From her very first email I was taken with Sensi Graves’ energy.
She is a professional kiteboarder and founder of Sensi Graves Bikinis “empowering women in watersports by giving them the confidence they need and the swimwear they can rely on”. (This means cute suits that stay put.) In her own training, coaching, and competing she was tired of pulling at her bikinis and not having them function the way she wanted so she up and launched her own swimwear line!

In our conversation we cover starting a small business, some helpful entrepreneurial tips, bikinis, tits&ass social media, and wearing clothes for confidence & rockstar status. Plus, quite a bit about the sport of kiteboarding. (She swears it’s easy to get up and riding quickly.)

Sensi also tells a story about her kiteboarding community recently coming close to blows over pay equity. It’s been fascinating to watch men really dig their heels in as women ask for a fair share. Responding to Sensi, I said that it wasn’t true that men will lose out and there was enough pie for everyone. I should have said they won’t always lose out. Certainly, in some cases, some men will. In Episode 7 of the cycling podcast Off The Front, that I co-produced for almost a year, Katie Compton addresses just that. She has a very hardcore version of competing that I love and have always subscribed to. In a nutshell…. not everyone deserves a trophy. Paying men to 40th place while women are earning way less than 50% makes no sense.

I often find that during the interviews it’s really easy for me to sound as if I always live my best self, but the reality is I struggle with many of the things guests talk about. I’ve experienced the positives of meditation and still have trouble getting to it every day. Meditating in bed is a work-around, a hope for a solution to skipping it once I get out of bed. It was super fun to hear that Sensi found the same solution even if for different reasons. I eat lots of sugar. (I was eating licorice candies while editing the episode!) Sensi made sure to point out, “We don’t have all the answers!” She doesn’t eat packaged foods and yet admitted to that not being true 100% of the time. That’s what I love – lofty goals and being quite fine with not reaching them every time.

Go to the Show Notes for a more complete bio, but briefly, Sensi has been featured extensively in online and print publications including The Kiteboarder Magazine, Kiteworld, IKSURF Mag, The Kite Mag, KiteSpain, barefootkings.com and womenwhohustle.com.

Sensi has been nominated for AWSI kiteboarder of the year for the last four years and ranked 3rd on the Kite Park League World Tour in 2017.

Sensi Graves Bikinis has been recognized by Self Magazine as a top suit for sports and is the winner of the 2017 SELF Healthy Living Awards.