This last summer in the Gorge was one to be remembered. We had day after day of hot and windy conditions. As per usual, the locals were all out and our tiny town was filling up with summer transplants. Such good energy was happening.
It was decided that WTWB was a green light for another season with a new angle. We would introduce a SELECT of each of us, Colleen Carroll, Sensi Graves, Lindsay Mcclure, and myself, highlighting the diversity of what we do along side of kiteboarding with the final episode.
About the second week in July I missed an ollie up on the Big North Rail and basically drilled the front of the feature. Besides having hurt my ego, I had also severely sprained my left ankle with a slight sprain on my right one. With a full calendar of kiteboarding events in the Gorge and the 2nd season of stacking clips for WTWB I was deflated to say the least. Because I had spent a lot of time licking my wounds in the glacier water of the Hood River, it never really swelled that much and was determined to heal up fast. It did rock my kiteboarding world; I lost a lot of confidence and spent many sessions doing Ride By’s of my favorite features. This slowed down my progression for the summer.
My select features me as a Kiteboarder and as a Hair Stylist. I never knew how well kiteboarding and hair would go together over the years.
I started my hair business in Hood River about 12 years ago. I am able to travel with my tools in a bag. Many people over the years have had some hair goodness in a salon in Hood River or in various lawn chairs generally close to a beach in numerous spots across North America. This lifestyle encompasses so much of my personality, being an athlete and also being able to do what I consider to be mixture of art and science, with some business thrown in…
I have really embraced trying to bring a Farm to Chair scenario to my craft by using botanical products as much as possible and balancing fashion first with a mind, body, spirit mentality. Flexibility has been a key component to making this lifestyle work. It has been fun to keep all my non-wind guests styled, wind junkie guests looking good, and it has been fun to give industry peeps a tune up before all their media events.
I love being apart of the WTWB team with all the inspiration that comes with working with such a solid team. I hope you enjoy all the episodes and keep moving forward in your passions.
Laura
Photos: Jen Jones
Film: Jen Jones & Wiley Watson
Laura Maher // WTWB Facebook // MOXY Int. // Red Tide Pictures
