Andrea Belovska has an unusual summer job. For the past six summers, the 2nd-year BCIT Biomedical Engineering student has been living the Squamish life, working with the Squamish Windsports Society as a rescue attendee for the kiteboarders that often occupy the spit. If you’ve ever hiked The Chief, you know what I’m talking about: those colourful streaks, criss-crossing the waters below where the winds funnel in from Howe Sound, are actually people strapped in to a wakeboard-type deck and letting a kite drag them around the waves. Well, I’d get dragged, but these people do tricks and catch huge air.
And of course, sometimes things go wrong…
“The kite is held by lines that are attached to a harness that you wear on your body and if something goes wrong, and you wrap those lines around your fingers, they have a lot of force.
So how does Andrea remain cool while piloting her jetski around the water, dodging kites and looking for digits? Well, you’d just have to meet her to know. She’s got this very cool, calm and collected manner — something she believes will be crucial in her career as she moves off the water and into the ER where things get a lot crazier.
“I’m going to have to go into so many unique situations for example where a piece of equipment can just go wrong…you’re going to have to go in and you’re going to have to remain calm and try to fix it as fast and as calm and as best as possible”
Read more from our interview with Andrea and check out photos of her in action in our new September issue. We also found this video recap of the recent Kite Clash 2016 competition to get a better sense of what it’s like on the scene. Catch Andrea doing her thing around the 2:27 mark.