THIS IS KAT
Katharina left Germany and after being on the road for 4 months visiting the European West Coast she ended up in Baleal, Peniche for some quality resting and surfing time. In the company of Bruno – the van – Ricarda – the Hawaiian doll – and Tony – the dinosaur – she says the place has something magic that appeals to her and that, after a brief homecoming, she intends to return to Baleal.
She has the van for 2 years now and she preferes the Sun, warm weather and being close to the sea. In every place she has been, it was close to the beach that she met several creative and talented people who transform surf into art and that inspire her.
Boards, tides and waves are words that came into her vocabulary 10 years ago. The first time she surfed was in France and she hated it, having actually thought she would never do it again. However, past a decade, where she goes her surfboards and wetsuits follow. Now she feels she can say she loves surfing and is actually capable of doing something on top of the board.
But, it wasn’t always a bed of roses and it took her a while to get to the point where she finds herself now. 3 years ago she made a promise to herself. She went to Australia to learn how to surf. If things went wrong and her frustration kept emerging she would say goodbye to the surfer life. The experienced went for the best and things worked out. Today surf is a parto f Katharina’s life and the promise is to give her best at learning, evolving and having fun each day she spends in the water.
2 years ago, together with a friend, she founded an online surf magazine – Salty Souls – and it was from that moment on that she started exploring journalism. Living the Vanlife, Katharina knows this lifestyle isn’t always easy to sustain. It is a fact that there is no house rent or cable tv bills to pay, mas there’s food, essential goods and fuel so that the house can move.
However, she can live with the money she’s paid from writing online from her van. She says she could live like this for about 4 or 5 years, even having to deal with the wind, with blows that turn a vehicle on wheels into a rubber boat in a raging ocean. Since Saint Peter doesn’t pay any attention to her requests to stop with the wind thing already, she has given up asking and the only demand she has to be able to live for a long period in a van is: the size (it seems like it matters afterall). Katharina needs more space so that she can store her surfboards on the inside and so that she can invite people to come in and have nice meals with her.
Katharina confesses that in her first trip she was nervous and afraid of getting herself into some sketchy situation where she might need help, but Bruno would never allow something like that to happen and so he never let her down. This trip was the longest she has ever done and now she knows for surte that she will never feel alone while on the road – obviously she has Bruno, Ricarda and Tony – but she also has all the other travelers who are in the same situation she is in and that want to know those who are around them.
Germany and Surf. Does it match? These are two things that aren’t easily associated. However, the magazine Salty Souls was founded to answer a need: the growing surf culture in Germany. That’s right, even though the opportunities to surf are quite rare, the community has interest and, that being said, people were lacking a magazine that would talk about surf, interview common surfers, nonprofessionals, merely people who go in the water for passion and fun.
Shot over consecutive mornings during the long, recent run of North Coast autumn swell, In the Family of Things is Dave Rastovich in his element, doing his thing.