Hailing from New Zealand, Jasmine is fashion stylist and blogger, lingerie designer, entrepreneur, proud mother of two, wife and kitesurfer. She founded Raven + Rose Lingerie and blogs at Dress Me Blog Me. Growing up in New Zealand and coming from a lineage of strong, powerful and inspiring women, she didn’t have to reach far to find women role models.

It’s no wonder that Jasmine herself oozes confidence. She believes that we can all appreciate the female form and femininity, and started her own lingerie brand with the ambition that women can celebrate their sensuality. She’s also just launched the Raven + Rose SHOWROOM, and on 21 September will be showing a GRLPWR [girl power] exhibition, that explores the world of female rebellion and sisterhood.

Outside of design and her fashion endeavours, Jasmine spends time with her family and they enjoy taking vacations to celebrate their love for the water and kitesurfing.

How did you first get involved in kitesurfing? Why did you want to try it in the first place?

I got into kitesurfing via my husband, who was a keen and very good windsurfer. I too come from a background of doing lots of water sports, mostly surfing. When we came to Hong Kong a few years ago, he was researching for water sports we could do in Asia and kitesurfing came up. We decided, actually during our honeymoon in Sri Lanka, to do our first round of kitesurfing by taking some lessons.  We started learning kitesurfing together.

What was the hardest part about learning kitesurfing?

Photo from: Christian & Karine Kitesurf Clinics

In all honesty, it is quite a difficult sport all-round. It’s very technical when it comes to the equipment and the set-up. You’ve got two elements that you need to control: both the board and the water, and then the kite and the wind. That adds to the interesting complexity to this sport. It takes a lot of patience, concentration and awareness for safety. Because it is an extreme sport, and a dangerous sport, you have to constantly be quite aware of what goes on around you. You have to be someone who has that daredevil edge, but also pays attention to safety, your surroundings and other people. There are so many things that I find difficult about kitesurfing but the reward once on the water and going very much outweighs the difficulties.

Kitesurfing combines surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding and paragliding with a kite and you can kite surf at speeds of 20 – 50km per hour, similar to driving speeds, except you’re on water and essentially being powered by the wind. And it involves jumping, sometimes reaching heights of a few metres. Was kitesurfing scary? Is it still scary? If it was scary, how did you overcome that fear?

Oh gosh, yes yes yes! There are some really scary elements to the sport!

First, to me, the equipment itself is scary as it’s huge, powerful and quite complicated; if you do one little thing incorrectly when using it and setting up, it can have disastrous consequences. I used to take a very long time to set up my kite, to go through everything such as safety procedures, and just sit on the beach and watch the riders for quite some time to make sure I understood the wind direction and what the water was doing. Even now, and especially when I go to new countries to kitesurf, I like to find a local teacher who can give me a brief refresher, but more importantly, to give me a lay of the land first. Every destination is different so I like to understand aspects such as wind conditions, rules, the people who kitesurf and areas where we can go or not go. It’s also helpful for me to get to know people in the kitesurfing community, and it’s very important to respect the waters and learn from the locals.

And secondly, every single time, no matter my skill level or how confident I’m feeling, there is an element of being scared when kitesurfing. It is fast, there is wind, and I’m on water after all. The way I overcome this is I take my take to setup, ensure I feel safe and I’m not taking unnecessary risks. I check and check my gear, I check my environment so I know for example there aren’t things such as power lines in the way, and I like to ensure I understand the rules within the community such as directions people move towards and where people are going. I often stand for a good half an hour or more just to observe so I can see what people are doing, who are the more advanced in the water, who are the learners, who I should stay away from … things like that. I don’t dive right into the water as I prefer to make sure my set up is done properly and it calms my nerves. I also ease into it; I start with basic ups and downs, then when I feel more comfortable then I’ll start jumping and doing things. I like to treat the sport with a huge amount of respect.

And at the end of the day, if you manage safety well and don’t take silly risks, kitesurfing is an extremely fun sport.

What do you love / enjoy about kite surfing? Given kitesurfing is a “daredevil” sport, and your lingerie line is quite edgy are there similarities in how you approach your sport and your designs?

Kitesurfing is actually a tool I use more to disconnect from my working life, which does get busy because I run my own business and I’m also a designer and blogger. I enjoy kitesurfing because it takes me completely away from the world that I operate in, and gives me so much joy because it’s so simple: it’s just the water, the wind and myself. I use kitesurfing to simplify and centre my life.

In terms of my designs, I do also have a line of swimwear on the cards for my brand Raven + Rose Lingerie. Water sports, not just kitesurfing, do have an influence on that new line; however this line won’t be out for some time.

How do you fit kitesurfing into your life?

Photo by: Michelle Proctor

Kitesurfing as a new mother is quite difficult and I don’t kitesurf when I am pregnant. I currently have a two and a half year old daughter and a newborn son. Since I was pregnant with my first child, I have only kitesurfed once: when I stopped breastfeeding my daughter and she was old enough to come on a kitesurfing holiday with us, and before I got pregnant with my second child, whom I am still breastfeeding. I take long breaks in between kitesurfing now, and it’s okay, because I also love being a mother.

Since my husband and I love to kitesurf, we try to schedule our family holidays around the sport so we’re often traveling to rural and crazy cool destinations that you probably wouldn’t go to unless you are kitesurfing. That’s super adventurous for our family. At the moment in these situations, my husband goes kitesurfing and I hang out at the beach with him and our children. The kids love the water as well as the kitesurfing, camping and community. It is an amazing thing for our family to do.

For us, we don’t kitesurf in Hong Kong and instead prefer to travel to various destinations for it. Sri Lanka is a favourite destination of ours, New Zealand is another wonderful place to kitesurf. But we’ve been to so many places to kitesurf; it really is a travel sport for us. If we could do it in our own backyard we would and we would probably do it more in Hong Kong if the water and wind conditions were better.

Kitesurfing is still a niche sport; how might we get more people interested in it?

Photo from: Christian & Karine Kitesurf Clinics

We can start by promoting kitesurfing and making it more visible to an audience that might not have ordinarily found the sport for themselves. I find that water sports in general are probably less popular in Hong Kong because there isn’t a lot of space or appropriate weather patterns for them, so it’s not an obvious choice for all. But at least by showing more water sports such as kitesurfing in public, we can hopefully show that this can be a consideration for people to do, and even to do overseas in a different area and location. Kitesurfing is really fun, so I also say, don’t let any fear deter you![:zh]

Jasmine Smith — kitesurfer, mumpreneur, lingerie designer, fashion stylist and blogger — on

Hailing from New Zealand, Jasmine is fashion stylist and blogger, lingerie designer, entrepreneur, proud mother of two, wife and kitesurfer. She founded Raven + Rose Lingerie and blogs at Dress Me Blog Me. Growing up in New Zealand and coming from a lineage of strong, powerful and inspiring women, she didn’t have to reach far to find women role models.

It’s no wonder that Jasmine herself oozes confidence. She believes that we can all appreciate the female form and femininity, and started her own lingerie brand with the ambition that women can celebrate their sensuality. She’s also just launched the Raven + Rose SHOWROOM, and on 21 September will be showing a GRLPWR [girl power] exhibition, that explores the world of female rebellion and sisterhood.

Outside of design and her fashion endeavours, Jasmine spends time with her family and they enjoy taking vacations to celebrate their love for the water and kitesurfing.

How did you first get involved in kitesurfing? Why did you want to try it in the first place?

I got into kitesurfing via my husband, who was a keen and very good windsurfer. I too come from a background of doing lots of water sports, mostly surfing. When we came to Hong Kong a few years ago, he was researching for water sports we could do in Asia and kitesurfing came up. We decided, actually during our honeymoon in Sri Lanka, to do our first round of kitesurfing by taking some lessons.  We started learning kitesurfing together.

What was the hardest part about learning kitesurfing?

In all honesty, it is quite a difficult sport all-round. It’s very technical when it comes to the equipment and the set-up. You’ve got two elements that you need to control: both the board and the water, and then the kite and the wind. That adds to the interesting complexity to this sport. It takes a lot of patience, concentration and awareness for safety. Because it is an extreme sport, and a dangerous sport, you have to constantly be quite aware of what goes on around you. You have to be someone who has that daredevil edge, but also pays attention to safety, your surroundings and other people. There are so many things that I find difficult about kitesurfing but the reward once on the water and going very much outweighs the difficulties.

Kitesurfing combines surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding and paragliding with a kite and you can kite surf at speeds of 20 – 50km per hour, similar to driving speeds, except you’re on water and essentially being powered by the wind. And it involves jumping, sometimes reaching heights of a few metres. Was kitesurfing scary? Is it still scary? If it was scary, how did you overcome that fear?

Oh gosh, yes yes yes! There are some really scary elements to the sport!

First, to me, the equipment itself is scary as it’s huge, powerful and quite complicated; if you do one little thing incorrectly when using it and setting up, it can have disastrous consequences. I used to take a very long time to set up my kite, to go through everything such as safety procedures, and just sit on the beach and watch the riders for quite some time to make sure I understood the wind direction and what the water was doing. Even now, and especially when I go to new countries to kitesurf, I like to find a local teacher who can give me a brief refresher, but more importantly, to give me a lay of the land first. Every destination is different so I like to understand aspects such as wind conditions, rules, the people who kitesurf and areas where we can go or not go. It’s also helpful for me to get to know people in the kitesurfing community, and it’s very important to respect the waters and learn from the locals.

And secondly, every single time, no matter my skill level or how confident I’m feeling, there is an element of being scared when kitesurfing. It is fast, there is wind, and I’m on water after all. The way I overcome this is I take my take to setup, ensure I feel safe and I’m not taking unnecessary risks. I check and check my gear, I check my environment so I know for example there aren’t things such as power lines in the way, and I like to ensure I understand the rules within the community such as directions people move towards and where people are going. I often stand for a good half an hour or more just to observe so I can see what people are doing, who are the more advanced in the water, who are the learners, who I should stay away from … things like that. I don’t dive right into the water as I prefer to make sure my set up is done properly and it calms my nerves. I also ease into it; I start with basic ups and downs, then when I feel more comfortable then I’ll start jumping and doing things. I like to treat the sport with a huge amount of respect.

And at the end of the day, if you manage safety well and don’t take silly risks, kitesurfing is an extremely fun sport.

What do you love / enjoy about kite surfing? Given kitesurfing is a “daredevil” sport, and your lingerie line is quite edgy are there similarities in how you approach your sport and your designs?

Kitesurfing is actually a tool I use more to disconnect from my working life, which does get busy because I run my own business and I’m also a designer and blogger. I enjoy kitesurfing because it takes me completely away from the world that I operate in, and gives me so much joy because it’s so simple: it’s just the water, the wind and myself. I use kitesurfing to simplify and centre my life.

In terms of my designs, I do also have a line of swimwear on the cards for my brand Raven + Rose Lingerie. Water sports, not just kitesurfing, do have an influence on that new line; however this line won’t be out for some time.

How do you fit kitesurfing into your life?

Kitesurfing as a new mother is quite difficult and I don’t kitesurf when I am pregnant. I currently have a two and a half year old daughter and a newborn son. Since I was pregnant with my first child, I have only kitesurfed once: when I stopped breastfeeding my daughter and she was old enough to come on a kitesurfing holiday with us, and before I got pregnant with my second child, whom I am still breastfeeding. I take long breaks in between kitesurfing now, and it’s okay, because I also love being a mother.

Since my husband and I love to kitesurf, we try to schedule our family holidays around the sport so we’re often traveling to rural and crazy cool destinations that you probably wouldn’t go to unless you are kitesurfing. That’s super adventurous for our family. At the moment in these situations, my husband goes kitesurfing and I hang out at the beach with him and our children. The kids love the water as well as the kitesurfing, camping and community. It is an amazing thing for our family to do.

For us, we don’t kitesurf in Hong Kong and instead prefer to travel to various destinations for it. Sri Lanka is a favourite destination of ours, New Zealand is another wonderful place to kitesurf. But we’ve been to so many places to kitesurf; it really is a travel sport for us. If we could do it in our own backyard we would and we would probably do it more in Hong Kong if the water and wind conditions were better.

Kitesurfing is still a niche sport; how might we get more people interested in it?

We can start by promoting kitesurfing and making it more visible to an audience that might not have ordinarily found the sport for themselves. I find that water sports in general are probably less popular in Hong Kong because there isn’t a lot of space or appropriate weather patterns for them, so it’s not an obvious choice for all. But at least by showing more water sports such as kitesurfing in public, we can hopefully show that this can be a consideration for people to do, and even to do overseas in a different area and location. Kitesurfing is really fun, so I also say, don’t let any fear deter you!