just been in the same environment. So, yeah, I'm very open minded. I'd say that's something that kite surfing has definitely helped me to be.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a beautiful way to have perspective on that because I know it can be. There's a lot of pros, obviously, but there can also be a lot of cons to being in many different places at a time, especially growing up with friend groups. So it's great to see the positive side of it that you see and the impact that it does have on you as a person. So you've definitely lived a lot and you've experienced a lot. You became world champion at the tender age of 18. How has your perception of success, success changed over time? And what did success mean to you before 18 compared to what it means to you now?
[00:27:52] Speaker C: Success to me before the age of 18 was literally just becoming the best kitesurfer in the world. Becoming a world champion, my whole life revolved around that. Every single day, every single decision I took was to be better and to eventually achieve that goal. And, yeah, it's very crazy to think, but when I won that world title, not much changed at all.
The only thing that changed was kind of my perception on success. And I just realized I started to cherish the simple things a lot more. And I started to realize that, wow, I've sacrificed so much to get to where I wanted to be. I sacrificed so much to become a world champion that I've kind of, you know, forgotten a bit about my friends, a bit about my family, a bit about, like, the little things in life that now, to this day, make me so, so happy. Just, I don't know, going for a coffee in the morning with one of my best friends and having a super deep conversation about whatever, about life.
Those are little moments that I cherish a lot more. And for me, happiness is success right now, and everything besides that is just an extra. So, yeah, I think things have changed. As I'm getting older, I see life in a different way, but definitely I'm still super keen to get great results and win world championships. But I cherish the little things a bit more.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: That's a great note for me to ask you. If there is one thing you never expected to learn in your career but you have learned, what would that be?
[00:29:33] Speaker C: I think I never expected to.
That's a really hard one.
Well, I think what I've learned is that I am so privileged to know what I want to do from such a young age.
I'm very grateful for that because I've just had such a strong purpose from literally the age of eight and I've had an end goal and I've been able to work at that every single day without thinking about anything else. And I think that makes life a lot easier because every decision you take is super obvious, like, what do I do today? Okay, I'm gonna do whatever is best for me to get closer to becoming a world champion. And I think a lot of people don't have that. Like, I see them, whatever, finishing school, going to university, and then they're still kind of lost and they still don't really know what they want to do and they don't have a strong purpose in their life. And maybe it takes them, maybe they have it, or maybe it takes them ten years to find it. And I think I'm just super grateful to have found that from such a young age because it made life a lot easier way.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Absolutely. Now, kite surfing is very thrilling by the sounds of it, but quite niche sport at the same time. Can you tell me a little bit about how kite surfers survive financially?
[00:30:51] Speaker C: Yeah, they don't.
No. Yeah. It's one important thing to say is that everybody that does this sport is really, really in it for the passion and not for the money. And you really feel that when you're in a competition environment or you're just on the. Everybody that's there, they're there because they really, really want to be there and that they love this sport to the bottom of their heart. But of course, you know, we have to make some money to be able to get to these competitions and to make a living.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: You gotta pay the bills, surely, right?
[00:31:27] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So I think you have to. It's definitely a hustle and you have to find many different ways to find an income. And being the best, unfortunately, is not even enough. Even if you're like the best kitesurfer or within the top five, five kaidos in the world and you don't do anything else on the side, then that's not quite enough. So you really have to be clever in the way that you market yourself. You have to be good on social media. You have to make write ups for the magazines, you have to work with your sponsors, you have to be a great brand ambassador. And I think in other, bigger sports, there are agents or you have a team around you that will help you with all of those things. But in kite surfing, unfortunately, you have to do all of those things all by yourself and you have to learn to do them from a very young age.
I think it's good and bad. It's bad because obviously it stresses you out and it gives you less time to actually focus on getting better at your sport. But it's good because you learn how to do all of these things by yourself and it really makes you. Yeah, it gives you so many tools that I think will help you in the future.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: 100%. And like you say, I mean, you said earlier how when you had to decide between freestyle and big air that it was because you wanted to dedicate 100% of your energy into one thing. And sometimes when you're juggling all these other things things, it's difficult to really give 100% of your attention to it. But on the flip side, you learn so many things by doing all these other things on the side. So it's definitely a learning curve. Little bit of extra work, but you get a lot of positives out of it. And for anyone listening to this, definitely go and check out Liam's instagram because it is really cool and I can tell that you put a lot of work into it and it clearly pays off. So do you want to drop your handle for those listeners?
[00:33:12] Speaker C: Yeah, it's Liamwailey.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: There you go. Go check it out. Now, we also interviewed a really close friend of yours, Gisela Polito, a couple of episodes ago. Can you tell me about your friendship with Gisela?
[00:33:25] Speaker C: Yeah, my friendship with Gisela goes way back.
As I mentioned, I was born and raised in Ibiza, but yeah, Ibisa wasn't the best place to kite surf in the world. So I literally begged my parents every day from the age of, of like eleven to 14. Can we move to Tarifa? Can we move to Tarifa? Can we move to Tarifa? And eventually, because of my career starting to take off, and also my dad has a hotel here in Tarifa. So for business reasons as well, we ended up coming here. And that was a massive pivoting moment in my career because I went from living on this island and being able to train just a couple times a year to being able to spend every day on the water with the best athletes in the world. And one of those athletes living in Tarifa was Gisela Pulido. And, yeah, I got to know her pretty well because we would just spend so many hours on the water together, and we all had a like minded goal, which was to be the best at our sports. There was also other people. We had a really good spanish crew at the time, and we all pushed each other. And Gisela and her family were always very supportive towards me.
Her dad was helping her a lot at the time, and they had been very involved in the sport. She was multiple times world champion by the time I even moved to Tarifa. So I'd say they kind of mentored me and helped me in many different ways. They even gave me out some kites to use, which was really helpful at the time. And I even traveled to some of the competitions with her father and her at the beginning. And then Gisela and I traveled together for many years. We went all over the world together and we kind of supported each other. I was super young at the time, but, yeah, it was just, I think it was a great, great friendship, and it's always good to have people in your environment with a similar goal because you just end up pushing each other.
Now she's moved on to a completely different discipline. This also means we see each other a lot less because we train in different spots and. Yeah, but we still remain very good friends to this day. So I'm actually going to see her today because we have an event with tag hoya today in my kaitzko in Tarifa. So I'll say hi.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Amazing. I mean, I think it is so important, especially maybe even in your younger years, to have a buddy of some sorts that kind of is like minded with you and maybe sometimes has the same routines and can relate to some of the things that you might be going through. Now, you seem like a very wise, thought through individual, so I would love to hear what advice you would have to give to the future up and coming generation of kitesurfers.
[00:36:09] Speaker C: Wow, that's a lot of responsibility.
But I think it's pretty simple.
Just have fun.
If you really, really love something and you put your whole heart into it, you're gonna be pretty successful in it. And even if you're not successful in the eyes of others, then it's so worth it if you're having fun. If you're having fun, it's never gonna be wasted time. So I'd say if you have that passion and you have that fire in the belly and you want to be the best at whatever you do from a super young age, then just go for it. Follow your heart, and whether it works or it doesn't work, it's going to be worth it.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: That is great advice. Thank you very much for that. Now, before we close off, I want to ask about you. Of course. Where are you at right now in terms of your career? What are you looking forward to most in your career next, and what are you training for at the moment?
[00:37:06] Speaker C: So right now I have a balance back injury. So I've been suffering with it for a few months now. It's slowly getting better, but as we mentioned previously in the podcast, you know, it's super hard for an athlete to go through any kind of injury. And yeah, I haven't been able to compete for a while, so that's been not the funnest. But I'm just doing what I can every single day, really focusing day by day to get a little bit better and a little bit better. And luckily, I'm starting to do different sports. I can already surf and I can run and I can play a little bit of tennis and do some less impact things.
But, yeah, besides that, I want to do great things in this sport. I want to get back to competition as soon as I can.
And who knows? I have no idea what the future holds, but I really want to be involved in this sport for as many years as possible, whether it's competing or doing something else. I just want to be involved and see how the sport progresses.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Fantastic. Well, then, on that note, I'm going to ask you my last and final question, which is a question that we ask to every guest that comes onto the Edge podcast. Now, because this is, of course, called the Edge podcast, we have to ask every single one of our guests, what does the edge mean to you?
[00:38:25] Speaker C: I think the edge, for me, means pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and kind of being on that fine line between everything possibly going wrong if you don't make it. But if you do make it, then you're gonna remember that moment forever. So, yeah, I think that's what being on the edge means for me.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Fantastic. Well, that is a great answer. Liam, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It was wonderful to speak to you. You shared some really interesting insights, and I think you have a wonderful mindset, and I hope that you continue to have a successful career.
[00:39:00] Speaker C: Thank you so much. It was lovely to meet you.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: And you.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Well, thank you for listening to this episode of the Edge.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: If you'd like to listen to more episodes like this one, then check out.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: Our interviews with athletes Gisela Polito, Fred Curley, and Summer McIntosh. If you enjoyed this episode, then please don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. It really does make a difference. Before we go, I'd like to say another big thank you to Liam for.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Joining us on this episode.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: As always, I'm your host, Naomi Schiff, and I'll be back next month with another episode of the Edge, a podcast by Tag Hoyer. See you soon.
