Dagseas Wind Tour

Dagmar Salgado reflecting on a decade of Kitesurfing Adventures.

Back in the summer of 2013, Dagmar Salgado went from working as a music teacher at a kid’s camp from her high school to another camp for kids that was outdoors and centered in watersports. It was then that she fell in love with Kitesurfing, and had the opportunity to learn the sport in order to teach the sport. With a big smile on her face, she says: “I’m not going to lie, it’s been quite a wild ride, a wonderful journey that has taken me traveling, and even to the podium.”

“I didn’t always win, in my first competition, The Montones Kite Challenge 2015, where there weren’t any women and male divisions I placed like 5th, or something like that. It was a big air competition and I barely new how to jump let alone land smoothly most of the time, but I still went for the competition, tried my first ever kite loop and didn’t even come close to landing it. 😅 I just went for it and landed pretty hard but was committed to going bigger than going home. I also have a funny/fml moment mid competition when my bar got stuck looping and “death looping” but I was able to manage, I was able to untangle the bar and get back to my board so I wasn’t disqualified in any of my heats. 🙃 Reality was, I wasn’t the only one having a “kite-mare”, another competitor lost his kite mid handlepass no leash bye bye he was disqualifiedand there was even a fight at by end of the competition so it was a wild event for not just me… Thinking back on it my first kite competition was quite eventful, hopefully my first sailing regatta sails much smoother. Wish me luck.”

“In another of my first competitions, I placed third, back in the San Juan Foil 2017 Cup Open division, I competed on a twintip and to be honest, was still figuring out eveything. I had no idea what the flags meant, so that set me back, I thought let me just go along with what the others are doing. Then a year after, I trained, read books, watched videos and I won gold in 2017. The year after that, I didn’t really train much, that was after hurricane Maria caused a big change in my life, after the hurricanes Irma and Maria, I had to leave Puerto Rico because I had lost my apartment and job, so I flew back to PR in time to move back into a new place near the competition dates and though I was hoping to win, I was still happy to have won silver, because a younger girl… She called me one of her “kite mamas”, she beat me, the student became the master and taught me a lesson. The seventeen year old girl, Faviola, later went on to represent Puerto Rico in the Youth Twin Tip World Championship.

Before Kiteboarding, Dagmar Salgado was already a competitive athlete. She played various team sports at Carvin School, also receiving an MVP award in Track and Field, for her achievements in her event the javelin launch. In 2008, she was able to study at the University of Puerto Rico with a Track and Field Athletic Scholarship. After being a competitor and a teacher for many years, she started focusing on encouraging future talent by coaching… Now you can come and learn with her on a beautiful beach day in Puerto Rico. 🇵🇷